10 top tips to be successful in agency account management, with Jenny Plant

Transcript:
 

00:01

Welcome to Episode 27. This is the top 10 tips to be successful in agency account management. And the reason that I'm giving you top 10 tips is because we've now passed 26 episodes on this podcast, and we've had some fantastic guests sharing really, really brilliant advice for agency account managers to up their game, to be more proficient in what they do, and to be much more successful in their role. So I thought what I'd do is reflect back on some of those interviews, and pull out some of the best tips that I think have been shared on the podcast. So this episode is highlighting all of the top tips that are going to help you in your role.

 

00:48

The first piece of advice that I'd like to pull out is from episode number one. This was with Kate Whittaker, Kate has 30 years as a marketing client. She's dealt with hundreds of agencies through her time. And she said, good account management makes everything run smoothly. But great account management is what transforms the relationship from a client supplier to one of a real partnership. And she said, we're quite specialist in what we do. And industry knowledge is really important to me. So the account director I work with in our current agency will often just drop me an email with information, snippets of news, industry news, and competitor activity that she thinks I might have missed. So I think that was a great tip. Always make sure that your client knows that you're thinking about them, and keeping them top of mind. So if you're not doing this on a regular basis, then make sure you set up Google Alerts and send a piece of information that you think is relevant, but not only send it, also tell them why you're sending it and why you think it's relevant to them. And perhaps any action that you believe needs to be taken as a result. So, great piece of advice from Kate.

 

02:05

Quite a similar piece of advice taken from Episode Two of the podcast with Tina Fegent. Tina has 25 years working in marketing procurement. Again, she's really competent dealing with agencies. She's actually worked agency side as a commercial director many years ago. But she spent a lot of time dealing with agencies from a marketing procurement perspective. And she says that the, when asked about the most important skills of an account manager is for her all about being proactive. And she said, 'I think being able to hold senior level discussions are really important, and being financially aware.' And she said, I think that it's an area that could be really improved in terms of having those 'why are we all here?' conversations. And what she's referring to, is why is the client actually investing their money in that PR campaign, that digital asset, that event, ultimately is because they need to drive sales. So having a business acumen, being commercially aware, is really, really important. Because she says at the end of the day, the key one is being focused on the client's business. That's what is top of their mind. And that's what we've got to keep top of ours. Fantastic advice from Tina.

 

03:25

The next top tip is taken from episode number three. And this was with Marcus Cauchi, it was called 'How to sell to existing and prospective clients'. It was probably one of the most popular podcasts. And during this interview, Marcus shared some really straight talking advice. And I've just picked out a couple of things that he said on the podcast, which I'd love to share again. He said your job is to always make sure your customer is the hero of the story. Stop talking about you, your agency, your past glories, no one cares. That's like showing photos of your ugly children to strangers. Focus on the how you helped a client achieve their strategic objective, how they benefited from it, what they learned, what journey they went through the ups and the downs. Because I think that's what makes a real story. So I think, some fantastic advice from Marcus about making sure that when you have a conversation with a client, it's about how you can help them but not focusing on what you do. So tell a story, be really proficient in understanding your past case studies and how you've helped other clients that are similar to your client achieve their strategic imperative. So that was a fantastic piece of advice. He also went on to share another piece of advice that I wanted to share with you because again, I thought it was spot on. He says establish right from the outset, what their vision is for the next 6, 12, 18, 24 months. And looking at that direction, they're trying to take their business, so that you can stay ahead of where they are making sure that you're co-developing a plan. So if resource is required, identify what those resources will be, when they will be required, what the trigger points are, and identify what budget is going to be required in order to be able to recruit them, and make sure that you understand the client's competitive landscape. So I think, again, what all three of these podcasts really keep reminding us about, is to stand in the shoes of the client, and to really understand their world, their business, their challenges, their opportunities, where they're investing their money next year. And a little tip for you, if you go to seekingalpha.com and you have a huge enterprise client, then you may be able to download the transcripts from the investor relations discussions. And these typically are where CEO, CFOs and generally the C suite present their plans to the company's investors. So it's a great source of information to understand where their focus for their business is going to be for the coming years. So, brilliant advice from Marcus, if you want to, if you haven't yet listened to that podcast, then I would urge you to go back and have a listen.

