Account management is a dynamic career of developing and nurturing relationships with clients for company prospects. To become an accountant manager, your duties include ensuring client satisfaction by promoting the services of the company and retaining the client.

Account managers work in any kind of company, from marketing and advertising agencies to tech and finance firms. They support businesses in flourishing by cultivating long-term partnerships with clients and creating a positive client experience.

What Are the Main Types of Account Managers? 

Sales Account Managers

Role and Key Responsibilities:

Sales account managers are responsible for increasing revenue by managing and growing client accounts. They identify potential sales opportunities and work hard to upsell or cross-sell different products or services to existing clients. 

A strong personal relationship helps sales account managers get to know their clients well. Moreover, they need to allocate a lot of time to work with customers and develop a strategic method to build a lasting partnership with those who show interest in purchasing their products.

Firstly, salespeople maintain good communication with potential clients to figure out what they require and submit suitable plans or valuable suggestions. As a result, sales account managers have more chances to attract new customers and get some rewards.

Secondly, strong personal relationships serve as a foundation for sales agents to present clients with their company’s products. From time to time, they need to consult their clients about the latest products and create more strategies to increase orders from existing customers. This helps to strengthen the relationship between the two sides and bring significant contributions to their business.

Overall, a good relationship between business members and clients allows them to earn higher incomes and maintain a stable position in the market. It also helps to build up a long-lasting working relationship with current customers.

Sales account managers need to get their sales requirements accomplished and fulfilled.

They have to observe their progress and produce status sales reports and strategies to achieve their sales targets.

Dealing with contracts and finalizing commitments are among the main priorities. Sales account managers should be very good at negotiating agreements to achieve the best outcomes for the customer and the company. 

They work with internal stakeholders, such as marketing or product development teams, to ensure that the client’s needs are met appropriately and that the company can provide good service.

Client Services Account Managers

Role and Key Responsibilities:

A client service account manager will work with you to ensure that the work you need done is performed completely and delivered on time. Our client services account managers are dedicated to maintaining and enhancing client relationships by providing exceptional service and support. They are your primary point of contact, available to address your concerns or resolve any issues you may encounter.

They are also careful to manage expectations, clarifying with clients upfront what types of services they offer and how they might be able to help. I obviously can see if someone thinks that because they didn’t go as far as law school, they are dumber than all of the lawyers, which I simply don’t think is the truth at all. I set up weekly check-ins and try to keep in regular contact with my clients just to assess progress and to make sure we can continue the process.

You are in charge of looking after multiple clients’ accounts and are subsequently responsible for liaising between them and internal teams to make sure that what you have promised has been delivered satisfactorily, often as per projectwise implementation.

A further aspect of this type of work is that client service agents also collate and discuss the findings from customer feedback to improve services. They can use this information to advise on how to improve processes and increase customer satisfaction. 

Long-term relationships are central. They aim to serve clients well enough that they become consistent buyers and receive excellent customer service, which can increase client loyalty and referrals.

Digital Account Managers

Role and Key Responsibilities:

What do digital account managers do? They manage clients’ digital marketing campaigns and strategies, which include overseeing SEO, PPC, social media marketing, and email campaigns to make sure clients achieve their online marketing objectives.

They measure the performance of digital marketing campaigns through the evaluation of metrics and data. The information collected by digital account managers is used to enhance campaigns and generate reports for their clients. 

Understanding the latest trends in digital marketing is crucial, and to keep up with competitors, digital account managers should be on top of the latest technological and digital marketing tribulations and trends. This way, they can provide innovative solutions for the client.

They would work with clients to determine a digital strategy in line with their business goals; for instance, if they wanted to increase brand awareness and generate leads, they’d create social media, SEO, and paid campaigns with concrete KPIs (for example, a number they needed to reach by the end of the same quarter).

There is a need to work with creative and technical teams. Digital account managers make sure that the different elements of the digital marketing campaign are executed properly and successfully.

Technical Account Managers

Role and Key Responsibilities:

Technical account managers are intermediaries between clients and a technical team inside the company. They deliver technical support by being the direct point of contact for clients and checking what technical needs they have.

