Top 5 Skills for Account Managers
Account managers are found across all industries, from tech, to finance, government, and retail. But what skills make a successful account manager?
This blog post will tell you 5 top skills, but first… Let’s get some background knowledge on the role.
A large aspect of being an account manager is keeping customers happy by developing strong, lasting relationships so they continue business with your company.
Account management can be a rewarding career path with the opportunity to make a good income. In the US, the average salary for an account manager is $79,354.
The good thing about being an account manager is that you can find entry to mid-level jobs to start out, often with opportunities for growth potential.
And so… Let’s get into it!
Here are five of the top skills every successful account manager has:
1. Listening Skills
Part of keeping your clients happy is making sure they’re being heard. This is where strong listening skills come into play.
Whether you’re meeting your client for a casual check-in or conducting a formal business review, it’s important to hear and listen to the questions or concerns in great detail.
Through comprehensive listening, you will be able to better problem-solve anything that gets thrown at you.
If you have strong listening skills already – that’s great! But remembering all the little details your client says is another thing.
Tip: Always have a notebook and pen ready so you can quickly write down any important meeting notes that you listen to and hear.
2. Socializing Skills
Account managers spend a lot of their day communicating with clients. They need to take client information and feedback from clients and communicate that information properly to internal departments, such as your boss or supervisor, other account managers, sales, IT, accounting, and more.
Practicing your communication skills is very important so you can come off looking and sounding as sharp as possible!
Tip: If you want to practice socializing skills even more, try giving yourself a speech or pep talk in the mirror every night before bed. There are also many courses that exist on speech that could be helpful as well.
3. Multi-Task Skills
Account managers perform a wide range of tasks and duties on day-to-day. Account manager tasks are going to vary from company to company, especially depending on what industry you’re in.
Though tasks do vary in account management, you are not likely to be doing the same work items every single day. The role is a lot more dynamic, and may probably evolve over time as well.
Some of the day-to-day multitasking I complete on the job includes meeting up with customers via Zoom, signing renewals, conducting group training, reporting bugs in our software to our development team, and more.
Tip: To stay on top of all your duties, try using a daily planner to ensure you don’t forget a step in the shuffle.
4. Presenting Skills
Once again, account manager positions do vary from company to company. Regardless, having strong presentation skills is an asset in being a successful account manager.
Each meeting with an existing client can be looked at as a presentation. How did you get your message get across? Was it clear? Did you present the information confidently?
Presentations do not have to be formal demonstrations or extravagant sales pitches, but instead, your day-to-day Zoom meeting or follow-up call you make to a client.
A good presentation will allow you to build a strong and appealing reputation that serves you beneficially on both external and internal levels.
Tip: Ask someone close to you whether you can do a mock phone call or presentation. The only way you’ll get better at presenting is through practice.
My company makes us do mock presentations to make sure our product knowledge is up to par, and see where there are areas that we can improve on. All feedback should be constructive.
5. Organizational Skills
Your day-to-day responsibilities add up fast, and without having processes for proper organization, it will make the role more difficult.
Try coming out with organizational processes that will help you succeed. This may be in having daily to-do lists prepared the day before, sorting all documents in the correct folders on your computer, creating email draft templates to save you time, and so forth.
Tip: On top of using a daily planner, make sure to use daily and weekly to-do lists as well. You can set up automated tasks and alerts through your Outlook calendar or the company’s CRM software to stay on top of all the most important items.