 

06:32

Tip number four is from episode number four. And it was an interview I did with Phil Lancaster. Phil spent 20 years working in a very senior role at JWT. And he worked on some amazing global brands. And he shared some fantastic advice on this podcast. And I want to pull out a couple of things he said, because now he is actually helping agencies develop relationships with the C suite. He says, I think the brilliant skills required of account management is that you have got to have an understanding and an innate interest and curiosity around two things, one of which is the broad business world. How do clients make money, for example? How can I help them make more money? And how can I grow their business? But equally, you've got to have the qualitative skills, the EQ, the genuine intuition and desire to be interested in anything creative. So I thought that was a fantastic summary of, again, what is so important  in the role of account management. And he also sort of warned us he said, I'm working with a lot of agencies right now to whom a relationship with the C suite at their clients organisation does not exist. And he believes they're really, really vulnerable. Because decisions can be made, no matter how good the agency's work has been, or is at the moment, decisions can be made, which have no bearing whatsoever on the current relationship, and output and now suddenly mean that the business is gone. So again, I hope this is a reminder for you to establish relationships with the most senior level clients in the client organisations you're dealing with, because Phil's absolutely on the money here. If anything happens at a change of senior leadership at your client side, then this will inevitably one way or another trickle down the organisation and you will be affected. So make sure that you're keeping an eye on who the C suite are, and also have a plan to connect with them and develop relationships.

 

08:55

Tip number five is taken from episode number five called the fundamentals of successful client management with Carey Evans, and Simon Rhind-Tutt. They have a company called Relationship Audis and Management. And they go in and audit relationships. And the reason I'm so supportive of the company is because when I was working at Publicis, I invited them in to audit a relationship that we had with one of our biggest customers that was worth £700,000 a year. We were struggling a little bit with this relationship, to be honest. And they, as they do, they organised face to face evaluations, interviews with key members of the client organisation, both very senior and quite junior, and what we discovered about that relationship and the feedback that they were able to garner for us, enabled us to put an action plan in place to address all of the concerns and complaints. And I think as a result of what they did for us, we extended that relationship by two years. So that account ended up, we kept it. So it was worth £1.4 million and quite frankly, it, we could have lost it. So I was so impressed with what Simon and Carey's business did, I actually when I left Publicis, I went to work for them for a little while, about nine months. And I conducted interviews on their behalf with client organisations on behalf of different agencies. And it was just fascinating what clients will share with you, when you really are able to ask the questions in a way that helps them to open up. So if you're listening to this, and perhaps you have a big, important client relationship that isn't maybe going so well, and you really want to understand, you know, from the client's perspective, what's going well, where the areas of development and improvement need to happen, but also to have that opportunity to talk about their future needs in the business, then Simon and Carey are the people to contact. And on my interview with them, again, it was just tip after tip after tip about how agency account managers can get better. And they shared with us a couple of statistics that I want to share with you that may be food for thought. So they said, because they carry out lots of surveys, they have lots of benchmarking data, that 63% of clients claim that their agency has never asked them about their expectations of the agency, which, as I say, is not setting off on the right foot really. And if you don't know what your clients expectations are, it's a damn sight easier to deliver them and beat them. Sorry, if you do know what they are, as opposed to simply assuming you know what they are. And this is emphasised, they said even further, when you've got an existing relationship and your client leaves, and a new client joins, and you maybe are assuming that they're gonna want everything in the same way, the same size, the same job, the same package. And of course, they're not. So making sure that from the outset of a really key relationship, that you're asking really great questions, you know, things like for you to turn around to me in six months time and say, 'do you know what, this was the best decision I ever met made, was bringing you in, or continuing our relationship'. And for you to say that to me , what needs to have happened between now and then. And then just going quiet, and letting the client tell you what success looks like for them.

