The human work behind the work
DEPOSITPHOTOS
Soft skills are harder to coach
I’ve had a couple of conversations this week about “soft skills” for account managers.
The term always sounds a bit fluffy. Like it’s about being likeable and service-oriented.
The kind of thing people nod along to but quietly put at the bottom of the training list because it feels hard to define and even harder to coach (and hire for).
What I see in practice working with account managers who grow their accounts, is that these “softer” skills combined with the “hard skills” of commercial acumen are often the difference between a client relationship ticking along and an account that grows.
Soft skills that matter commercially
These human skills are what protect the agency's margin, secure a contract renewal and create the conditions where your client trusts you enough to buy more from you.
They're often mistaken for rapport building and relationship maintenance. In reality, they show up most in the moments that feel awkward; telling the client the request is out of scope and asking for more money, making recommendations without being pushy, challenging assumptions and steering decisions.
Hard skills are foundational
The “hard skills” of account management are important:
Ensuring high quality work is delivered on time and on budget, profitably
Commercially ensuring the work achieves a business outcome and ROI
Strong situational awareness (market and channels, competition, the client’s customers)
None of that changes.
What’s changing is the balance of what clients notice and what they pay for.
Steering relationships more valuable
As AI speeds up parts of agency delivery and raises expectations on pace and output, account managers spend less time being valued for organising work and more time being valued for steering the relationship commercially.
That steering happens through the human work around the work. Examples include:
Commercial confidence
Knowing when to ask the client for a referral at the exact moment they praise the work. Or suggesting you put together a business case to help the client sell in a project to their boss.
The skilled account manager is a master of sensing the right moment to say something, and then having the courage to say it.
Constructive assertiveness
Framing a conversation about an important CRO issue that needs fixing on the client’s website.
You want to bring it up, it’s out of scope of the SEO retainer, you don’t want it to come across as salesy and you know the client is busy anyway (an example from a call yesterday).
The best account people can say the awkward thing without drama, and make it feel helpful rather than pushy.
Political intelligence
Status flexing in a meeting where the big cheese is in the room who you’ve never met.
You need your presentation to be strong, while also being supportive of your point of contact who is the most inexperienced person in the room.
You’re guiding them to help them do their job, without undermining them.
Many accounts stall because the real decision-maker is never engaged. Getting them in the room via your point of contact and then influencing their decisions are two big steps in the right direction to growing your accounts.
Boundary-setting that feels collaborative
Firmly but politely explaining why the very senior person’s request (who was never part of the decision-making group, but has appeared at the eleventh hour) isn’t going to be possible.
For example: they want a layout change to the website’s home page on Friday when it’s going live on Monday.
Skilled account managers set up projects that are watertight in terms of client expectation-setting, then they can also have a difficult scope creep conversation without ruffling anyone's feathers.
This is also the bit agencies often under-train. We do a decent job “upskilling” tools, frameworks, and technical craft. We’re less consistent at building the behaviours that help account managers influence clients commercially.
What the data says
Two sources back up why these skills are being rewarded:
LinkedIn’s UK “Skills on the Rise 2025” ranks Relationship Building as the number one fastest-growing skill, and it links “Account Manager” to that skill as a common job title.
The same list includes Strategic Thinking, Communication and Conflict Resolution in the top set, alongside AI Literacy. It’s a snapshot of what’s being recognised in client-facing roles right now.
The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 says employers expect significant skill change by 2030, and the report keeps 'human interaction' skills such as empathy and active listening, curiosity and service orientation in the core mix.
A practical takeaway
If you’re developing account managers, don’t treat these 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.