Account-Ability: Mastering Account Management and Client Relationships

Kristy: Welcome back to another episode of the Free Dive podcast we’re back today with Anna.

Anna: Hello.

Kristy: I’m so happy you’re here.

Anna: I’m so happy to be here.

Kristy: I’m mostly excited because okay True Confessions um Anna’s like my biggest fan like of the podcast.

Anna: I am.

Kristy: Like you officially win the biggest fan of the podcast.

Anna: Yay.

Kristy: Like always can count on you to listen so who better to be a guest?

Anna: I literally sit when I- I have to like have time dedicated to listening to your podcast because I have a notebook and I make notes of things that I want to say in my comment to you at the end because I made the mistake of like thinking that I could make multiple comments and so I put like one half in once and then it was like oh no you’ve already commented.

Kristy: On which platform? On Spotify?

Anna: Spotify yeah it was like oh you’ve already commented so you can’t comment again so now I’m like okay I’m I’ve got notes now so that I can remember all the things that I want to say in my comments.

Kristy: Let Anna be an example to you all. This is very cute that you do that.

Anna: So yeah so that’s how I do my comments now is I like Oh I like that point I like that point okay now I’ll- I’ll write my comment at the end.

Kristy: Oh my God may all of may all of all of this be an example to you I love it so much thank you well we asked Anna to be here today she’s an account manager here at Seapoint and um I’ve had a lot of conversations with people lately where they’re like I don’t know what an account manager is what does that mean um and so it felt like a really good topic to have one of the best account managers I know explained to us what on Earth that means so um where to even start with that um how long have you been doing account management just like kind of just like- like Ballpark and um how many clients are you working with at this time?

Anna: So I think I’ve been here with Seapoint two and a half years.

Kristy: Okay, yep.

Anna: So that’s about how long I’ve been doing account management um I manage I think I met 38 clients now.

Kristy: Oh my word that’s absurd.

Anna: I’m hopefully handing one client over to Kevin in the near future.

Kristy: Okay, one!

Anna: So I’ll be down to 37. No, it’s- it’s not as bad as it sounds because uh the majority of the clients that I manage are smaller and they maybe ask me to help them with something once maybe twice a year you know it’s it’s not a whole lot of day-to-day work with a lot of them um but yeah so the larger clients I have definitely are daily you know daily communication pretty much.

Kristy: Yeah – yeah so what does it mean to be an account manager for a client?

Anna: That is a very good question. I find it hard a challenge even for myself to like for example to explain it to my mom when I try to explain to my mom what I do it’s difficult because I feel like an account manager wears so many hats and you kind of just have to like do whatever comes up you know like I’m- I’m there to communicate between the different teams here at Seapoint and the client so like you know for example one of my clients they they’re completely redesigning their entire look of their they’re building we’re building a new website for them they’re getting a whole new logo whole new branding guide new colors new fonts everything so I’m communicating with the creative team the uh graphic design team you know to come up with you know designs for them and so that could be one part of it and then another part of it is like hey we we need to hook up this platform to this platform can you send me the the code that the email sends like I don’t know it could be like so many random things throughout the day yeah that it’s hard to explain.

Kristy: Yeah no I get that and- and you can correct me if this take is wrong but when I’ve tried to explain it to someone recently. I basically just said um you’re kind of like the person that is kind of the go-between for the client to all of their needs to make sure all of their needs get met so you’re the go-to person for the client whenever they need something to make sure whatever their needs are getting met.

Anna: That’s a very good explanation and I’m going to steal it.

Kristy: Okay, perfect perfect.

Anna: Because and that actually makes me think of like yeah that’s exactly right and it’s kind of like I’m a personal assistant yeah but for the client so like whatever they need like obviously I’m not going to pick up their dry cleaning because they’re in another state right but you yeah basically anything they need.

Kristy: They go to you.

Anna: They ask hey can Seapoint Digital do X Y or Z yeah let me look into that let me see what I can do and then we try to make it happen for them.

Kristy: So and the purpose of that that I’ve come to learn over the years is it saves so much miscommunication because if the client every time they needed a video made had to come to me that would create so many communication issues because there’s so much that goes into a client a video with with copy and and what Bill wants to be involved and like so it- it’s like a a missed step you have to first collect all of the information you then make decisions on who needs to do what you have to gather all this information it saves the step of them ever having to talk to me which I often prefer so yeah it’s like it’s I don’t want to call you the middleman but it is a little bit like you’re the middleman.

