Who are Account Managers?
Account Managers are professionals who are responsible for managing client relationships and overseeing the day-to-day tasks required to meet the needs of clients. After a sale has been made, another important task comes up: managing and retaining the client, and that’s where Account Managers come in.
They play an essential role in building and nurturing strong relationships with clients to retain them and ultimately boost the company’s bottom line. Managing client relationships typically entails extensive negotiations, handling client needs, and escalating any issues that may arise. This strategic rapport with the client becomes imperative for retention and business growth.
For many businesses, Account Managers are crucial to keeping clients long-term. Therefore, it’s important for hiring managers to understand how to identify the best talents.
Now, what specific skills should you look out for when hiring Account Managers? In this article, we will highlight and explore the essential skills that every hiring manager should expect from top Account Manager candidates
Skills Account Managers Should Have
Skill 1: Strong communication skills
A good Account Manager must possess strong communication skills. This goes beyond being able to speak and write fluently, it also entails being a good listener, understanding nonverbal cues, and adjusting communication styles as needed. As an active listener, a good Account Manager demonstrates genuine interest, which helps them understand client needs. Additionally, great Account Managers are flexible in adapting their communication style to match clients’ preferences. This might mean adjusting the format of emails, reports, or meetings to suit individual client needs.
Having a strong understanding capacity as an Account Manager is such a crucial skill because it involves grasping the broader scope of the client’s requirements and unique business aspects. By carefully analysing these factors, you can anticipate their needs and go beyond their expectations. A way to achieve this is by asking meaningful questions that provide valuable insights for decision-making.
Skill 2: Excellent Collaboration skills
The ability to collaborate effectively with other people makes a star Account Manager.
This is because they are expected to coordinate and align with internal and external stakeholders to deliver client work.
Having good collaboration skills involves being able to share feedback, insights, and diverse perspectives with team members to encourage teamwork and a positive work environment. By embracing collaboration, Account Managers are able to rally team members to deliver exceptional work for clients, and also maintain positive relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
Skill 3: Leadership Skills
It is non-negotiable for Account Managers to have leadership skills. They need to know how to provide guidance to clients and oversee colleagues across various levels of the company. Given that Account Managers interact with multiple facets of the business, it’s important for them to build credibility, leverage influence, exude confidence and earn the respect of their clients and colleagues.
Moreover, owing to the strategic nature of their position, Account Managers function as visionaries. As such, they are expected to lead clients and internal executives in pivotal endeavours.
Skill 4: Time management and organisational skills
Account Managers cannot deliver on their role if they can’t manage their time effectively and are not organised. They have to manage multiple clients, assign tasks efficiently, and ensure that deliverables for each account are ready in line with previously agreed timelines. All of this cannot be achieved if they don’t possess time management and organisational skills.
Let’s consider an Account Manager in the software industry who deals with various enterprise clients. These clients may have complex needs and diverse software solutions. The Account Manager’s role is to understand each client’s requirements, coordinate with internal teams to deliver the required solutions, and ensure that projects are progressing smoothly.
For instance, if a client needs custom software development, the Account Manager will liaise with the development team to define project scope, timelines, and deliverables. They’ll also maintain regular communication with the client to provide updates, address concerns, and gather feedback.
In this scenario, the Account Manager’s organisational skills are essential for keeping track of multiple projects, ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently, and that deadlines are met.
Skill 5: Industry knowledge
An Account Manager cannot build a relationship with a client if they do not possess relevant industry knowledge. This is because clients will expect them to offer strategic recommendations and without key knowledge of the client’s industry and the service they’re providing, they can’t deliver.
To work efficiently, the Account Manager has to grasp all aspects of the business in order to provide sound recommendations. When the Account Manager understands the client’s goals, the service/product offering and the client’s specific needs, they can provide valuable proposals to the clients.
Skill 6: Entrepreneurial Skills
This might seem like an unnecessary skill for an Account Manager to have, but if your business is interested in increasing the value of existing clients, it is important that the Account Manager possesses entrepreneurial skills.
A good Account Manager must be able to think about how the client can be more valuable to the organisation commercially. They should also be able to come up with recommendations beyond the current scope of work. This can be done in the form of proposing cross sells or upselling to clients.
While the main priority of the Account Manager is building relationships and ensuring client satisfaction, they should not lose sight of the need to increase the revenue coming from existing clients.
When account managers don’t do this, there’s a negative impact on the bottom line. It results in the organisation needing to get new clients which can sometimes be more expensive, stressful and time consuming.
Conclusion
Resumes alone don’t cut it when recruiting Account Managers. You need to know how to ask the right questions and prepare effective assessments that reveal the candidate’s true capabilities and fit for the role . That’s why at Arwana, we use situational tasks and assessments to identify the best hires when recruiting Account Managers for clients.
If you’re looking to hire an Account Manager, email us today at hello@arwana.co.uk! We can help you recruit an exceptional Account Manager and save up to £20,000 in salary costs. Salaries for full-time Account Managers typically range from £1,200/month to £1,300/month for professionals with 2 – 4 years of experience.
