How to hire Account Managers

This article will guide you through everything you need to know about hiring Account Managers. There are several other titles for Account Managers, including: Client Services Manager, Customer Success Manager, Strategic Accounts Manager, Account Development Manager, Key Accounts Manager.

The key responsibilities of Account Managers

The responsibilities of an account manager are to oversee and manage client accounts. This includes maintaining relationships with clients, ensuring that their needs are met, and managing account teams. Account managers must be able to effectively communicate with clients and team members, as well as have strong organizational skills. They must also be able to troubleshoot and problem-solve when issues arise.

Essential tasks of an Account Manager

These are some essential tasks that Account Managers often tackle in their day-to-day work:

• Managing client relationships
• Meeting with clients to discuss their needs and objectives
• Developing customized marketing plans for clients
• Coordinating with other departments to execute client campaigns
• Measuring and reporting on the results of client campaigns

Expert advice on hiring Account Managers

These signals will help you decide whether a candidate is suitable for the job:

• Proactivity can be a huge advantage for an account manager. Proactivity is the process of anticipating opportunities and problems and acting on them before they occur. A proactive account manager can take initiative to research account history and get quotes for orders before being asked. Writing emails on their own initiative, making suggestions and solving problems rather than waiting for them to escalate are all useful traits for dealing with clients and promote valuable relationship building.
• A good account manager is able to build and maintain relationships with clients. Great account managers have a great ability to “size up” customers and get to know them at a personal level. Building real connections and relationships with customers converts brings loyalty, longer jobs and greater satisfaction among customers—all of which will yield happy customers and big referrals.
• A good account manager is able to effectively manage their time and prioritize their tasks. Being mindful with time management is also a valuable investment to make in the account management. An effect account manager will have successful results with their time management, be time efficient and have control in their sales.
• A good account manager is able to effectively solve problems and manage client expectations. Making the client happy will lead referrals and goodwill because the customer will want to buy from an effective salesman who made their experience enjoyable. For any job, problem solving is becoming more in-demand.
• A good account manager is able to provide accurate and timely reporting to their manager. Reporting is such an essential element of their account manager positions because they are the spearheads of customer feedback. For Sales and Business Development managers, the reports and feedback from any customer facing staff is valuable to help further improve their products and customer service

Interview questions for Account Managers

These questions will help you find the right candidate for this position:

1. What experience do you have with managing accounts? Having a conversational answer to why an candidate is responsible will gives the interviewer a fundamental understanding of what they do at work.
2. How well do you handle customer complaints and feedback? Being an effective communicator will help an account manager with approaching clients or other individuals and persuading them to take certain actions, or to maintain valued business on behalf of their employer.
3. What strategies do you use to keep clients happy and prevent them from leaving for competitor? An outline of a possible strategy that an candidate has thought out is the goal here.
4. How do you handle difficult clients? An employer has a clear perspective of how they think the interviewee is suited to handle this situation and they can prove it through their explanation.
5. Can you give me an example of a difficult situation you faced with an account, and how you resolved it? The solution to a problem or conflict provides the interview with a great idea on how the interviewee truly sees themselves and other coworkers in the workplace.

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For more information on hiring Account Managers, take a look at our expert-crafted job description.