This series of articles looks at the world of the account manager.
This time we talk to Senna Spear, Avid Collective, Client Success Manager
How did you end up account management? Was it by design or a cosmic accident?:
Looking back I always knew I wanted to work within the advertising industry but was never sure what the role might look like. From Year 9 in design and technology I was always more interested in designing packaging, instead of creating the product. Then studying creative advertising and graphic design at University felt broad enough to figure out what my dream role was from there.
Funnily enough, my path into media, and a media agency was a perfect accident. I was working at a cafe in Surry Hills and would regularly chat to the agency folk and publishers. One Head of People and Culture at a local agency mentioned an entry-level position, and asked me if I was interested in applying. I got the role on an account management and planning team, which struck the perfect balance of communication, numbers and creativity.
Balancing clients’ objectives and creative vision can be challenging. How do you deal with that?
It’s key to understand what both parties are trying to achieve and be able to communicate that back to them. Once the client understands what the creative vision is, and the creative team understands the objectives, mutual understanding leads to common ground and prioritisation in what is needed. Usually, the outcome is the same, and it’s just re-working the path to get there so everyone is happy. Context is key.
What strategies do you employ to clearly convey creative ideas to clients and address client feedback?
Understanding the brief, the marketing objectives and the wider business objectives, and communicating this back to the client is most important. If they’re confident you understand the task at hand, trust has been established. The ideas and suggestions that follow come from a mutual connection and understanding, providing a solid base and open ears.
Understanding of the brief, provides necessary context to assess and integrate feedback. Sometimes, feedback isn't straightforward or at face value, so it's crucial to evaluate it within the framework of the business problem.
How to build strong relationships with clients?
Build trust by delivering good quality work, making sure I'm prepared, organised and meeting deadlines. Ensuring I’m communicating clearly and often so the client feels comfortable and that everything is on track.
Paying attention to news and external factors that could influence the broader business, beyond just marketing, feeding this into reports, overlaying this with campaign leanings. These demonstrate that you're tuned in and deeply engaged with the business, and further builds trust and credibility with the client.
I pride myself on being personable, and genuine, and getting to know the clients on a more personal level. I also like to figure out the clients' ways of working, understand their workloads and make any small adjustments to communicate in whatever ways work best with how they work. This can be small things such as sending a calendar invite, a text or making a quick phone call over a string of emails.
Do you have any go-to tips for navigating challenging conversations with clients? And effectively selling an idea.
When I am navigating a challenging conversation I firstly try to understand why this conversation is going to be difficult. It helps me understand the impact on the client and the business. Next is to find out what happened, and why it happened to understand the solution for the future.
Call the client, be empathetic and understanding, explain the above, and communicate what the solution and next steps are. Additionally, talk about how the issue can be avoided in the future. Solutions are crucial. Always follow this up with a well structured email for the client to review and digest what was discussed, with the opportunity to review and come back with any questions or feedback.
When it comes to selling an idea, knowledge is power. If you understand the ask, you understand the problem and the solution then you have all bases covered. Strong clear slides, or a well-presented email that takes you through the process and rationale is great to support your ideas. Foresee what the client might ask, then address them within your sell to further build trust and show their concerns have been taken into consideration already.
Are there any emerging trends or challenges in the industry that account management teams should be prepared for?
Artificial Intelligence. I think especially in account management roles where the tasks are so varied, and you are often flicking between different jobs, campaigns, and clients, from creative tasks to numbers-focused. There is so much opportunity to leverage AI to increase efficiencies within our day-to-day tasks and alleviate the brain power for the ideation needed for deeper and more emotive tasks.
At Avid we are big on efficiencies and using AI to support us from a success perspective, enhancing a range of processes we have in place. For example some of these consist of, generating content ideas tailored to specific publishers in a specific format, digesting text and exporting into templated outputs, FAQ’s chatbot to support clients, publishers and new starters with the navigation of the platform. There is even an AI bot that the team can use to identify the best tool/bot for the task.
What advice would you give your younger self when you first started out in account service?
Trial different ways to manage your everyday workloads, how you want to take notes, retain information, organise your emails etc…This is something that is ever-evolving for me, however, I think that early in my career, I lacked clear organisation methods when I was at my most overwhelmed.
Mistakes happen, don’t linger on the mistake itself, look for the solution and next steps to address this with your manager.
Finally, don’t be afraid to ask questions, or get someone to explain something again. Your managers and clients will appreciate you wanting to get it right.
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