Developing an Account Manager Mindset

By Ken Deeks

The shift in role from an account executive to account manager in a creative or PR agency is one of the most challenging transitions you can make. It involves a move from the client seeing you as an administrative doer to a strategic consultant.

A major thing that underpins this transition, and will help you along that journey, is this: you must understand that you do things that the client can’t do; that you provide a service that the client does not have the expertise to do for themselves.

We all buy services and we buy those services for two reasons.

• Firstly, we buy a service because we don’t want to do something. For example, we could wash our car but instead we choose to take it to a car wash, or we could make a sandwich for lunch but hey, there’s a Pret a Manger on the way to work… While we value these services, they tend to be a commodity purchase, based on price.
• Now think about the services you buy that you can’t do such as solicitor, plumber, financial adviser, electrician etc. It’s because you can’t do them or have the expertise to do them, you value them that much more.

We often don’t remind our clients that we can do things they can’t and it can lead them to taking us for granted, because we haven’t educated them on what we do.

Next time you are reporting back on a piece of coverage you’ve achieved, explain what went into achieving it; how you built up a relationship with the writer over several years, the spin you put on the story to suit the publication’s audience, how you linked it to a piece of well-regarded industry research and how you came up with a compelling headline that grabbed the editor’s attention.

Think about the last time you did this – or have you ever? It’s something you should consider if you want your client to appreciate your value.

After all, when was the last time a plumber popped round your house, looked at the leak and said “Oh that’s easy, it will only take me a couple of minutes?”