Blog
Practical, straight-talking advice for agency account managers who want to retain client relationships and grow accounts.
Expect clear frameworks, real examples and simple tools you can put to work immediately - from running tighter client meetings and QBRs, to spotting growth opportunities and handling tricky conversations.
Are agencies selling the drill, or the painting? Agency metrics of success
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.
Hiring an Account Director? Here are some tips.
Recently, I conducted a series of 2nd stage interviews for an Account Director role for an app development agency client of mine.
How much of your agency account management job can AI already speed up? (try this AI tool now!)
How much of the agency account management role can AI already do? JobsGPT is a ChatGPT-powered tool by SmarterX from Paul Roetzer.
The job title fudge: Hiring agency account managers is like the wild west
Hiring an agency account manager can feel like walking through a minefield in flip flops.
How to keep top account management talent AND cut training costs
'Train the trainer' isn't new. But it is fairly new for agency owners who want to keep 'rising star' account managers but have tighter training budgets
How account managers can run a revenue boosting client win-back campaign
Ever thought about winning back your past clients? It could be one of the most impactful moves for your agency’s bottom line.
What to do when your client says they've found someone cheaper
An account director client of mine has been struggling with a client relationship.
Three ways to trip up your account manager
The account manager's role is hard. Some argue it's the hardest in the agency.
Why do clients ditch agencies?
Is the agency business model holding account managers back?
Why do your clients really buy your agency services?
Why do clients really buy your agency services? Most agencies want to understand what clients think. And it turns out prospective clients and existing clients are thinking different things.
Why the account manager ‘permission line’ is stopping growth
In 2019 Gartner conducted a study to understand why account managers were ineffective in growing existing agency client business.
Why are account managers not cross selling and upselling during client meetings?
Why are account managers not cross selling and upselling during client meetings?
The importance of documenting your client results as a creative agency account manager
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'.
How to prevent 3 difficult client conversations - a checklist for account managers
There are little things account managers can do well to avoid big client complaints. Here are 3 common scenarios in which an account manager has to have a difficult conversation.
How to solve a client's business problem as an agency account manager
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”
The trouble with account managers
I read as many reports I can about the state of agency account management and it makes for grim reading.