This series of articles looks at the world of the account manager.
This time we talk to Elise Bennett, Head of Account Management (APAC) at Outbrain.
How did you end up account management? Was it by design or a cosmic accident?
I have always worked in customer-facing roles throughout my career, although I didn’t plan to work in account management. My university education was in public relations, however while looking for my first job post-study, I stumbled into the world of media and advertising.
Through a friend-of-a-friend, I landed my first job at a media agency. The role was a nice mix of being customer-facing in combination with learning about media strategy and planning, with my foundation always being set on executing on behalf of a customer and their business. So it ended up being a good balance of honing a new skillset as well as building my interest in a new and exciting industry.
Balancing clients’ objectives and creative vision can be challenging. How do you deal with that?
For me, the objective always comes first – as in, what is defining success, and what outcome does the client ultimately need to deliver? Once this is clear, you can build the creative strategy and vision with this objective in mind, as creative assets are super important to speak to the client's target audience.
What strategies do you employ to clearly convey ideas to clients and address client feedback?
The most important strategy is ensuring, where possible, that every idea, strategy or recommendation is backed by data. This is crucial to influence decision making and gives more weight to feedback, as you’re backing it up with facts rather than opinion.
You can shape your ideas from the data, allowing you to portray a more compelling story or argument for your project or even just to help manage client feedback.
How to build strong relationships with clients?
Delivering on your clients goals and providing them with high campaign performance is always the most important piece. That being said, trust and transparency are key. Once this foundation is built, you can develop a strong rapport and relationship with the client.
But beyond that, I believe one of the most important elements is to genuinely care and show an interest in the client’s business and challenges, rather than talking about your own company and products first. It’s very important to listen and ask questions so you truly understand your client’s needs.
Do you have any go-to tips for navigating challenging conversations with clients? And effectively selling an idea.
I always lead each scenario with empathy so I can put myself in the client’s shoes to understand where the frustration or challenge stems from. It helps me to not be reactive, and rather able to brainstorm and work through a solution that is ideally amicable.
Are there any emerging trends or challenges in the industry that account management teams should be prepared for?
This speaks to a challenge rather than an emerging trend - not taking for granted your usual client book of business and activity.
Our industry is fast-paced and changes very quickly - you can’t assume that your client’s budgets and ‘business as usual’ is exempt from this. We need to be deeply-embedded into their businesses, beyond the activity or campaigns they run on your platform/service.
All account managers need to ask ourselves if we know our clients and their business deeply and, if we don’t, we need to proactively fill any gaps we’ve identified. Otherwise, we put ourselves at risk of not being a crucial/non-negotiable/must-work-with partner for them.
What advice would you give your younger self when you first started out in account service?
Ask as many questions as possible, and don’t be shy! In the early days of someone’s career, there is so much to learn and absorb, but you can feel that you may waste people’s time by being curious and asking questions.
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