Recently, I conducted a series of 2nd stage interviews for an Account Director role for an app development agency client of mine.
Account Director remit
The main remit for the role was the retention and growth of three key accounts.The accounts represented substantial income for the agency owner and therefore this role was a very important hiring decision.We'd crafted the job spec in a way that highlighted the core competencies for the role, the agency's culture and how performance would be measured.Without sharing candidate details or interview outcomes, I thought it might be useful to share some observations and tips for you if you're looking to hire an Account Director now or in the future. Here are some tips/reminders in no particular order for the interviewing process:
1. Paint an exciting future vision for the candidate
Prepare to share an attractive 'vision' for where the agency is going in the future - because candidates get excited about being part of that future.The reason this is important is that if they're a strong candidate they may have the choice of other job opportunities and this may just become the deciding factor for them to choose your agency!For example, are you opening offices in other countries? do you have an ambitious revenue growth target? Could they be required to grow their own team and become a part of the senior management team? are you moving to more exciting offices? are your company 'away days' planned for exotic/overseas destinations later this year? is your agency involved in any marketing initiatives that mean the candidate would be raising their profile/networking e.g. sponsoring events? does your agency have a planned schedule of training events where they can develop their skills?
2. Consider if the candidate is a good fit for existing AND future clients
If you're hiring an AD to take care of important key clients, consider involving the client in the latter stage of your hiring process i.e. ask the client to have a chemistry meeting with the individual once you've gone through your internal testing criteria (they've passed first and second interviews and met other key members of your team).Also, if as an agency you're planning to grow aggressively in the future e.g. doubling revenue in the next 3-5 years, look for candidates whose experience lends itself to where the business will be in 3-5 years rather than where it has been.There's an old adage 'what got you here won't get you there' which is true for the team you have (particularly legacy team members whose skills may no longer fit the types of clients you're aspiring to gain in the future).So a candidate might have experience managing 'national' clients of say £1m value - but doesn't have experience managing 'global' clients of £100m value. If your ICP (ideal client profile) has evolved since the agency began, consider what experience would be most relevant for the types of clients you want to attract.
3. Ask the candidate for concrete commercial examples
It's quite easy to get carried away with strong candidates who have a natural ability to create instant rapport during an interview (which is what you'd expect from a senior person in account management!).Sometimes people 'perform well' at interview but then once in role end up not delivering on the expectations they've set. Therefore it's important to ask for specific examples of what they achieved in their previous role to assess their ability to replicate it.For example e.g. if someone has included 'grew X account to X level which impacted X business in X way', ask them to walk you through how they did it and the role they played. For example, how did they spot an account growth opportunity? What did they do with that information? How did they propose the idea to the client? Who else was involved? What were the steps? How did they execute? etcYou may also identify a skill the AD has in their CV that your current team don't possess and that you think would be useful to generate more client opportunities e.g. the candidate has experience in data analytics and this isn't something your agency is strong in.
4. Titles mean nothing
I often describe the agency account management hiring process like the Wild West. You may have received an application from someone who already has the title of Account Director and understandably assume they'll be more senior than someone with the title of Account Manager but this is almost always not the case.Let's assume your AD role requires someone who is commercially astute, has an ability to operate independently and is required to spot opportunities to grow the account, they may indeed have the title of AD but in their previous roles have held more of a senior project management or hybrid AM/PM role in the past.It may mean they might be less proficient when it comes to the account growth process; initiating growth conversations, stakeholder & opportunity mapping, forecasting, running QBRs and leading the delivery team etc.There's a big difference in commercial approach and understanding if the individual has come from an agency that separates the 'account management' function from the 'delivery' team function.Or they are already an AD but come from a different agency discipline/model or size that operated differently. For example, a common mistake I see is a start-up agency employing a seasoned Account Director who comes from a more structured account management team (and who had a team reporting to them where they were less hands on). They may end up disillusioned because they have to almost take a step back because of the 'all hands on deck' approach as the agency is growing.
If you or your team need to hold on to - and expand - your current clients and what you're currently doing isn't bearing fruit - or you'd like it to be more predictable - let's jump on a call and see if training or consultancy might be what's needed to gain some new ideas and that external perspective. Here's a link to book a discovery call.