They know in depth about the company’s products or services and how to tailor them to client needs. Speaking involves giving technical advice.

Technical account managers help implement and integrate the technical solution while assisting clients when they come onto the platform.

They handle technical requests such as troubleshooting issues that clients have, which also calls for good problem-solving ability and the capacity to explain technical details using non-technical terms.

There is also a need for constant support and maintenance. Technical account managers exist to ensure that clients receive software updates promptly while responding to potential technical bugs so that client satisfaction is not affected.

They also collect customer feedback to help the company improve their products or services. This feedback then goes back to the development or product teams, who build off of it in future iterations of improvements and innovation.

What Does an Account Manager Do?

Building and Maintaining Client Relationships 

The champions of accounts are called account managers, who are responsible for establishing financial and personal connections with clients. It is the account manager who acts as the key point of contact with the client, who acts as a personal assistant, and who establishes lines of communication with the client.

Account managers can be compared to one leg of the friendship, which means it is their priority to ensure that the clients feel heard and important, as well as to coordinate all aspects of the client-company relationship. To do this, account managers must be proactive in updating themselves about current client issues and concerns.

Keeping up these relationships is a matter of dropping notes, answering questions from clients, communicating about bank activities, or, summed up in more human terms, building rapport and being trustworthy so that help is there when it’s needed. Account managers must also know enough about their clients to suggest new products. 

Good client relationship building results in happy clients who are therefore more likely to stay with you for the long term and to buy other products or services that might be of interest.

Developing and Executing Account Strategies

Account managers establish strategic account plans and guide clients towards accomplishing those plans. If you are involved in account management, your main objective is to understand the business of your client and the potential within it, and to design action plans that achieve ultimate success for both sides.

They take briefs from clients about their goals and specify quantifiable objectives and timetables to track account activity. Because the work sometimes progresses on a long-term basis, strategic planning is key to making sure it’s still in line with what the client is trying to achieve for their business. 

Implementing these strategies requires close client and internal team collaboration; account managers track and adjust plans and track deliverables on time and within budget.

Managing Client Expectations and Delivering Solutions

Maintaining good relationships with clients also involves managing expectations. Account managers usually communicate clearly to clients about what our products or services can and cannot accomplish and make sure that promises we can fulfill are realistic and achievable.

Their ultimate responsibility is to deliver what a client needs and expects, or, better yet, to figure out what a client needs, propose the appropriate solution, and then actually deliver what was sold. 

And when problems do arise, they can be dealt with fast and in a courteous manner—yes, that includes issues with your internet going down or not getting tech support.

Coordinating with Internal Teams to Fulfill Client Needs

Account managers, acting as a buffer, make sure the client is served by sales, marketing, product development, and customer support departments, all of which have to work together to make sure the client is happy.

Good coordination entails good communication and cooperation. Account managers communicate client briefs with internal teams and make sure everyone understands what their roles are within a certain project.

In addition to managing people’s interactions, by coordinating the work on a project and ensuring deliverables make it out the door on time and serve the client well, account managers make it all go more smoothly.

Monitoring Account Performance and Providing Reports

Account managers are required to constantly evaluate the performance of their accounts. An important part of this task is the tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to help them determine if the account is reaching its objectives.

Armed with such data, account managers would be better positioned to spot trends, measure success, diagnose why certain products are failing, and determine whether different marketing approaches should be implemented.

During an appointment with a client, account managers need to send a regular report to the client manager. A regular report would be important to let a client look over the performance of a company. This process would increase transparency and accountability.

I will mention some parts of a detailed report. It is a summary of how performance has gone so far; the account manager will point out three sections. The first is a specification of a project for a client; the next is the progress of a goal; and the last is insights and recommendations for the next steps.

