Being an Account Manager is an extremely rewarding job, but it is far from being an easy one. Here are our Top 5 Tips to help you stay on top of your game.
1. Build a comprehensive knowledge platform. Our tool, the 7 C’s of Knowledge is useful here. 7 things that you need to know about all beginning with C. For the Account Manager the 7 C’s are critically important:
Country: Keep up to date with the big changes in the commercial world around you, this will help you to plan better, handle objections and seek out the opportunities.
Company: Spend time seeking to understand how your own company works, who makes the decisions, and how all of the departments integrate together. As an Account Manager, half of your time will probably be spent influencing your colleagues in order to seize the opportunities. The more you can network internally to good effect, the better.
Customer: Internally you must be the ‘Customer Champion’, you must be the font of all knowledge on how this company works, what their aspirations are, and what their more immediate plans are. But in front of the customer too, you have to demonstrate an intimate knowledge of how the customer works. My challenge to any Account Manager is to know the customer better than your buyer does.
Competitor : A healthy knowledge and understanding of the competitor will help you handle objections, negotiate better, absorb the pressure of the role and to raise your own bar.
Channel: Be an expert in channel dynamics and knowledge. Take an active interest in becoming an expert in this, whether the channel is Retail, Food Service, Brokers, e-Commerce. Be the go to person for all info on the channel.
Category: You will probably have colleagues who work in the Category Management department, but don’t rely on them to do the whole job. Will they always be at your side when the Buyer floats that interesting question on Category dynamics across the desk? Keep up to date with what is going on in the category to allow you to grasp the opportunity or diminish the threat as soon as it is presented to you.
Consumer: The same goes for your consumer/shopper knowledge, don’t leave it all up to your marketing department. Take an active interest in the Consumer yourself.
2. Be Organised: The devil is in the detail, and there will be a lot of detail to manage. Don’t try to just commit things to memory, you will forget. Keep detailed notes of your meetings, emails, agreements, price files and opportunities. Even years after the event this detail can be very important in commercial deals.
3. Adopt a phenomenal work ethic: Yes of course have a good work life balance, that is extremely important, but when you are at work, work hard. The job is too important to wing it. Build your external and internal networks, get around your customers estate, keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening.
4. Sharpen your Skill Set: Ensure you constantly update your skills, particularly your influencing/selling skills and your negotiation skills. When was the last time you had some formal / refresher training on this? The best Account Managers practice these important skills diligently and frequently.
5. Conduct yourself professionally: Be balanced in your judgement, listen and think before you speak, be mindful of your body language particularly during times of stress or negotiation. Deliver the principles and values set by your company.
Let us know what you think of our Top 5 List
