10 Administrative Habits of Good Advertising Account Managers
I’ve spent my career in advertising and marketing agencies on the account management (aka client services) side. Agencies used to offer elaborate training programs for new account managers (pre-internet). Not so these days. That has inspired me to share what I’ve learned or was taught while sweating, bleeding, laughing, crying, yelling and rejoicing in the halls of agencies.*
I hope you enjoy what will soon be a series of posts on key topics within the art of agency account management.
To kick it off, something light.
Always take notes.
Always respond to client emails even if the only response needs to be, “confirming receipt.” Clients like to know you got their message.
Issue meeting reports even though no one reads them.
Update the weekly status report….every week.
Be on time to everything.
Poke people before a meeting to remind them they are expected to attend the meeting.
Maintain orderly digital files (your computer’s desktop is not storage).
Read everything. You might be the only one who does across the agency team, so it will give you a leg up.
Keep important reference docs open as tabs. Status reports, important schedules, media plans, briefs, brand architectures and brand books are always good to have on hand. Back in the day we would hang these on our cube/office walls. Now we just keep them as open tabs in our browser.
a. You’ll be amazed how deeply you learn the contents of these important docs if you have them at the ready and refer to them often.
b. Closed files are dead files.
Show your face on zooms. It’s a leadership thing. Yep, it’s awkward if you are the only one, but being on camera brings out the better you. More attentive, more transparent, more present.