How to be a great account manager

I was recently asked to help a young account manager develop their own account management skills and rather than spend hours inflating my own ego about the capabilities I have and the behaviours I exhibit in being a good account manager, I chose to put my recent coaching expertise to good work.

We started our conversation, helping him understand for himself what was important about being a good account manager and what he thought a good account manager was. To help him, I asked some straightforward questions, to help focus his attention towards his particular area. It was during that part of the conversation that I saw a light bulb go on in his head - what he thought was a good account manager didn't tally with his buyer's idea of a good account manager or indeed what his boss or his managing director actually thought a good account manager would do.

So he committed to ask a colleague who once worked as a buyer for a large retailer in the UK what she thought it would take to be a good account manager. The answer he got from her was pretty simple in it's boldness - understand my business! The buyer had been targeted on profit, waste and sales in his overall category. She was also targeted on other small areas, but she thought they were particular to her and her category.

Now he had realised that he had been potentially annoying his buyer as he was always talking about his brands' performance and not on the category and not looking at wastage or profit for her. This was a pivotal moment for him as it brought into focus what he was potentially doing wrong and how he could change it to be compelling for his buyer. Despite being on courses before about account management, it was only now that he could see for himself what success looked like, rather than all those PowerPoint slides that told him what a great salesperson should focus on.

He than started to take the same approach for his boss and his Managing Director and came to the conclusion that their goals were not aligned, as the boss wanted to achieve his sales targets (volume only) with the least amount of effort and that the MD wanted to increase profit in the short term. He felt he was a bit of a piggy in the middle between the goals of the buyer, the boss and the MD's. He felt that he had to play them off against each other...

I reassured him that this was in essence "the game" that everybody played as all parties are fighting over the contents of the table and want their biggest cut of the contents. I asked him how he could win at this game and he started to think about what behaviours it would take to be a winner in this game.

After another session he developed his own list of behaviours he felt would meet the criteria of all parties (including himself) in being a good sales manager. We then went through each of them and the sub-components, scoring himself against his standard as we went. We then discussed how he could improve his score to become a better account manager. Was it better to focus on improving every criteria or to focus on key ones? If key ones, was it better to focus on improving the score from a 8 to a 9 of from a 4 to a 6? The answer to that question is his alone and differs with every criteria, as quite simply his success will only be down to what he has the appetite to improve.

We left with the next session being about constructing a good proposal to a buyer and also to prepare for the moves in the game, between the buyer, the boss, the MD and himself and I think that session will be equally interesting, if not more so, given the frameworks around proposals and negotiating we both have...

These sessions highlighted to me a few things...

Firstly, the power of self-discovery - when that moment of awareness by one's self clears up all confusing thoughts and allows one to focus on what needs to be done. Numerous courses or people telling you what to do won't help you gain insight or confidence about what needs to be done, only by understanding yourself will that discovery be gained. That sounds a bit zen like, but it is so true.

The second thing I noticed is that his confidence in himself increased dramatically. His behaviour started to change from being a person seeking permission for his every action, to taking the actions on for himself. In short he had gained a great deal more confidence to be self-autonomous and responsible for his own actions.

The third thing, I noticed was how much I enjoyed the sessions. It wasn't about me - funnily enough I could have told her all of what he discovered himself, and to tell him that would just be me boosting my ego (just as I'm doing now!). It was all about him. I felt honoured (and humbled) to be able to witness somebody be willing AND able to take their own development seriously and develop further than in any way I possibly could alone...

Up and down like a tart's nightie

As Big Chris says in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, "it's been emotional".

My confidence swings constantly on virtually everything, and I haven't even asked for money yet!!! I doubt I'm going to get more confident as things progress...


I've been mulling these business ideas over in my head for at least a year, and through this process of mulling, I've defined & refined the business models hundreds of times. Starting from pipe dreams where I was going to make more than the GDP of some nations, now to something far more realistic yet still audacious. Something I know can make money and something that can be built.


Yet the confidence levels dip & rise like swallows on a summer's eve, with some taking a lead while others thoughts will dart up and take me away from that thinking to another plain, problem or opportunity. It really is harem, scarem stuff


I think this is a really great idea and its actually not that difficult to implement, just will take some determination, some supportive partners, some cash & bit of luck. We don't need to find the holly grail, we just need to assemble the components that have been proven to work before in their individual parts. But then I think, "Well why hasn't somebody else done it?". It can't be that I am massively creative & talented. its too straightforward. But may be its straightforwardness has been missed by everybody else, who is too close to the action & too involved, protecting their own interests. Then I think, jeez, I must have missed something pretty substantial out in my thinking, that means it won't stack up. Arrggghhh! But what is it?! I don't know!!! Is that because I'm not an expert in this field?!! But then again, if I was an expert would I have seen the opportunity... now I'm getting trapped in a logic loop!!! ok... calm down... I can do this... its easy... I just have to bring together & unite a disparate group of suppliers & partners and make it work... I've done that before... but how do I stop any of them nicking the idea and going off on their own???? Arggghhhh... I just need to micro manage them, and pick my timing... I need help on this.... I can't do this impossible task on my own... well I can take it so far and then see what happens... but that is not the key to success - I need to be single minded & know what I'm doing. I am. I'm just not doing it - yet!


I know I have to get on with this, as the longer I leave it the more frustrated I may become, the less likely I will do to get on with it, and the more chance somebody else will do it instead of me - and HOW frustrating would that be?


I doubt my capabilities at times too - will I be able to recruit a great team of people around me? Could I persuade people I have worked for / with in the past to come & work for me, not challenge my authority and still make things happen? Have I got the key leadership skills? How will I handle things when I am under pressure?

So these are the emotions behind it all - pressure of time, pressure of a dream, pressure of making it happen, pressure of not appearing stupid, pressure of bringing people along in the journey. And its all ambigious at the moment, with nothing concrete. And that's what it takes to be a leader & an entrepreneur - to work the way through the ambiguity.

And I know all of this is normal... its what everybody experiences not just when they are starting their own business but also in many different adventures in life! So bring it on...