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!

Author
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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.