Have you ever wondered what does an account manager do? Account managers are sales professionals who basically serve as the interface between the customer service and sales departments of a company. They manage relationships with clients of the accounts they’re assigned to. Their job is to maintain the company’s existing group of clients and ensure the clients will continue to use the company for their business needs. If you want to learn more about what does an account manager do, we’ve prepared a list of duties you can browse through. Additionally, we’ve attached some information related to where you can work as an account manager.
What Does an Account Manager Do?
An account managers’s job description involves various duties. Still, there’s one thing that unites them all. That is the fact that they’re all aimed at managing the employing company’s existing client relationships and fostering new relationships with other clients. In many companies, account managers are prominent figures. They actually serve as the face of the company. Moreover, they’re the only company representatives who communicate directly with the clients. Account managers usually get a fixed salary, as well as a commission rate. This rate is determined by how much revenue they generate for the company.
Main Duties of an Account Manager
- Deliver positive customer service: This will help build long-lasting relationships with clients.
- Listen to each client: That way, account managers can gain a deep understanding of the client’s individual needs and desires, as well as what they expect from doing business with the company.
- Direct clients to appropriate products or services: Every client’s needs are unique. This means the account manager has to find the perfect way to fit those needs.
- Generate sales for a portfolio containing company accounts: The purpose is to reach the company’s sale target goals.
- Determine new sales opportunities with existing clients: Two ways in which account managers can do that is through up-selling and cross-selling.
- Manage and resolve all conflicts with clients: This should be done in a timely and efficient manner. After all, one of the main responsibilities of an account manager is to ensure that clients will stay loyal to the company.
- Interact and coordinate strategies with sales and customer service team members: These team members have to be working on the same assigned accounts. The only way for the company to achieve perfect customer interactions is for all of these departments to work together as a whole.
- Set financial budgets: This is something that account managers have to do both for the client and for the company.
- Prepare reports: The reports are quite varied, which means an account manager has to be knowledgeable in multiple business areas. The reports have to demonstrate quarterly sales, annual forecasts, account statuses, and other valuable metrics data.
Where Can You Work as an Account Manager?
Are you thinking of becoming an account manager? Then you should know where you can get hired as one. Account managers can find employment opportunities in corporate, retail, media, advertising, government, and financial companies. This is great news, since the companies can be of all shapes and sizes, and they’re varied enough to provide plenty of hiring opportunities.
The most popular type of account manager is the global account manager. These managers are responsible for managing all of a company’s accounts worldwide. This means you can usually find them in large corporations. These corporations handle a great number of international accounts. However, there are also national account managers. This type of account managers interact with clients across multiple locations nationwide, in medium to large businesses.
Additional Duties
Are you wondering how many accounts can an account manager handle at once? Well, the answer depends on the needs of the company. They can manage either a single account or a large number of accounts at once. Some may also become key account managers. This means they’ll oversee the team assigned to a particular account at the company’s headquarters. In this leadership role, key account managers engage in project management, strategic planning, negotiation, coordination, and innovative development of opportunities. Their duties may also include keeping records of transactions, or working with product design and sales support.
Summing It All Up
Consequently, what does an account manager do? He or she makes sure the relationship between the company and its clients is perfect. Moreover, he/she works with other departments in the company to ensure everything is going according to plan and the customers are happy with what the company has to offer.
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