How to become an Account Manager

An account manager looks after a company’s customers. They work with a business’s clients on an individual basis to ensure that the company is consistently meeting their needs and goals; while at the same time looking for relevant sales opportunities.

Being an account manager is customer-centric. These employees will have long-term business relationships with their clients, and will know each individual client’s needs and goals very well. They will act as the ‘face’ of the business for customers, being their first point of contact. The aim for account managers is to keep clients with their company for as long as possible; reselling and upselling when possible. 

Depending on the size of the company and the level of customer interaction, account managers could look after one to hundreds of clients simultaneously. While there is some crossover with sales, it is actually a post-sales role; although account managers do often have sales targets for upsells or resells, and are often rewarded with commission for sales.

Typical account manager tasks include working with clients’ needs and goals and constantly demonstrating how the company can help them meet these, recording client transactions and budgeting and making presentations and pitches with the sales and marketing team.

The best account manager skills are being great at socialising and having the ability to listen to their client’s needs. They must know their company inside out and keep on track with the latest trends, so they can keep their clients updated with any relevant news about the company and match them to suitable campaigns. It’s also important for account managers to be flexible; they need to be available when the customer needs them so could often find themselves working evenings and weekends. 

Tertiary education is essential for most people who are becoming an account manager. Public relations, advertising, marketing or communications are ideal degrees – however most vacancies will accept graduates with relevant experience. After graduating, many people will take an internship to get started with this role, or build up marketing and sales experience. Creating a personal portfolio can also help with landing account manager jobs; this could be a website or a strong social media account.