 

12:45

So great piece of advice there. Another tip that they shared is, you know, they asked the question, what proportion of time does a marketing manager on average, in their working week spend working with all of their agencies. And most agencies believe that typically, a marketing manager, their client, spends between 30 and 70%, working with their agencies. But the reality is, it's 7%. So just let that sink in a moment, if you think that your client, they've got an inordinate amount of things to do in their role, lots of different things, demands on their time. Actually, what you do with it with your client is just a tiny, tiny fraction of their day. Because if they have 7% of their working week spending with all of their suppliers, all of their relationships, then you just form a very, very small part. And I think the takeaway here is to really make sure that every interaction with your client matters, so that you're prepared, but you also have that understanding of where the clients at. And Carey and Simon went on to give a piece of advice, saying, you know, ask your client to put in a diary session, just half an hour over a coffee, so that you can ask them questions about their working week. How do they spend their time, what other challenges are they facing, and that really is going to give you some insight into the world of your clients, so that you can understand them better.

 

14:21

Tip number six is taken from an absolutely stunning podcast interview I had with David C. Baker, called 'Agency Leaders Guide to Account Management'. This is Episode 24. And David just quite frankly, shared tip, after tip, after tip, and I just was so blown away by all of the value he shared. But I've picked out one tip that David gave in his interview, which I think was very, very insightful. And I would really encourage you to look into this because he said this is going to strike people as pretty strange and that already made me kind of lean in further to what he was about to say. But, and this was in response to him being asked what makes a great account manager, he said, go to Google and look up 'theory of change', or 'model of change'. And then flip to the image tab and see the 1000s of theories of change. And peruse those someday and come up with a model that's unique to your agency, about how your agency interact with your clients,  how you bring them along, what's your theory of change? And he said, it's an area that not a lot of people have experienced. And we just innately know, at least we think we know how to present a new idea to someone and convince them of it. But if you spend a little bit more time, more like a scientist, and think about what is your perspective on theory, or models of change, it would really help you as an account manager too. So I thought that was a really, really, very unique piece of advice, which I've never heard anyone say, but he's absolutely right here. Because often, we are in a position to present new ideas to clients, which represent a huge change for that client. And there's something called status quo bias, where clients often just want to follow the status quo, they don't want to make big changes. So only by understanding those changes, are we able to address that in our presentation. So I would really urge you to take David's advice up and have a look for yourself, and see if you can come up with a model for your agency.

 

16:51

Tip number seven, this was taken from Episode 20, called 'How to improve the way you work with a marketing director'. We had Sam Bridger on, and Sam again shared some fantastic advice for agencies and agency account managers in how to work better with your clients. And again, a bit like Kate Whitaker, Sam has been in the industry for over 25 years, working with various agencies. And now she works as interim marketing director. And for her, she has to go into a new company, as probably head of marketing, and really hit the ground running. And the first thing she likes to do is to understand how many different agencies the marketing department are dealing with, because she likes to quickly understand who they are, and then bring them all together so that she can benefit from their collective thinking. And again, I thought that was a fantastic piece of advice, that it's beneficial often for your marketing directors, or the people that you're dealing with, to get all of the agencies together. And who thinks about doing that? And her piece of advice was try and find ways yourself to bring the agencies together. And that would be really beneficial and helpful to your clients. So she suggested perhaps run an afternoon workshop, where you all where you invite all the agencies together and talk about an issue that the clients facing maybe in the sector, for example, or with a particular customer, or a particular brand, or whatever it might be. And then she said, do it in the afternoon, have a couple of hours workshopping, and then a couple of hours of going out for a drink maybe and getting to know each other. And she said it really sets the ball rolling, and it demonstrates a way to add value. And that's a great way that the client can see that you're being proactive. So, again, she said, don't be afraid of the competition, because often other agencies you bring together, may be offering something similar to you. She said just embrace it, and use it as an opportunity to come together collectively to give the client the best value. So again, a fantastic tip that you might want to take on board from Sam.

 

19:08

Tip number eight I've chosen from Episode 23. And that was with Simon Barbato, who is the CEO of Mr. B & Friends, and it's called 'How to move from agency employee to agency owner'. Simon started his career in the early 90s. He was actually in client service to start with and quickly moved into a planning role. So his agency now that he went on to form is a very successful, fast growing agency. And he sees the value in the strategic planning role and has a planning department in his agency which is a really key differentiator. And his advice for agency account managers was curiosity is one of the key drivers of great account managers, the ability to show interest, to ask questions, dig deep to unearth the background to a client's business or business problem, for example. And I think all of these things provide a really great canvas in which they can then build creative briefs or build project briefs. So if you don't have that innate ability to drive into the client's business, I think that you'll operate on a very surface level, and therefore probably have a transactional type relationship with your client, rather than a deep relational engagement. So drive into the clients business, dive further into their sector, understand their customer, their market, and where they're going, so that you can be much more informed and provide a lot more value to help them grow their business. So brilliant advice there from Simon.