Anna: Yeah I feel like the middleman which is it’s not a bad term I guess um and that’s fine and I think it it definitely makes it easier for the client in that sense too where they don’t have to remember oh I need to email Kristy for video I need to email Vanessa for graphics I need you know like they just have one person that handles everything and then I do all the messaging hey can you do this hey can you do this yeah making sure that deadlines are you know hopefully met on time as as much as humanly possible.

Kristy: Organized chaos.

Anna: I kind of become the face of the company because they see me and talk to me and message with me.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna: You know on a weekly sometimes daily basis so you know yeah I’m like the person that they become comfortable with on the team because I’m the main person they communicate with.

Kristy: Yeah so what kind of like I just think of you as a very very good account manager because you just seem to have everything always in control and for that many clients okay you’re good at keeping it in control am a panicker and you are do not appear to be a panicker.

Anna: You should see me when I’m in my home office when I’m here I can hide it very well.

Kristy: That’s where you save all the panicking.

Anna: Yeah, I save all the panicking for when I’m at home and I’m complaining to my husband about why can’t I do everything.

Kristy: Well but um that being said…

Anna: Thank you I appreciate- I appreciate that you think that.

Kristy: Yeah what what do you think are good skills that you know fit because let me let me just back up and say I tried account management for a short period of time and I- it was not for me even though I find myself to be very much a type A personality and very organized.

Anna: And you’re very organized.

Kristy: Organized and a good communicator I still like don’t I don’t fit the role of an account manager I’m not really sure what it is I think it’s too many moving pieces and it’s too many things to keep track of and my brain just doesn’t keep track of things that way I also just find myself to be a creative type so to you what do you think makes a good account manager what kind of skills?

Anna: Yeah I think you definitely need to be an organized person um and I feel like- I feel like it’s kind of similar to maybe like a concierge service at like a hotel or something like I’m not a waitress but I need to be personable with you and make you feel like you trust my recommendations that I know what I’m talking about and that if you go you follow my advice you feel confident that you’re following my advice so it’s kind of like that like you’re you have to have the ability to instill trust in people that you’re that you know what you’re talking about even if sometimes you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Kristy: It’s fake it so you make it.

Anna: Fake it till you make it. So you make it but um yeah so definitely you have to be able to be organized I have to write write everything down.

Kristy: Yes.

Anna: Um we use teamwork as a task manager for and I have to put everything in there because if if the task isn’t there for me to see I will forget about it because there’s so many hundreds and hundreds of tasks for all these different clients so it’s like if I don’t have that’s when things go ary is when I either forget to make a task for myself or forget to make a task for somebody else yeah um that that can make things not great.

Kristy: Yeah, yeah but what do you think the difference is this is something I’ve thought a lot about and I don’t know if you have an opinion on this is the difference between um someone who just like strategy versus account management so we have Mark on our team who does strategy um but he’s not managing accounts but at the same time I think an account manager does have a level of strategy involved with helping their client do you find that there’s a big difference for you there have you thought about that?

Anna: Yeah I have that and actually I’m glad you mentioned Mark because he is like an excellent resource to go to, and I go to him often for strategy purposes. Because he just has so much more experience than I do. So what I do have experience and I feel confident about but it’s also nice to have that experience that you can pull from when I don’t feel quite so confident you know and I want to bring you know a good strategy to the client on whatever it is that they want to do. So um yeah I feel like those two are separate yet connected do that make sense like yeah the strategy part isn’t necessarily my strong suit um but the organization and the accomplishing of what they want I feel like I’m good at.

Kristy: Yeah we’re fortunate to have such a good strategist on our team.

Anna: Yeah like he’s amazing I- I utilize Mark’s brain whenever I can because he’s just amazing.

Kristy: Is there anything about like what are what are the things you really like or really don’t like about account management?

Anna: What do I really like? I really like the client meetings so um not all of my clients but uh a majority of them we have monthly meetings to discuss um whatever um analytics they want to review and data they want to review about how their business is going and how the if they have Google ads running how are the ads doing are- are they getting um good results from the ads or they’re not seeing much of a difference or things like that but I- I like those meetings because you get to know them as humans yeah and they get to know me as a human.