Average Account Manager Salary

Salary Ranges Based on Experience and Location

Account managers’ salaries depend on experience, location, and industry. A junior account manager will typically earn from £25,000 to £35,000 in the UK. With a couple of years of experience, you may move into the mid-level band to earn from £35,000 to £50,000 a year. As you gain more experience, you can move into a senior account manager role and, in some examples, a specialist or leadership role. You could be looking at earning up to £50,000 to £70,000 and above. 

In the US, entry-level account managers make between approximately $45,000 and $60,000 a year, mid-level account managers with several years of experience make between $60,000 and $80,000 a year, and senior account managers and those in specialized fields can make $80,000 to $110,000 plus.

Comparison of Salaries in Different Regions

Account manager salaries differ across regions. and that is different in the UK account managers in London and the Southeast; their salaries are different compared with other regions because the other regions live below standard, and there is low demand for highly skilled people, so that is the reason the workers from London get £5000 to £10 000 extra they get in a year. 

Account managers based in California, New York, and Massachusetts may earn more than those located in states with lower costs of living, such as Texas or Florida. For example, account managers who are based in San Francisco or New York City could earn much more due to the higher demand for their skill set in these metropolises.

Factors Influencing Account Manager Salaries

Several factors can influence the salaries of account managers, including:

• Experience: Experience is an important simulation. Because low-level account managers are usually lower-level than high-level account managers, top-class salaries can be obtained by experienced account managers. 
• Education and Certifications: Higher educational degrees and certifications play a role in increasing the potential earnings of an account manager. Degrees in business, marketing, or similar fields and certifications, for example, from different professional organizations, demonstrate knowledge and can contribute to increased salaries.
• Industry: Another factor that could affect an account manager’s salary is the industry they are working in. For example, those who work in technology, finance, or pharmaceutical companies usually get hired for higher salaries than those who work in retail or non-profit organizations.
• Location: A person’s geographical area plays a big role in their salary. Account managers who are working in a metropolis are the ones enjoying the highest salary than other ones who work in rural places.
• Company Size and Revenue: Higher salaries can be afforded in larger companies with higher revenues due to the size, complexity, and scale of their client accounts. 
• Availability of a Role or Demand for Account Managers: It seems obvious that if there is a lot of demand for account managers, the salary that they tend to get will be high to attract them and keep them in the said area or job. So, the demand could be driven by economic growth, trends in industries, and competition in the market.

Account Manager Skills

Technical Skills

• Proficiency in CRM Software: CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. This is a type of software that account managers use for storing and accessing client information, updating activities with clients, notating client interactions and email communications, and organizing the entire client database. Some common CRMs are Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zoho. Proficiency in this type of account manager technology is essential to enhancing the productivity of keeping track of client details and maintaining a strong database.
• Data Analysis and Reporting: An ability to analyze data and create reports is a key skill for account managers. The data is used to analyze account performance and understand trends over time—to make informed, financially rich decisions. Account managers need to be fluent in ‘the numbers’, up to date with the best practices of data analysis technology, and proficient in using it to interpret complex information and report key insights to clients and colleagues.
• Project Management: Strong project management skills help to coordinate the many tasks needed to keep projects on time and within budget. Any account manager working on multiple projects at one time would benefit from this skill to plan, organize, and efficiently execute tasks. Experience with software such as Asana, Trello, or Microsoft Project can certainly make all of the above easier.

Soft Skills

• Communication: Excellent communication is a key skill for account managers. He has to be able to communicate clearly, listen effectively, and handle client concerns. Good command of both written and spoken English allows an account manager to build trust with clients as well as communicate with internal teams.
• Relationship Building: Account managers need to maintain and build relationships with clients. To do that, they need to establish a strong rapport, comprehend client requirements, identify potential threats, and provide tailored solutions. Great relationship skills and empathy are crucial to ensuring positive client relationships and customer loyalty.
• Problem-Solving: Stomach problems require a stomach surgeon. To resolve issues and handle obstacles that arise at a moment’s notice from their clients or management, the account management professional needs the ability and expertise to solve problems. That means thinking through the problem and analyzing options to select and implement effective solutions. Problem-solving skills are critical because the speed and manner in which problems are resolved are key factors in client retention and trust.
• Time Management: Account managers often have to deal with multiple tasks. Therefore, efficient management of time is crucial for them to assign importance to different jobs and effectively utilize their time to fulfill the tasks. A strong sense of time management will enable account managers to keep their promises to the company and clients alike. 

