Account management can be seen as a procedure of preparing and providing up-to-date details of financial information to the managers of a business organization. This information is for the purpose of supporting and assisting the managers with their short-term and everyday decisions.
While providing account management, there is no need to provide any documents or legal requirements. There is also no specific format or standard that you will need to adhere to.
Account management is usually provided for the use of individuals that work in a business organization or an entity. These individuals include; The management, shareholders (owners), and also the employees.
What Is Good Account Management?
Good account management can also be referred to as key account management. It can be defined as a process of organizing and gathering resources to attain an optimal business.
Along with this comes a balanced portfolio of recognized accounts that contributes significantly to the objectives of a business, either presently or in the future.
Good account management is also an important strategy that many companies adopt, this is because of the benefits that come with it. When a company adopts good account management and uses it as a business strategy, the current customers are up to 70% more likely to buy products from you than your prospects.
What Is the Difference Between Account Management and Sales?
The roles of account management and sales are slightly similar but quite different. They both have an end goal of increasing revenue but take different paths while doing it.
A strong salesperson’s role is to have multiple mentalities and possess skills like being able to communicate effectively, giving detailed information about the products benefits, persistence, confidence, asking questions to know the wants and needs of their customers, and proactive prospecting.
On the other hand, the role of an account manager requires more of a formal mentality. They must be able to prioritize their time and recognize key accounts. This should be based on the funds that would have more potential for their growth. An account manager should be effective and possess skills like prioritizing accounts and time, building relationships, and having long-term thinking (being able to think ahead).
Account Management Salaries
The main role of an accountant is to examine and organize financial records. They must ensure that a company’s financial records are in order, including the payment of their taxes. They usually assess a company’s financial operations work to ensure the efficiency of the company.
In most cases, accountants work full time on their jobs, which is approximately up to about 48 hours a week. These hours are usually longer during specific times of the year, for example, specific periods such as tax season or during the end of the budget year.
An accountant’s median and annual wages are up to $63,550, while their business and operations occupations make $62,500. For their total occupation, it is $34,750.
This median wage of these accountants is the wage at which half the workers earned more than the half who earned less. According to research, the lowest 10 percent earned less than $39,930, and the top 10 percent earned more than $111,510.
Account Management Tools
In account management, various tools are used to secure vital information and crucial details of your account, but first, what is an account?
An account can be defined as a secure portal designed for people to make it easy for them to gain access to their TPG information and safe and convenient.
Here are some tools to guide you on how to manage your TPG information, they include;
- Calendly
- Accelo
- BizPayO
- ClientHub
- AutoEntry
- Boomerang for Gmail
- DocuSign
- enQ
- Dropbox
- Jirav
- Practice Cs
- JetPack WorkFlow
- Microsoft Access
- Receipt Bank
- SmartSheets
- Quickbooks Online
- ShareFile
- Slack
These are one of the most helpful tools for account management. These tools make your work easier and faster. This could be either as an accountant or a regular individual trying to manage an account.
Account Management Services
An account management service can be explained as a service provided to a customer by an account manager of a business organization.
Account management services consist of practices such as providing the customer of the business organization with the needed services, making customer support available, and creating improvements to increase the opportunities for the customers’ consumption. They also provide consultancy for training.
An account manager renders all these services. If these services are not provided to the customers directly by the account manager, he/she organizes other individuals in the company to do it.
What Is the Role of Account Management?
There are varieties of roles an account manager is assigned to. Here are some of the main roles of an accountant, they include;
- Retaining Customers
- Increasing their available customers
- Learning to Cross-Sell Customers
#1. Retaining Customers
One of the first responsibilities of an account manager of a business organization is to retain their current customers. Sometimes in a business organization, as an account manager, you might notice that customers are leaving; this is called a turn.
When this observation is made, the account manager must figure out what exactly is the cause of this turn.
For this problem to be figured out, an account manager has to be assigned to them. They are supposed to offer support by asking the customers questions and helping them with any challenges they might have. Their customers should be able to pour out their problems to the account manager.
#2. Increasing their Available Customers
This is another core responsibility of an account manager. It is no doubt that one of the main roles of an account manager is to retain their customers.
However, it is also very important to grow their current customers. He/she can do this by having great communication skills and giving customers detailed information about their products.
#3. Learning to cross-sell customers
This is another core responsibility of an account manager. Cross-selling is when you sell something to a customer that is not directly related to what you have already sold, but it is complimentary and helps them work with it.
For example, if you own a business, eg a Restaurant. When people come to buy your food, and they place their order, you can also suggest the food they ordered. If they ordered a plate of food, you could ask if they want it with double sausages or if they need spicy chicken to go with it.
What is B2B Account Management?
B2B stands for business to business. In account management, the account manager is essential for the customer relationship of a B2B business organization. He/she is responsible for maintaining and building relationships with the customers; this also includes the internal team.
The role of a B2B account manager is to carry out the activities which involve the execution and development of various marketing strategies. This assists the business organization in increasing sales of the business-to-business companies.
The owners of business organizations need to be extremely selective of the type of individual that has this role in their companies. The role of an account manager is crucial and needs a skillful person to carry out his or her assigned activities.
Account Management Skills
Account management skills are the skills that an account manager must possess for their business organization to grow. Various skills are required for account management; some of them are;
Technical Skills
Most business Organisations that have account managers usually possess technical skills. They are technical experts that have detailed information about technical details. Most times, they usually come from a technical background.
They know how to answer the hard questions concerning technology, and they can provide the hard data that you might have issues with, and that is their role as technical experts.
Relationship Experts
The account manager is an expert at relationship leadership in a business organization or a company. This means that they know how to deal with external relationships. They typically connect with people and build relationships with the customers of the business organizations.
Other account management skills include;
- Time Management
- Passion
- Empathy.
Is Account Management an Excellent Job?
The main purpose business organizations have for account managers is to develop their businesses. Having a good account manager is a strategy various business companies adopt today. This is because many of them possess the skills that are needed for the growth of their business. They can analyze, boost the revenue and retain rates of the business organization.
Account management is quite diverse, and with the number of skills required, it is seen as a desirable job for many individuals. This is specifically for the people that specialize in accounting. This job is quite wide and consists of a variety of skills which makes it an eye-capturing job.
Apart from the skills it requires, one of its benefits is the amount of payment obtained from the job. In a year, the average base salary of an account manager is up to $61,754 Per year. Some of the highest-paying cities for account managers (close to the United States) are;
- New York, NY
- Atlanta, GA
- Los Angeles, CA
Conclusion
Account management is a very crucial part of a company because without the help of an account manager, there would be disorganization and this may affect the growth of the company. Also, companies need to pay attention to the individual to this role is given. The person should possess all the required skills and be able to carry out tasks efficiently, as this would lead to the rapid growth of the business.
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