Despite headlines full of restructures and AI panic, independent agency owners are reporting that business is picking up - and the numbers partly back that up.

The skills clients consistently say they want from their agency (proactive strategic thinking, genuine understanding of their business, reliable delivery that proves value) are commercial skills in everything but name.

A lack of proactivity in agency account managers is consistently ranked as the top unmet client expectation in client-agency research, but the cause is structural, not personal.

Faster delivery does not mean cheaper delivery, and assuming it does is costing agencies money.

This article explains why ghosting happens between creative agency projects, and what to do differently.

The next eight weeks are the most important for getting in front of clients before things get quieter in the summer.

I've had a wide range of AI conversations with agency owners this month - and the split has been striking. 

If you’re developing account managers, don’t treat soft skills as personality traits. Treat them as behaviours that can be practised.

Practise the moment you ask for the referral. Practise the wording that raises the out-of-scope CRO issue without sounding salesy. Practise the Friday scope creep conversation without wobbling or being defensive. Practise how you support your point of contact in a room full of seniors, while still leading the conversation.

That’s the human work around the work. And it’s where a lot of account growth lives.

Future proof your career with AI for Account Managers training

What AI can do is help account managers think more strategically - and act more proactively.

A big part of the Agency Account Manager's job is to have a conversation with the client at the beginning of a project to establish metrics of success.

How much of the agency account management role can AI already do? JobsGPT is a ChatGPT-powered tool by SmarterX from Paul Roetzer.