Account Manager Tips

• Keeping up with Industry Tools and Trends: Updates on industry tools and trends will evolve the account management industry over time. A good account manager must keep up with new tools and trends and learn new things to maintain her competitiveness. Account managers should strive to read industry publications and webinars and sign up for classes and professional development programs.
• Networking through Professional Organizations: Joining a professional organization such as the Association of Account Management Professionals (AAMP) or the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) can be a great resource for networking opportunities. You’ll not only have other professionals you can connect with to improve your skills, but you’ll also have access to events and resources that you might lack on your own.
• Obtaining Certifications and Training: Taking out certifications and participating in further training can boost an account manager’s skills and professional future. Certifications such as Certified Account Manager (CAM) or Certified Professional in Sales Management (CPSM) provide valuable extra knowledge and expertise, making an account manager more competitive in seeking new employment opportunities.
• Keeping Accurate Records: Keeping accurate records is important in account management. The records on clients should include interactions with them, services they have subscribed to, all activities concerning the account, performance metrics, and any other relevant information. Keeping accurate records will allow the account manager to make decisions, be forthcoming with information when they deliver reports, and better cater to the needs of clients. They can also make use of records when issues or concerns arise.

Using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and project management software, account managers will be more productive and carry out their work with more ease.

Account Manager Requirements

Educational Requirements

• Formal education in business, marketing, or a related field: A diploma or degree in business, marketing, or a related field will help you build many of the skills required to work in account management. Your degree or diploma may cover areas such as business principles, marketing strategies, and customer relations.
• Related Coursework: Related courses include marketing, sales, business administration, communications, or project management. These courses sharpen skills needed in account management. 

Certification Requirements

• Professional Certifications: Certifications can sometimes be voluntary, but they’re a great way of improving an account manager’s qualifications. Certifications, such as Certified Account Manager (CAM), or from organizations like the Sales Management Association, show that the account manager has a higher level of certifiable expertise.

Experience Requirements

• Internships and Entry-Level Roles: Real-world experience is extremely important for future account managers. Internships and entry-level sales, customer support, or marketing roles give you a chance to get practical experience managing relationships with clients, understanding their needs, and the ways agency teams can support them and build the business. This can help you build confidence and get your foot in the door at an agency by understanding the day-to-day work of account managers and building a stage on which to impress.

How to Become an Account Manager 

Completing Relevant Education 

• A Diploma or Degree: A diploma or degree, preferably a business diploma or degree, is often the prerequisite for starting as an account manager. Such courses will cover the essential business principles as well as marketing principles and relationship management with customers.
• Specialized Account Management Courses: Taking specialized courses in account management would be the next best thing to formal education. In particular, specialized courses in important areas such as relationship management with clients, strategic planning, and selling assist you in improving your specific functions in account management. 

Gaining Practical Experience

• Internships (and Entry-level Positions): Practical experience is gained by doing an internship or entry-level position. Such practical experience provides the applicant with the opportunity to convert theoretical knowledge of the job into practical skills, as well as learn about what it is like to be a professional as opposed to a student. For example, a sales associate, a customer service rep, or a marketing coordinator could gain valuable experience and insight.

Obtaining Certification

Certified Account Manager (CAM) A designation such as Certified Account Manager (CAM) can certify your knowledge of account management best practices and strategic planning.

• Professional Certifications in Sales and Marketing: As a complement to your core qualifications, certifications in sales and marketing, such as those offered by the American Marketing Association (AMA) or the Sales Management Association, increase your degrees of both qualification and professional development.

Continuing Professional Development 

• Workshops, Seminars, and Webinars: To maintain professional skills, there must be some continuous professional development using workshops, seminars, and webinars. As participants in those events, we can gain the most recent information and the most up-to-date trends and methods in the industry. 
• Advanced Degrees: Pursuing an MBA, Master’s in Marketing, or other advanced degrees will elevate your professional reach and add strategic and leadership capabilities to your toolset.

