This series has
argued that account management is at a crossroads, a potentially dangerous
intersection where a wrong turn could lead to bad consequences for the
industry.
The industry
may choose the wrong path, but you don’t have to go along with it. If
you’re an account person, or want to be one, you can succeed where (many)
others fail.
How we arrived
at this crossroads
Last of a series |
It’s
instructive to remember how we arrived at this crossroads. Three
significant changes in agency structure over the past couple of decades have
restricted the role of account executives. The first was the unbundling
of media – sadly, many account people just think about creative, not where the
creative should connect with consumers. The next was the advent of
strategic planning – too many AEs gladly surrender strategy, absolving
themselves of responsibility for the creative brief. The third was
labor-based compensation – pay-by-the-hour schemes that focused efforts only on
making ads, less on business-building ideas.
So here we
stand. None of us can pretend to fix account management across the
industry. Each of us must decide what road we will follow. Here’s
my advice.
Business
Partner, not Order-Taker
Being a
Business Partner means learning your client’s business, brands, competition and
challenges. It means knowing sales and market share at any given
moment. It means having a point of view on how to build the
business. It’s a role only account management can fill. It can’t be
faked – clients know when your commitment is genuine and sincere.
In the same
way, a Business Partner isn’t confrontational or argumentative. They
serve the client by adding value. Yes, there’s some order-taking
involved; we are in a service business. If all you do is take orders,
though, you’re likely to be replaced because anyone can do that.
How do you do
it? First, pay attention. Listen to what your client says about her
business. Second, do your homework. Go to where your
client’s product or service is sold and understand the transaction. Read
everything you can about what they sell and do. Learn the consumer better
than anyone else. Know the competition.
The path of the
Order-Taker is Follow... Manage... complete
Tasks. The path of the Business Partner is Lead... Imagine... bring Ideas.
Bring
Business-Building Ideas
The greatest
account people are the ones who bring business-building ideas to their
client. If you’ve done your homework and gained an intimate knowledge of
the client’s business, you’ll be on your way.
Many
newly-minted account people spend the first year or two figuring out the agency
side of the business – how to get the ads out. Being able to
simultaneously create business-building ideas might require some practice.
Years ago one
of my bosses assigned me and a couple of colleagues to each bring him every
Friday at 4 p.m. an “Idea of the Week”. (Nothing motivates like a
deadline and a little peer pressure.) There was a catch: we also
had to go forth, sell the ideas to our clients and make them happen. Many
of the ideas flunked, but a few were actually pretty good, and we learned from
both the failures and the successes.
The AE isn’t
the only one who can conceive a business-building idea, but she is the only one
who, being a Business Partner, can lead the agency team to one. Account
people, knowing the client’s business, should look for opportunities to invent
new products, suggest line extensions or recommend restages. They can
also innovate in writing the positioning or claim that will sell what the
client invented.
Build an
Environment for Great Creative
Being a
Business Partner and having a line of sight into what the client needs makes
you eminently qualified to help the creative team get to an idea that will
change consumer behavior. The AE who shows up just to shepherd projects
to completion will be leaving creatives and planners adrift without what they
need to do great work.
An old mantra
for AEs at Leo Burnett was “get the copy right”. To me, it’s a little bit
of a holdover to when print was the main medium and when account people edited
copy a little too freely, but the general point is right: Pay attention
first and foremost to the agency’s creative product.
Along the way,
respect your creative partners. Some great advice comes from this article by Larry
Weisberg, former president of Waring & LaRosa.
Pay
Attention to Media
About a year
ago, trying to nail down some information about an international project, I
called the person responsible for that part of the world. My
question: “Can you tell me about the media plan?” His answer:
“I really don’t know much about that country and I know even less about media,
so I really can’t help you.” I don’t fault this fellow for not knowing
the answer. It really bugged me, though, that he was unwilling to even
look into it. (He left the agency soon after.)
The point of
the story is that media is off the radar screen of most account people.
It’s understandable insofar as most agencies spun off their media departments
in the 1990s. It’s amazing, though, that account people wouldn’t want to
know where the creative work was going. It’s even suicidal given the
fact that media long ago went beyond TV, Radio, Print and Outdoor.
In other words,
you can only be useful to your client if you have a clue about media and all
the options for connecting with consumers. If you leave it to “the media
agency,” “the PR agency,” “the digital agency,” “the promotion agency” or “the
lead agency” you will be at the mercy of turf wars over agency revenue instead
of making a great plan that benefits the client.
Develop
Curiosity
Related to the
previous point, you have to be in constant learning mode. If you don’t
understand social media, study
on it. Better still, open a Twitter account and experiment.
If you don’t understand shopper marketing, you
should. In the words of GSD&M’s Duff Stewart, “A
successful leader in advertising … today is defined by curiosity.”
Curiosity goes
beyond learning about different media. Yesterday I interrupted my
schedule to attend an internal presentation about the latest in web design.
No, I don’t expect to start writing code in 2013, but understanding what goes
into it will help me help others do their jobs – and maybe spark an idea.
Curiosity and Anticipation
go together. It’s logical that if curiosity broadens your perspective –
your radar screen, if you will – then you’ll also see things coming from much
further away. Your ability to anticipate will be greater.
Which road
will you take?
This series
started by posing the question “Is great account management a lost art at
advertising agencies?”
No, but it will
be if we don’t pay attention. It’s a given that the industry is in
turbulence, but we can’t just know it’s in turbulence, we have to do something
about it.
It’s up to you
to decide what you’re going to do. Hopefully this series has given you a
few ideas, or at least the basis to think of your own ideas. It’s just
one man’s advice. Take what you need, and leave the rest.
The first post in this series was Account Management at a Crossroads
The first post in this series was Account Management at a Crossroads