• Services
      • Customer
        Strategy
      • B2B Customer Strategy
      • B2B Relationship Survey
      • Customer Segmentation
      • Organisational
        Performance
      • AMPLIFY – Account Management Programme
      • Training and Development
      • Trust Capability Builder
  • Knowledge Centre
      • Blog
      • Publications
      • News
      • Insight Webcasts
  • Who we work for
  • Who we are
      • Our People
      • Partners
  • Contact us
  • Menu Menu
You are here: Home1 / Customer Strategy2 / Sales and Account Management3 / Top 4 behaviours of successful Account Managers that sets them apart.

Top 4 behaviours of successful Account Managers that sets them apart.

June 19, 2024/in Sales and Account Management /by Alan Thompson
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email

What behaviours do successful account managers have that sets them apart?

We were asked this question by an attendee at the outset of a sales and account management development programme we were running last year. It is a great question – so our team put our heads together and thought about the highly successful account managers that we have worked with over the years and what they do that made them really stand out.

In this blog, Alan Thompson, Head of People Capabilities, has summarised some of the key things his team has identified – but we want to know what else you have seen in great account managers that you have worked with. Share your thoughts with us!

If you are an Account Manager who is keen to identify where you are doing well and where you could focus more attention to develop further – we have developed a self-assessment scorecard that you can download from our website. Scroll down to download the scorecard.

Top 4 behaviours of successful account managers

As you can imagine there was a fairly long list of attributes, and we have distilled these down into our top 4 behaviours:

1. Account managers focus on people

This is pretty obvious given the critical role that an account manager has which is to build and develop great relationships. Expanding on this, what makes some of these successful account managers stand out is how well they knew ALL of their key stakeholders both at their client’s business and those in their own business who they can draw on when needed to make things happen. Not only do they know them, they stay close to them; they make sure they meet regularly; and they have a good balance of business and social interactions.

They take the time to really get to know the person – not just where they live and what interests they have, etc, but they develop a deep understanding of their values, beliefs, and motivations. To do this they needed to ask the right questions and crucially be a really good listener. This deep understanding and empathy, helps them become someone that their client can trust and confide in about their business challenges.

2. Account managers look at the bigger picture

Looking back, another feature that is consistent across all of the successful account managers we considered is how well they understood the client’s whole business – not just the bit they were interested in.

They took the time to understand how it works, how the various departments, functions, teams etc., hang together.

  • They make sure they understand what their client’s business goals are – long term and short term,
  • They can articulate them like they work there themselves and know what the real priorities are.

This understanding of priorities extends to:

  • the things the business is doing to achieve their goals
  • what opportunities exists
  • the challenges they face

Many good account managers do this, but the really good ones we considered also invest in understanding the outside context for their clients – the market in which they operate, the trends, the likely future landscape, economic factors as well as social, political, environmental etc.

They look at the bigger picture of what is likely to affect the business and its performance.

They have the ability to make connections between the two, to develop their own interpretation of their business context and use this as a focal point for their strategic conversations.

3. Account managers create a plan and deliver it with the customer

It would be a surprise if any good account manager didn’t have a plan but the successful account managers build a plan WITH the customer, not FOR them – and they don’t see account planning as a tick box, once a year job that has to be done that doesn’t actually drive any action.

They co-create plans that are ambitious, stretching, and transformative perhaps. It helps the customer develop excellence in their business; and to help the customer exploit their opportunities and overcome their challenges;  and the higher the value of the client the more stretching and ambitious the plan is.

The account manager owns the plan and uses the strength of both teams to make it happen. The successful account managers connect different parts of the plan between the external and internal stakeholders, both in joining up the things that need to happen as well as the people who would make those things happen.

4. Account managers have ‘presence’

This perhaps is a vital component of successful account managers, and something a little harder to define or put in a tightly defined box. But we think it is best summed up as ‘presence’. It’s almost impossible to measure but you know it when you see it.

All successful account managers have the ability to:

  • walk through their customer’s office and talk to (within reason) almost anyone and instantly know who they are.
  • be able to relate to them on a personal level.
  • know and comment on something that person has done and achieved that supports delivery of the plan.

That recognition is so valuable you can’t put a price on it.

In turn you can see the account manager has the respect of that other person. Their abilities combined with presence,  developed trust, built loyalty and commitment; and on so many occasions it got others going above and beyond to support the account manager.

Do you or your team have the behaviours of successful account managers?

