6 Attributes Every Good Account Manager Must Have

6 Attributes Every Good Account Manager Must Have

There is good and bad management across the country, regardless of working conditions. Most of these managers have many things in common. The bad ones stick out like a sore thumb, but the great ones shine like a shooting star. Every good account manager must have these six attributes to lead the charge.

An Introspective Look Into the Future

Depicting the future accurately is important in any line of work, but it’s especially vital as an account manager. Recognizing you’ll meet or even surpass your sales goal for the quarter allows you to recruit extra workers, acquire goods ahead of time, and avoid any delays that your business may otherwise face. 

Additionally, if it’s nearing the end of the road and you need a final push to meet your goal, you can alter course and put all hands on deck to achieve your mission. An excellent account manager has aces up their sleeve with leads and customers you can count on if you’re hitting more dead ends than anticipated.

Other benefits of forecasting effectively to meet your goals include instilling confidence in the powers-at-be and your sales staff. Think about a goal you set for yourself that doesn’t involve your job. How good did you feel after achieving it? The odds are good vibes carried over to other things, allowing you to improve in other facets of your life.

Having to meet expectations can be a gift and a curse, but it motivates the best of the best to meet or surpass the loftiest of prognostications.

Becoming an Expert

The main objective for any high-quality account manager is to build and maintain long-lasting partnerships with their clients. The best AMs are knowledgeable about their company, customer history, and the current trends, making them experts in the field.

Being an expert is especially crucial since critical clients need personalized care. Rarely does a client act of their own volition and buy off the shelf or without speaking directly to you. A fantastic account manager can forecast when the client needs their product and contact them with a new plan of action. In the end, both parties walk away happy.

An inexperienced account manager who doesn’t know the tools of the trade could let someone slip through the cracks, angering customers with their unprofessional practices and potentially severing the relationship. Thus, the best account managers must know the industry like the back of their hand and can answer any questions thrown their way.

A Goal-Oriented Leader

If you are in sales, you need a competitive edge to thrive and meet your aspirations. A laissez-faire attitude may make work less stressful, but you’re destined to fail. The “we’ll get ‘em next time” approach may work on a children’s youth sports team—not so much in the sales world.

Coinciding with accurate sales forecasting, setting, meeting, or exceeding objectives is a quality that will further anyone in life. If it’s not reaching a sales quota, it’s making a machine more efficient or running a faster mile than the month prior.

Setting benchmarks and achieving them is one way to lead by example, motivating your peers to follow suit. Usually, subordinates take on the personality of their superiors at the workplace, which is good and bad. It’s great when there is a natural-born leader in charge, but it can be a disaster if the person in charge doesn’t care.

Master Negotiator

Selling is only one piece of the puzzle for making the best deals. While it’s nice seeing your sales pitch work and get an immediate “yes,” it can be detrimental that you haven’t faced any resistance.

An elite account manager is a shrewd negotiator. They don’t settle for less, tuck their tail between their legs, or sulk because the client isn’t giving them the answer they thought was a foregone conclusion.

A negotiating specialist’s goal is to walk away with both sides feeling like they won. You want the customer to feel like they got a bargain, and you’ll walk away thrilled that you closed a great deal for yourself and the company.

Some account managers fall into a “me first” mindset, only thinking about what’s standing in their way and knocking it down to get to the finish line. If that’s the case, you could ruin a partnership beyond repair, hurting your short and long-term goals.

Thirst To Learn More

The main characteristic of a good account manager is never settling for being average. With the forecast for improvements in the future, they’ll meet their goals and put it all together to be an expert. It’s easy to sit back and accept this is who you are for the rest of your days and that you no longer need to further your education.

However, the S-tier account managers constantly thirst for knowledge, exploring additional educational opportunities that broaden their minds. Learning opportunities help us grow as individuals; taking advantage of them is the best way to grow.

Demonstrating your appetite for learning is part of leading by example. If you illustrate your passion for it, others will follow in line, and you’ll develop a well-educated and curious group of account managers.

Effective Communication

Finally, the key to all these qualities is communicating effectively. Communication is fundamental to any job, but an account manager cannot sit on their hands and see how things play out. They must be cordial with their leads, ensuring their satisfaction and if there is anything else they could do.

Furthermore, communication is essential for an account manager and their co-workers. Many people may rely on the information you provide. Keeping a piece of valuable information to yourself could throw a wrench in the whole operation. You don’t want to be the hitch in the chain of command, so talk to your people to avoid complications.

While you probably need 20 characteristics to be exceptional, these six attributes every account manager must have can pave the way to success in the B2B account management world. If your company is hitting more brick walls than expected, Racket Reps is here to help. Assisting businesses across the United States, Racket Reps’ sales experts can overcome any account management shortcomings. Contact us today so we can start pushing you to sights you’ve never seen before.

6 Attributes Every Good Account Manager Must Have