As an account manager, your success hinges on blending impeccable customer service with genuine interpersonal connections. Strive to deliver responsive, immediate service that underscores your commitment and trustworthiness, ensuring clients feel valued and prioritized. Develop relationships swiftly by showing genuine interest and empathy towards your clients, adapting your communication style to match their personal and business needs. Understanding whether a client is data-driven or relationship-driven will enable you to tailor your interactions and address their specific motivations effectively.
Emphasize a positive attitude and maintain a confident, friendly tone, especially when navigating setbacks or new strategies. Regularly review recorded calls to refine your communication skills and reduce any verbal fillers or negative speech patterns. Meticulous note-taking will not only boost your organizational skills but also build trust and credibility with your clients.
Action is key; avoid procrastination to make clients feel important and attended to. Develop comprehensive, proactive action plans and communicate these plans clearly, reinforcing your commitment to their goals. Stay adaptable, ready to pivot strategies as needed while holding firm in negotiations to demonstrate strength and reliability.
Above all, maintain a mindset geared towards continual learning and improvement. Engage with influential readings to enhance your understanding of human psychology and effective communication. This proactive, client-centered approach will ensure sustained success and growth in your role as an account manager.
----------------------------------------------------------------
This doesn’t mean the customer is always right or that you can’t say “no”
It means you’re responsive, you act immediately, you make them feel important & you’ve earned their trust
Build a friendship as quickly as possible - make yourself human & make sure your clients KNOW you care about them (on a personal level too!)
Be a chameleon. Change the way you talk to each client. Is your client a stay-at-home mom who makes her own doggie fashion? Are they a client who sells adult diapers? Find a way to relate to that & be excited about them and about their business.
Data-driven and Relationship-driven
While not always the case, generally men are more data-driven and women are more relationship-driven
Whatever the case, figure out their motivations and speak to those
Understand that your clients have passion and sometimes that comes out as anger, sadness, etc. Feel compassion towards their situation and approach your answers from that angle.
Always try to appear like-minded so they feel they’re being heard.
They need to feel like you are on their side and have their best interests at heart.
Say you convince a client to give you $1000 to run a test on Facebook and it doesn’t pan out. Naturally you’ll be nervous to tell the client - don’t be. Testing new avenues is a good thing! It’s progress, even if it isn’t always positive.
Have a positive attitude when you explain things to your client and they’ll be more inclined to follow you than if you act like you did something bad.
Speak in a friendly tone at all times but speak deliberately and confidently.
Your calls are recorded. Download your calls from time to time & listen to yourself. There’s no better training tool than hearing how you sound as an outsider to the conversation.
Take note of what words you overuse - do you say “umm” a lot? Are you talking to fast? Are you interrupting? Do you say “I’m sorry” repeatedly?
You will give yourself an outstanding amount of power & leverage when you are able to consistently reference notes.
It’s the fastest way to gain trust & respect from clients.
Clients will lie less to you & will feel comfortable following you because they know they can count on you.
People’s satisfaction level goes up the less time it takes you to take an action.
The longer you wait to take action, the less important the client feels.
This doesn’t mean you have to do EVERYTHING immediately after a phone call - but writing an Action Item list for you and your client during your call, then marking a few quick tasks off the list before you send it shows how important the client is to you.
Earn their trust - even when it doesn’t seem like it will benefit you (even more so in these instances)
Don’t wing it - they need to feel like they’re in good hands.
Do your research, plan ahead for meetings, come up with an action plan before every call, follow up every call with an email with your agreed upon action plan.
This will also reduce the amount of calls you need to have because clients will feel that you have things under control & they can rely on you.
Always have a game plan - no matter how long you’ve had the client
Have a long-term client that loves you so you put them on the bottom of your todo list and just keep pushing it back?
Don’t get into this habit - if they’re not talking to you, they’re talking to someone else! This is how you lose your best road base clients!
Otherwise they’ll assume you’re doing nothing and they could do better.
Always remind them of their goals and show them the progress towards that.
Don’t just have “A” plan, have a bigger plan too - give yourself milestones to accomplish small steps towards a larger goal.
Always have an answer, a solution or a plan of action on where to go next.
If something isn’t working, try something new - convince them to try a new platform, new targeting, etc.
It’s uncomfortable for everyone when there’s discontent.
Learn to be comfortable with it and you will win more arguments/negotiations
If you’re always willing to compromise immediately, they will learn that and expect it every time.
Any positive or negative expectation about circumstances, events, or people will affect your behavior in a manner that causes those expectations to be fulfilled.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” - Henry Ford
“Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out.” - John Wooden
You put off the work until the day of your follow up meeting
Expecting a client to fail because of a specific budget or industry or even a conversation you’ve had with them.
Using words like “I don’t have a choice, I don’t have enough time, I have to, I can’t” - those are almost always excuses and will usually lead to some sort of failure
Achieving good client retention means continual growth. If you’re comfortable, you’re not growing.
Knowing how people operate any why people do / say certain things will help you resolve issues faster, speak to what motivates people & keep clients longer.
How to Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie
The Power of Habit (Why We Do What We Do), Charles Duhigg
Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
I’m Ok, You’re Ok, Thomas A. Harris
Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey
The Greatest Salesman in the World, Og Mandino
Basically anything from John C. Maxwell
Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales
The Psychology of Persuasion, Kevin Hogan
Sales Acceleration Formula, Mark Roberge