We have used this thinking and reflection to create a self-assessment scorecard that you can use to see how you think you stack up against some of these attributes that we have seen in successful account Managers over the years.

And if you are the leader of a team of account managers and would like to help them develop to become one of these greats, our new AMPLIFY Sales and Account Management programme is designed to do exactly that – uplift the skills of your teams to enable them to be the builder of great relationships that realise mutual value for your business and your clients.

Would you add anything to this list – what one or two attributes of a great account manager you have worked with? 

Share your thoughts with us!

Please get in touch to discuss how we can help you unlock your account managers full potential and drive exceptional results in account management.

Fill in the form below to download the Account Manager Self-Assessment Scorecard here. It’s free!

 

    Your Name (required)

    Company

    Your Email (required)

    • Author
    • Recent Posts
    Alan Thompson
    Alan Thompson
    Director & Head of People Capability at Customer Attuned Ltd
    Alan has an in-depth knowledge of capability development with extensive experience of designing and delivering blended training solutions for clients across several industries, making use of online, virtual and traditional classroom training methods.

    Alan is a very engaging classroom tutor, and has enjoyed working with a variety of global clients over the past few years to deliver highly successful people development programmes.
    Alan Thompson
    Latest posts by Alan Thompson (see all)
    • It Takes Two To Tango - May 20, 2025
    • Leveraging MBTI to build successful B2B relationships - October 25, 2024
    • Making MBTI Work For Sales Teams - September 25, 2024
    Tags: Account management skills, Account manager scorecard, behaviours of good account managers, Sales and Account Management
    Share this entry
    • Share on Facebook
    • Share on Twitter
    • Share on WhatsApp
    • Share on LinkedIn
    • Share on Reddit
    • Share by Mail
    https://customerattuned.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Top-4-Beaviours-of-Successful-Account-Managers.png 1260 2240 Alan Thompson http://customerattuned.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/logo-1.svg Alan Thompson2024-06-19 07:10:062024-06-18 14:17:29Top 4 behaviours of successful Account Managers that sets them apart.
    You might also like
    The importance of leaders supporting the development of sales and account management teams
    Discover the Power of SDI in B2B Sales
    Leveraging MBTI to build successful B2B relationships
    When coaching can enhance sales training and development
    Senior business leaders meet around a table to discuss "Entrepreneurialism in B2B Sales", hosted by Customer AttunedEntrepreneurialism in B2B sales
    Stop hiding behind your computer and get out to see your customers!

    Customer Centricity Loop


    Customer Attuned builds a culture of customer centricity based on B2B Trust so that sustainable, mutually beneficial and profitable relationships are maintained.

    These service areas are interdependent: improve your Customer Strategy and your Organisational Performance improves, improve your Organisational Performance, and watch how Customer Strategy goals are met.

    View Full Model

    Other posts in ‘Sales and Account Management’

    • Entrepreneurialism in B2B sales
    • Leveraging MBTI to build successful B2B relationships
    • Making MBTI Work For Sales Teams
    • Discover the Power of SDI in B2B Sales
    • The importance of leaders supporting the development of sales and account management teams

    or select a new blog category to view

     

     

     

    building a culture of customer centricity based on B2B Trust

    Let‘s chat!

    © Copyright Customer Attuned, All rights reserved 2025    |    Website by ZeroDotNine
    By using this website you consent to our use of cookies, for further information please refer to our privacy policy.
    • Privacy Policy
    The B2B Customer Segmentation Canvas for Marketers
    Featured Video Play Icon
    Customer Centricity Corner with Peter Lavers – Partner Relationship Surve...
    Scroll to top

    Customer Attuned uses industry-standard cookies on this website to monitor and continually improve your experience of it. You can read more about our use of this information and any personal information that you submit on our Privacy Policy. Use of this website demonstrates agreement with this policy.

    Accept settingsHide notification onlySettings

    We respect your privacy rights



    How we use cookies

    Customer Attuned uses industry-standard cookies on this website to monitor and continually improve your experience of it. You can read more about our use of this information and any personal information that you submit on our Privacy Policy. Use of this website demonstrates agreement with this policy.

    I have read and agree with the Privacy Policy

    Essential Website Cookies

    These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

    Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

    We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

    We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

    Google Analytics Cookies

    These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

    If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

    Other external services

    We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

    Google Webfont Settings:

    Google Map Settings:

    Google reCaptcha Settings:

    Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

    Privacy Policy

    You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

    Privacy Policy
    Accept settingsHide notification only