Kristy: Right.

Anna: And that makes it so much easier when you have that like human-to-human relationship with your clients they, you can understand each other better you can understand each other’s lives too that are- this you know separate from work.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna: So that like there’s also understanding too like you know if I say you know I’m working on that but it’ll be next week like they know why right like I’m open with my clients about like what’s going on in my life yeah and in you know our office lives too because I feel like that’s important because if you don’t have that good relationship and openness with your clients then they’re just going to be like well she’s just putting me off.

Kristy: Flaking off. Not paying attention.

Anna: Yeah like she’s just ignoring me or you know why isn’t she getting this done for me you know like I- I want them to know that I am working on it but you’re not my only client and I have a whole other life.

Kristy: It establishes trust too.

Anna: Yeah I feel like that and that’s my favorite part of account managing is like building those relationships with the with- the people that are the clients so that’s fun like recently we went um when we went to um Boston for an in-person client meeting.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna: I felt I was so excited because I felt like I was going to visit my friends in Boston not like oh we’re going for a work meeting you know like it was something we were excited and happy to see them and I ended up just hugging them.

Kristy: Hugging most of them.

Anna: Yeah because you just you’ve established these relationships with people.

Kristy: And it makes those meetings like way more comfortable.

Anna: So much more comfortable and fun like you can have actual fun while you’re doing your job which is nice.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna: Um as far as things I don’t like um let’s see the I think a big challenge has been in the past when I’ve had a client that was an aggressive personality and um let’s just say they were straight up rude yeah you know they were a rude person and it’s hard to be kind and be patient and you know be polite when people are screaming at you- you know..

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna: So I mean that was definitely a challenge but that’s also a huge reason why I think Seapoint is so successful is Bill doesn’t force us to work with people that are terrible you know so I mean sometimes you just you- you know client company vibe it just doesn’t vibe and he gets that and he’s not going to like make us deal with people who are incredibly hard to deal with.

Kristy: Yeah, you can’t have a successful relationship that way.
Anna: Yeah, it’s just not working so you know that was hard but I don’t have that client anymore so yeah I can’t really think of anything that’s like oh my God the drudgery of account management you know like I- I like I enjoy what I do.

Kristy: Yep, do you have any advice for anyone that is new to account management or would be considering a job in account management like what you wish you had known?

Anna: I- I think if I was going to give advice to someone if you’re not a people person don’t do this job because you know you’re with the people like your clients are your people and that’s there’s a lot of communication you need to be a good communicator a people person um an organized person and yeah I think as long as you have those skills you’ll do fine because a huge part of it is being able to have that relationship with your client.

Kristy: So what did you say extroverted or just…

Anna: I don’t necessarily think you have to be an extrovert because I don’t consider myself an extrovert I consider myself to be an introvert but I think I’m an extroverted introvert okay yeah yeah like I can I can be with people all day but then at the end of the day I want to be by myself right and that’s when I recharge so it’s not plus it’s helpful that I get to work from home most of the time and that’s like my happy place so it’s good for me yeah um I love working from home working remotely but yeah I think I think as long as you have the ability to communicate well, you can write a good email you know that you’re conscious of how your words might come across written out. You know because it’s different than a telephone conversation most of the communication for an account manager is via email or instant message or whatever so I’m not having a lot of phone calls I mean I do from time to time but it’s not super often yeah so I think like if you can put together email communication well then you’ll do great because it’s you can give off certain vibes with how you write things that would make it like seem negative even though you don’t mean it to be negative but when someone’s reading it they’re like is she being snarky you know like you know so I always kind of like try to reread everything before I send it and just be like okay that sounds friendly and nice and not arbitrary or whatever.

Kristy: Yeah and so that’s making me think like do you have you learned or do you have any advice on like you know you have had a controversy with clients like dealing how to deal with that you have to stay professional and yet you’re still a person and don’t want to be treated like trash so how do you get through that how would a person get through that kind of controversy.

Anna: Um I would recommend saving every single email.

Kristy: Oh that’s great advice.

