The importance of an Account Director Jim Robinson
Are Account Directors really important? Is their role pivotal to the agencies they represent? Or are they just an extra layer of middle-man management? Many argue that agencies simply couldn’t survive without them, but there are also plenty of arrogant creative’s and others that think they can do without them! Some 'modern' agencies with a creative bent have actually attempted to do away with the Account Director – but experience has shown that many have come 'unstuck'!
Account Director - definition:
"High calibre people, not only sufficiently 'rounded' to be able to diagnose/analyse complex commercial and technical situations; but also equipped to cope with highly politicised interaction, together with personal tensions and ambiguities inherent in the boundary-spanning role"
Millman and Wilson 1995
We believe the role of the Account Director is paramount!
The role is changing
A few years ago, in many markets, selling was a lot easier and Account Directors tended to be product-driven salesmen, often possessing little real knowledge of the industry or partners to which they were selling. Today, competition is fierce, the sales process is much more involved and people only want to work with people who understand their industry and what they actually do! In essence, the entire role has moved from selling to managing relationships.
What does this mean for the Account Director? Today, good Account Directors need the following four attributes:
- to know their own company's structure and its wider products and services. They need to be experts in every facet of their business.
- strong business skills – relationship management, understanding business and finance, selling and industry skills. They need to be able to quickly identify with the needs of their customers and provide a personalised, bespoke service.
- specific technical skills. And they need to be able to give you 'a laymans' definition when communicating technical detail.
- strong management skills, including project management, communication and team skills, and the ability to delegate.
Nowadays, good Account Directors create, lead, manage and make it happen. They no longer simply take the order. They have to be on top of everything, through every stage of the project and beyond – the team, the workload, the information, the schedule and the next new initiative.
The importance of just one contact… and who is accountable?
As a business person you no doubt have a lot of things on your plate and you are probably working on multiple projects at the same time. Your Account Director gives you a single point of contact throughout the entirety of a project. Having to speak to a lot of different people within the agency is not a good use of anybody’s time. And who is going to enforce the inter-agency communication, critical to any project? This is especially true as agencies embrace multimedia. You may engage one agency to handle several projects at the same time, ie Printed and Electronic communications - your Account Director will co-ordinate with all parties (internal and external) to ensure your message is consistent and delivered on time.
Then there are those infamous two words – "who's responsible"!? As deadlines loom and the pressure mounts, you need someone you can rely on. A good Account Director will become an extension of your own business. They will sympathise with your situation, assume responsibility, and do whatever it takes to deliver the project. When times are good and there is credit to be shared, they retreat into the background; when things go wrong (and they will), they'll stick their chin out and do what’s necessary to make things right.
Anticipating your needs
A good Account Director will understand your business so well that they will actually anticipate your needs. This requires not only an understanding of your issues; it involves a deeper understanding of your culture, environment and discipline.
Picture this scenario: You're halfway through an important website project and you realise there is an important chunk of content missing...
Here’s how the process goes for Account Director A:
- Developer requests Account Director gets content from you
- Without a thought, Account Director phones you to request content
- You’ve got 100 things on your plate, so you throw whatever first comes to hand on the fax (which happens to be wordy and out-of-context)
- Your Account Director simply hands the fax to the development team
- Development read through it and decide it’s too wordy and doesn't fit the design so they either send it back and the whole process starts again, or even worse, they trim it down (without any thought to content) to 'make it fit'!
Sound familiar? Now here's how the process goes (and should go) for Account Director B:
- Developer requests Account Director gets content from you
- Account Director thinks carefully about what is required, taking overall context into account
- Account Director consults all on-hand information, then seeks out and finds any information still missing
- Account Director makes you aware of the situation and at the same time presents you with a solution
- You spend considerably less time making small ‘tweaks’ before the content goes back to development and is seamlessly uploaded
Good Account Directors will continue to anticipate your needs even once the project is completed. They will keep you up-to-date with changing legislation and the way it impacts your business. They will continually share new research and 'best practice' findings. Your relationship with them remains strong because the communication doesn’t end with each project!
Between two worlds
Account Directors are truly unique individuals because they have the ability to mediate between two cultures. They can do strategy and channel planning, while helping stimulate good creative work; they can match the capabilities of their own agency to their clients’ needs; they can share information of a strategic nature as well as communicating on tactical issues; and they can translate between right and left brain-driven egos, while adding value to the process.
Many don’t exploit the full potential of their Account Director. Be sure to use their inherently strong negotiating skills to help drive your project forward. Let them work with other members of your team (which will take the pressure off you), as they will adapt to their needs irrespective of personality; and send them out to negotiate on your behalf with other third party agencies. They will identify with a broad audience.
Above and beyond...
Now just a few thoughts on 'great' Account Directors...
'Great' Account Directors more than deliver your projects; they become trusted advisors. They will share in your brand and go out of their way to deliver on anything - above and beyond the call of duty. They will bring the right resources to the table, along with the right services and solutions to help solve your problems. They will understand the importance of strict budgetary control and help you achieve economies of scale wherever possible. They will keep you right up-to-date on project costs so there are no surprises at the end of the project. The goal posts invariably move, and they will make you aware when this happens.
During times when you're feeling pressured beyond belief and you’re screaming for their help, 'great' Account Directors will remain calm and continue to be honest with you. They will stay realistic about timeframes and not just make unachievable promises. While at the same time doing everything in their power to shorten the timeframe and expedite the solution.
And before it even comes to this, they will subtly ‘police’ you, with gentle reminders for required information, input or sign-off.
Does size matter?
In short, no, but unfortunately in some agencies Account Directors start with a lot of small accounts, before progressing on to complicated projects and bigger companies. The problem with this is that a culture develops within the agency that ‘smaller accounts are not as important’. Good Account Directors know full well that in most cases smaller projects require more time and attention because more consultation and nurturing is needed. Your project should be embraced no matter the size.
Challenging and Inspiring
There is a common saying that goes something like ‘an agency is only as good as the brief you give them’. This may have been true in the past, but a good modern-day Account Director will have the ability to extract the right information from you, piece by piece, without you having to proffer it.
And you should expect your Account Director to challenge you! It may seem painful at the time but it is definitely in your best interest. In fact around 60% of your Account Director’s work on your behalf should be about 'pushing the envelope'- finding new ways to get your message across, making your budget stretch further, and trimming out activities that aren’t paying their way. You can’t put a value on constructive feedback, especially when it comes from someone at arm’s length of your business with your best interests at heart.
Your Account Director will not only challenge you, they’ll challenge the creative team, manufacturing team and others involved in the project on your behalf, with one goal in mind – to deliver the best possible product or service to you.
Your Account Director will not only listen to you and look after you, they will inspire you! Talk to Jones and Palmer.
We welcome your feedback and thoughts and would love to hear any questions you have.
Jones and Palmer are focused on the development and delivery of corporate and investor communication media.
Established in 1906, Jones and Palmer have, for the last 40 years, printed annual report and accounts for public listed companies and currently has over 150 plc clients. We are the UK’s largest on-site manufacturer of investor websites and printed annual reports.