Recently, I chatted to Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions. We discussed the importance of demonstrating to clients the results you're achieving for them at three levels. Tim calls this the 'triple metric'.

Michael Farmer, a management consultant who has studied creative agencies for 30 years, said this during our recent interview: “Account managers need to be more like Bain consultants”

I read as many reports I can about the state of agency account management and it makes for grim reading.

When you start an agency, typically you start with project management. As a small, agile team it makes sense for project managers to be responsible for client management.They are highly skilled in delivering your services on time and on budget. As an agency grows and more clients are acquired, it becomes unsustainable.

Why do account managers miss new account growth opportunities in client meetings? Often it’s because they haven’t asked the right questions. Or they’ve asked some of the right questions but didn’t have the confidence to probe deeper in their questioning.

Agency owners often tell me their account managers aren’t leading client meetings confidently.

You can’t just expect clients to treat account managers as ‘trusted advisors’ because trust has to be earned. 

Agency owners tell me they’re frustrated because their existing client accounts aren’t growing. But their account managers either aren’t doing anything about it – or aren’t doing it consistently.

Results of a study have come out called "Building trust and revenue with existing clients". The Jan 2023 study was US-based so if you have US clients, you’ll find this compelling. But even if you don’t, hopefully it’ll make you think about your client’s budget.