While they need interpersonal skills, too, it’s just as important that they be able to manage their time to serve their clients well. Well, besides the monthly costs they pay, they will also purchase more premium products and services from you too. When you’re onboarding a new client, more times than not, they’ll go with your smallest package first before scaling and buying premium services. It can take months and sometimes years to convince a client to pull out their wallet and pay more, and in these tough times, it could be even more of a struggle with everyone tightening their belts across the board.
You cannot just rely on a good product or service to keep your customers coming back for more. This means that you must establish and grow long-term relationships with your key accounts, usually by adding more value to the relationship you have with them. Account Management involves managing and maintaining relationships with existing customers to ensure their satisfaction and continued business. This includes activities such as regular communication, addressing customer concerns, and identifying opportunities to upsell or cross-sell additional products or services. As businesses grow and evolve, it’s crucial for leaders to understand the different roles and personalities that make up a successful sales team.
What are an Account Manager’s responsibilities?
Account Executives have initial contact with a potential customer, but they often do not maintain contact after a sale. Account Managers do not have contact with a client until after a sale, but they are responsible for maintaining client relationships. In addition to sales and relationship management, Account Executives may also be responsible for market research, creating and delivering sales presentations, and managing client accounts.
If you were to have a sales rep make these same promises to a company that hasn’t even signed on or is still new, they’d think you’re just looking to take their money. They don’t just want a supplier; they want someone who understands their business well enough to add value to it and help it grow. Account managers need to know how to sell; they will have been hunters and farmers early in their careers. Additionally, your small business may also expect your salespeople to be marketers.
How a sales skills assessment can revolutionize your hiring process
If you’re choosing between the two, understand that an account executive requires more experience and skills related to direct sales, while an account manager needs to be more client-oriented with strong empathy skills. This differs from account executives of software businesses or marketing services, who usually do outreach and sales presentations. Furthermore, businesses selling to enterprise-level companies find that their account executives spend much of their time in the negotiating process and working to close the deal with a longer sales cycle. Account managers often have a background in business, marketing, or communications.
- First impressions count, and these types of industry experts have the ability to establish relationships with customers, and create a positive impression of the organization.
- They must ask insightful questions, demonstrate curiosity, actively listen, and articulate the value of their solutions while building a relationship with the customer.
- Account executives only work within one department, so they have more daily tasks that relate to that specific department.
- Pipeline CRM mobile CRM for iOS and Android helps you stay on top of your sales while you’re out doing your job.
- In small and medium-sized businesses, organizations can have their sales teams handle account management too.
- If your account manager has a quota on his head, it’s harder to trust that upsell recommendations or suggestions for new projects are in the client’s interest.
Account Executives are tasked with identifying and converting clients for their company and establishing relationships with potential clients and new clients. Account Managers and Account Executives are typically both part of the sales team, but they carry out different functions. If you are interested in a career in sales or customer relations, it is important to determine which role is best for your experience and skills. For sales teams looking to expand, it is important to consider the needs of your organization to hire the right position.
Sales Manager vs. Account Executive: What Are the Differences?
Sales and account management complement each other through collaboration and leveraging each role’s strengths. Strong and open communication between the Account Executive and the Account Manager is critical for overall success. This dynamic maximizes outcomes and contributes to business success by expanding the organization’s footprint while nurturing client relationships. Allusions to hunting are aplenty in sales circles, where sales executives scout out the prospects and then close the deal (or ‘hunt’ them).
To see people do the job before they get the job, book a demo today and let our experienced team run you through Vervoe’s full range of ready-made and tailored solutions. Vervoe is an end-to-end AI-powered solution that is proudly revolutionizing the hiring process through skills testing, job simulations, and machine learning recruitment. While sales is one of the biggest professions in the world, less than a quarter of all sales reps exceed quota. Account Managers usually report directly to the Account Director or Agency Director of the activity and status of accounts and transactions.
Account Executive vs. Account Manager: Which Is Right for You?
Account managers focus their efforts on offering established clients the newest products. Sales managers, however, oversee whole teams of people who track leads and find new clients. Both may be required to travel to the client in order to gain a better understanding of their needs. Booking meetings with qualified targets is a leading metric for sales professionals. The more meetings they secure with qualified buyers within existing accounts or new prospects, the greater their chances of identifying opportunities and closing deals.
All of these questions cause uncertainty and can lead to more stress than it’s really worth for a low-tier client that just signed on. Your existing customers were fortunate enough to be with you during the good days, so they’ve already been through that. You don’t have to convince them that your services are worth it because they know that from experience, and if you’ve done your job right, you’ll have a strong relationship with them as well. Your marketing team will also include personnel with specialized skills to manage online and offline marketing campaigns, and you may also need a marketing manager responsible for the strategy. This person will liaise with the sales team to communicate offering to the market to attract new customers.
Key Account Management is About Unlocking Profits
A Sales Account Executive can help your company grow by identifying potential customers, promoting products or services, and closing deals. In fact, research from Harvard Business Review indicates that companies with effective sales teams are 81% more likely to have higher revenue https://wizardsdev.com/en/vacancy/sales-manager/ growth than those with ineffective teams. Account managers typically work with a dedicated group of clients for the length of the time the client stays with the company to help achieve the client’s goals and represent their company in non-support customer interactions.
In some markets, the salary for an account manager can be more than $90,000 annually. While some of these questions are not dissimilar to selling, there’s quite a different skill set required to make sure these questions are answered, and answered properly, by strategic account management teams. Relative to an account manager, account executives often make around the same or even more money through performance compared to their base salary. Payscale data shows an average base salary of $57,055, which tends to range between $39,000 and $93,000.