Anna: I- I was actually because uh one of our newest account managers Kevin that might be taking one over one of my clients that’s the first thing I told him I was like what I do is in my inbox I have labels for each client so I have 3 labels and I put when I’m done with an email conversation like that task is completed or I’ve answered their question or whatever I take that email and I put it in the folder.

Kristy: What a great idea.

Anna: For that client and I keep it forever because it- it has saved my butt quite a few times where um like that arbitrary client would say you know well you never did this or you I asked you to do this and you never did and I can be like this email says that I did you know so.

Kristy: Please review.

Anna: Yes please see my email from three months ago yeah so I mean that definitely helps because it covers your butt for sure.

Kristy: Yeah wow that’s yeah that’s a great example. Any other organization tips like that that I’ve helped you? How- my brain would get so clouder cloudy and cluttered with that many clients and who am I forgetting about and meetings and- but that doesn’t get to you.

Anna: Um I think I have it figured in the beginning yes it was a lot I think now that I have it kind of like down for myself and that’s the other thing too like when I was training Kevin I’m like this is how I do it but do it how it makes sense to your brain right you know like everybody’s learns differently and works differently so like I feel like making it a cookie cutter like you do this and then you do this and then you do this isn’t going to work because everybody has a different style so I’ve got I’ve gotten my style down and I think that’s a big part of it too when you’re first starting out is just finding what organizational style works for you and roll with it because…

Kristy: What about when it comes to connecting like with the team? You have to go to the graphics you have to go to the creative team for stuff like how are you able to like get them to come back on time with stuff as that like?

Anna: Yeah I- I can think of one person right off the bat that is probably sick of me giving them tasks like I get it you have stuff that you need me to do um I feel like that’s another big relationship part yeah is you know I like these people I like my co-workers but we also have have deadlines for stuff too so it’s a it’s a balancing act of like hey I need this please but not being a jerk about it um so yeah I think the being a good communicator is key in that aspect of it too because um you know no one wants to be like where are my Graphics or where’s my ad or you know like you know.

Kristy: It’s not an effective way to get what you want.

Anna: Yeah you don’t want to be a jerk about it but…

Kristy: Um you also need what you need to get back to your client on time.

Anna: Yeah exactly so it’s just I feel like just being a generally kind polite person as much as possible is helpful.

Kristy: Occasional reminders?

Anna: Yeah I’m just like hey okay so this is something I do often um I will take a task link send it in the chat to the person and be like hey what’s the status of this task?

Kristy: Perfect.

Anna: Yeah because then it’s like oh it’s kind of on your radar like that I need it but I don’t know where you’re at with it but it’s not accusatory either like why isn’t this done yet it’s just hey what’s up with this is- is are you still working on it what’s the status so I do that often um or I’ll just be like hey friendly reminder that you know this is coming up.

Kristy: Please do this.

Anna: And then sometimes I’m a total bonehead and I thought I did something and I didn’t like for example yesterday um a blog was like overdue in a task list and I messaged Kiara and I’m like hey where’s what’s up with this blog it’s not up yet and she’s like well I never got approval for it and I’m like but I didn’t have it in my email still so I had what I had done is I had taken the email and put it in its little folder like I do but it wasn’t done yet.

Kristy: Oops.

Anna: So I’m like oh that was my bad.

Kristy: Yeah.

Anna: So I just reminded the client hey is this approved for publishing? Oh yeah so no big deal but you know and that’s the thing too like you have to be a good apologizer I think you have to be willing to…

Kristy: Be humble.

Anna: Be humble and oh I’m so sorry that was my mistake you know like I- no biggie that was my bad yeah so.

Kristy: Well you sound like you have it down.

Anna: I’m trying.

Kristy: We’re impressed from over here so.

Anna: Oh yay well thank you I appreciate that.

Kristy: Yeah we’re already out of time but I really appreciate just getting a glimpse into your account world.

Anna: Yeah very insightful questions thank you for having me on the podcast. I- I enjoy the podcast because even though like I work in marketing it you know there’s so many different yes moving pieces and moving parts that I get to learn new things too you know that a deep dive into their job is- it’s cool so.

Kristy: Right people now get to learn yours. Come back again.

Anna: I will thank you. Thanks, Kristy

Kristy: Thanks for listening we’ll see you guys next time.