Successful business is all about relationships. Building relationships with partners, suppliers and most of all customers. The role of account manager plays a vital part in this. They are the link between your customer and your business, the person there to advise, appease and aid the customer in their dealings with you. Account managers are indispensable to generate good client relationships. Here we outline some of their responsibilities and why their role is so important.
What is Account Management?
Account management is the role that follows the sales process. After a customer has bought from a business their management is transferred from sales to account management. Account managers have two main roles – to retain the customer and to grow opportunities within that relationship.
Unlike sales, which is a short-term transactional relationship, account management focuses on the long-term nurturing relationship between the client and the business. The account manager needs to understand the client’s needs in order to fulfil them and maintain the relationship. In other words their purpose is to keep the client happy.
They will be the client’s main point of contact with the business. It is their job to liaise with product managers, sales, marketing and customer service to undertake the needs of the client.
What Skills do you Need to Become an Account Manager?
Account management combines the skills of sales, customer service and relationship management. Having a good understanding of the customer is important, as is knowing your own business thoroughly. Strong interpersonal skills are vital to maintain a good relationship with the client. An account manager also needs to be focused, articulate, organised and calm under pressure. Good communication skills are important too.
An account manager is really the face of the company, so being able to conduct themselves in a manner appropriate to the business is important. They are the primary contact for the customer. Confidence and good written and verbal skills are all important. Whilst not primarily sales, the account manager needs to possess some aptitude for it in order to grow the customer relationship. The ability to negotiate and deal with multiple requirements and stakeholders is vital, so getting on with different types of people is important.
The importance of Account Management
Robust account management brings the following benefits to a business:
Customer Retention
It is much cheaper to retain a customer than to get a new one, so maintaining the relationships with your existing customers is very important. Long-term clients will often buy more from a company over time. In fact research shows it costs five times more to attract a new customer than it does to retain one, and increasing customer retention by just 5% leads to a 25% to 95% increase in profit.
Account managers are at the forefront of customer retention. They are the ones who deal directly with customers and solve any problems. Companies looking to improve their customer retention need to have strong account managers.
Improved Word-of-Mouth
The customer may also refer others to you, and word-of-mouth is a powerful sales tool. 64% of marketers agree that word-of-mouth is the most effective form of marketing. People value the opinions of associates that they trust so getting a recommendation from a client will really help your business.
Revenue Growth
Customers who are well looked-after are more likely to buy more from you. Therefore good account management can grow your revenue as they upsell and cross-sell further products and services to clients.
Better Customer Service
Good account management will provide customers with a better experience. Having one person who they can go to for any issue will make things easier for them, they won’t have to seek out the right person for the problem, that will be the job of the account manager.
Better Performance
By satisfying customers and selling them further products you can improve your performance against key performance measures which may bolster the success of your business.
Modular Exhibition Stand Contractor Quadrant2Design have really noticed the difference since they brought in account managers. MD Alan Jenkins said “Our customer satisfaction, repeat orders and retention have all increased. We are proud to have some excellent account managers who fulfil all our clients’ needs. Happy customers mean repeat customers, so it has been great for revenue generation.”
Conclusion
Having dedicated people to manage your clients’ needs brings many benefits to a business. Customer satisfaction will improve which means better retention, more revenue generation, growth and a better performing business as a whole.