Networking

• Join Professional Organizations: Another simple way to grow and learn from your peers is by joining industry-specific professional organizations, such as the Association of Account Management Professionals (AAMP) or the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA). These organizations host events and provide members with access to networking opportunities, resources, and a community of professionals. 
• Participating in Company or Industry Events: Participating in company or industry conferences, workshops, or seminars is an effective way to network. Also, being surrounded by other professionals helps you locate job offers, receive feedback, improve your knowledge, expand your horizons, and better understand the latest trends in account management.

Get Qualified as an Account Manager

Account management Fundamentals, Online Accounting Course

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why should you be an account manager?

A career as an account manager provides an exciting role that facilitates professional growth. You partner with and work with business clients to help the organization or individual reach goals and improve services. When considering becoming an account manager, your role in developing and maintaining business relationships with a client takes precedence.

Moreover, you are entrusted with the responsibility of enhancing a business through customer satisfaction and driving revenue. Your role could cut across different industries and sectors. You can work at a technology company or a service company as an account manager to drive growth. Training is available to become an account manager, and it creates an avenue for career growth. Furthermore, there are opportunities to make a high income.

Is account management a good career choice for you?

Do you have great communication skills, enjoy a good relationship, and love solving problems? If so, account management could be a great choice for your career. As a detail-oriented person, you’ll likely thrive on being able to multitask and create strategies for your clients. If you’re someone who works well in fast-paced environments and loves working with clients to help them reach their goals, this career choice can be very rewarding for you.

Account manager salaries

Salaries do vary by level of experience, geography, and industry. An entry-level account manager in the UK can expect to earn between £25,000 and £35,000 a year. In the US, this can be $45,000 to $60,000 per year. Mid-level, or more experienced, account managers in the UK can earn between £35,000 and £50,000 per year. In the US, that can be $60,000 to $80,000 a year. Senior managers who are in more specialized or managerial roles would earn £50,000 to £70,000 or more per year in the UK and $80,000 to $110,000 or more in the US.

Which qualifications can help with a career in account management? 

Either a diploma or degree in business, marketing, or a closely related field is helpful, and coursework relevant to the position in marketing, sales, business administration, communications, or project management is ideal. Some people now get CAM certification or other certificates from organizations such as the Sales Management Association that can help boost their qualifications and their prospects for landing a job.

Do I need to be an experienced account manager to get started? 

No, you don’t have to be an account manager veteran to start. There are several entry-level roles as well as internships that are designed for people new to the field. These roles are a great way to gain experience, mentorship, and training. Some examples of entry-level roles are sales associate, customer service representative, and marketing coordinator. Starting in roles like these will give you a good foundation to build a career in account management.

Account Manager Career Outlook

The professional outlook is also great; there is a lot of demand for account managers across a broad range of industries. As businesses become more and more customer-centric to bring in more profits by building deeper and better relationships with their customers, the demand for account managers continues to increase. The account manager job is known for having good job stability, very competitive remuneration, and plenty of opportunity to grow from junior to senior, from senior to leadership, and other higher positions. Advancing technology and the growing trend towards data-driven decision-making in business also open up several new opportunities for account managers.

Account Manager Hierarchy and Progressing Within the Role

The normal career path for account managers is to move from entry-level positions like account executive or junior account manager to mid-level jobs like senior account manager or account director. Senior-level roles could include the key account manager, client services director, or head of account management. Mastering new skills, lifelong learning, and completing higher degrees or qualifications help during career progression.

Account Manager Exit Options and Opportunities

This also means that account managers have a wide range of exits and escape routes and that their skills are fungible—not just within account management but in sales, marketing, and business development. Experienced account managers can access roles higher up in the organizational structure, such as sales manager, marketing manager, business development director, or client services manager. Some leap and launch their consultancies. They leverage their acumen to offer bespoke consulting services.