This series of articles looks at the world of the account manager.
This time we talk to Orchard senior business director Charlotte White.
How did you end up in account management? Was it by design or a cosmic accident?
Maybe a mix of the two.
Academically my foundations are a unique blend of science and marketing. My roots are in biomedical science and that’s always been my passion, but I did realise early, the lab wasn’t for me. So, finishing my undergraduate I decided to try something different and complete my master’s in international marketing.
I spent the early part of my career at Kimberly-Clark, working across sales and marketing for brands such as Andrex and Kleenex. After which I decided to take the plunge and start my career in healthcare advertising in central London, I’ve always been on the accounts side and have never looked back. Reflecting on my various moves across continents (Europe Asia and most recently Oceania), I feel incredible fortunate to have benefitted from learnings that comes from each experience.
Balancing clients’ objectives and creative vision can be challenging. How do you deal with that?
For me that’s the secret ingredient of a strong account lead. Being able to harness the creative vision of the agency but ensure everything we do is in service of the client’s overall business objectives. For me, the most impactful work I have been involved in has come from when our teams are deeply integrated within our client’s business, often as an extension of their team. You build up an intimate understanding of the brand, objectives and overarching vision and then help articulate that creatively.
What strategies do you employ to clearly convey ideas to clients and address client feedback?
Context is everything. Again, this is another key role of a good account lead. We need to be able to anchor creative concepts and ideas back to a client’s broader strategy and business needs. The art of storytelling cannot be understated, and it is the role of the account team to be that conduit between internal agency creative teams and the client. Constantly finding a common language between everyone that allows the conversation to keep moving.
The same goes for feedback – we need to challenge our clients creatively, but we do have to listen to and adhere to feedback without taking this personally (which we’ve all been guilty of).
The role of an account lead is to understand the root of the feedback, contextualize the ask and if necessary, amend how the feedback is given to ensure it lands. We are not just the messenger – we have to be far more strategic in how we operate.
How do you build strong relationships with clients?
I often joke, but to summarise account management, my job is to manage the tension between our clients wanting work yesterday and the agency wanting to deliver tomorrow to ensure high quality. Being at the centre of that tension can often mean that building trust can be challenging.
We do need to be mindful of reacting to short term needs and telling client what they want to hear. In my opinion that can cause longer term issues of under delivery, but more importantly it doesn’t set the dynamics of the partnership correctly. We will always strive to deliver to the best of our abilities, but sometimes an honest conversation around expectations can build a stronger long-term partnership. My philosophy has always been where you can, you do, and where you can’t, manage expectations accordingly.
Do you have any go-to tips for navigating challenging conversations with clients?
What I’ve found is integrity and trust is probably the strongest currency you can have; this can be the hardest to build with clients but can be often the most powerful. In client services people pleasing is only a short-term fix, it’s those challenging conversations around managing expectations which are the most valuable in the longer term.
I do believe in radical candour – especially when partnering with clients around key launches and campaign activity. With the best laid plans, more often or not there will be bumps along the way. Therefore, its vital to have an honest foundation. Often a lot of the “asks” are on the agency (and rightly so) as we are leading the creative project. But it’s important to lay out the expectations of the client along the way, ensuring we have the necessary engagement and that bottle necks are removed. Being honest around these upfront can ease those frictions conversations later down the line. After all, no one likes a bad surprise.
Are there any emerging trends or challenges in the industry that account management teams should be prepared for?
The landscape that we operate in is ever evolving and we need to be forward thinking and challenge traditional forms of engagement, it wouldn’t be an article with some mention of the role AI is going to play in healthcare.
Every day you hear about how pharma companies are looking to harness the power of AI in the future, whether it be speeding up the research and development process of discovering new medicines, providing clinicians with fast access to the latest evidence-based insights or transforming health data into actionable insights for personalised care experiences. How AI will be integrated into marketing workstreams will continue to be a topic of discussion, in one of the most highly regulated industries our role as an account team is too confidently consult and navigate this.
What advice would you give your younger self when you first started out in account service?
Forward momentum doesn’t always have to come in the form of career progression and the new job title. For me, it’s about learning. So, surround yourself with more talented people. Never feel like you are the most capable person in the room, because if so, you are in the wrong room. Surround yourself with talented people and put yourself in situations that test you. Not all the time, as that would be exhausting. But sometimes complacency sneaks up on you, so it’s always important to reflect and feel like you’re still learning.
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