 

20:51

Tip number nine is taken from Episode 26. With Dr. Laura Janusik, called 'What account managers can learn from the science of listening'. And Laura is a specialist in listening, she has been studying it for years, she has a PhD in communication with a specialisation in listening. And I learned a ton from her chat. And one of the things that she said was listening is a brain based activity. So you can't actually tell if someone is actually listening to you through the what she calls the 'non verbals'. So even if, for example, someone is leaning forward, nodding, smiling, making eye contact, actually, that doesn't mean they're listening to you. And the only way you can tell if someone is listening, is by how they speak, how they respond. Now, why that's important for account managers is the following. She said account managers particularly need to do a lot more listening than they do speaking. So being able to bite their tongue and allow the client to talk. And then doing those things like confirming, which is paraphrasing, and then asking if you're right. So she gave an example, if your client says something, rather than just going on to the next topic, you can say something like so if I heard you correctly, you said this, this and this. Did I get that right? So you're playing back what your client just said to you, or what you think your client just said to you. Because then it gives the client the opportunity to say, well, you almost have it right, but I forgot to say this, for example. And that really does happen quite a lot. Or they can just simply say yes, spot on. You've got it absolutely right. Which is always the ideal, obviously. But if you've paraphrased it wrong, and you've clarified it incorrectly, then that gives them the immediate opportunity to say, Oh, no, no, no, that's not what I meant. What I meant was this. So this is all really good tips for us, as account managers, to make sure that you are playing back to the client, what you believe you've heard that they've just said, because that's the only way we're going to be crystal clear about what the client said, because time is money. If we get that brief wrong, and we go away too quickly, and start working on a proposal that takes two weeks, then that's wasted effort, wasted time, because you don't want to go back to the client with your proposal and they say, well, that's not really what I wanted. So make sure you get super clear from the outset and play back to the client what you think you heard. Brilliant advice from Laura.

 

23:36

Tip number 10. And the final piece of advice was taken from Episode 25, 'How to use the power of surgical empathy with your clients', with Dr. Mark Goulston. This was a fascinating episode for me from someone that I've been following for years. He is just a fantastic fountain of knowledge. And he wrote one of his most popular books called 'Just Listen'. And he said that he uses acronyms in his book to make something easier to remember. And he says you want to be a PAL in conversations. And pal means purposeful, agendaless listening, purposeful, agendaless listening. He says one of the reasons people don't listen is because people have an agenda. So if you've got an agenda in your head, and you go into a meeting, you struggle to really listen, to be really present. And he believes that people are afraid to empathise, particularly in the business world. Because he says if I really find out where the other person's coming from, what's really important to them, what they care about what they really need, and it doesn't match what I'm selling, then I can't sell them what I have. And you know, it's an amazing way of looking at it because if we go in there thinking about what I want them to buy from me, then it clouds our conversation. We're not really listening authentically, and empathising, really openly. So, fantastic piece of advice, go into meetings, and really be present. Listen to what the client is actually telling you. Because like Relationship Audits and Management that go into client situations, they're listening for what's not being said. And often they say that the things that, you're reading between the lines of what the client is actually saying, and in order to do that, you have to stop thinking about your agenda, and be purposeful, agendaless, and listening. So using that acronym to really help you improve your listening skills. So I hope those 10 top tips were useful for you and served as a bit of a reminder for perhaps what you could be doing in your role as an account manager.

 

26:02

A quick reminder if you are interested in knowing who's coming up on the next podcast, and also listening and hearing new tips and advice for agency account managers, then come over to my website, accountmanagementskills.com and sign up for my newsletter. The newsletter goes out every week, or two weeks and I try to include as many tips as I can, new tips that I've learned through listening to someone on the podcast myself, or things that I'm reading and sharing. And also I can let you know forthcoming trainings. So until the next time, have a great week.