Account Manager Job Description

Account Manager


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Job Description

If you are creative and have good interpersonal skills, a career as an account manager could be the best choice when it comes to deciding what to do with your talents.

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In this role you will be an important link between a company and its clientele where you work to tight deadlines in order to ensure an advertising or marketing campaign is brought to a successful conclusion. Still interested in Account Manager job role? Read on for detailed Account Manager job description.

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What Will I Be Doing?

For the most part, you will be involved in the advertising and marketing sectors where you will be in charge of campaigns. This means you will be responsible for briefing designers, controlling the purse strings and ensuring the project is completed on time. As an account manager, you will need to be capable of multitasking and must be prepared to work under extreme pressure. While no two days are ever likely to be the same, here are some of the typical duties you will be asked to perform:

  • Managing a large client portfolio
  • Generating new business by using your list of contacts
  • Attending client meetings
  • Delivery of presentations
  • Building and maintaining strong customer relationships
  • Forecasting and tracking of key metrics

For most roles, you will be expected to have previous experience in the field of account management or territory sales.

Is There Anything Else?

As an account manager, you will primarily be working from an office but you will have to travel to meet clients and attend meetings. During quiet periods you may be working regular hours but for most account managers, there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ workweek. When there are deadlines, you will be expected to work as many hours as necessary in order to get the job done.

Account Manager Career Path

As advertising and marketing is an extremely competitive industry, you will need to have plenty of qualifications under your belt in order to compete with other candidates. A Bachelor’s Degree is a perquisite and while a degree in any subject boosts your chances of landing a good role, most employers prefer your qualification to be in social/behavioural science, marketing, business management, accountancy, mathematics or public relations.

If you really want to get ahead, you should consider pursuing a Masters in Marketing. Some excellent choices include the Master of International Management at NUI Galway, the Master of Business Studies at Dublin Business School and the Master of Business in Marketing & Management Strategy at Limerick Institute of Technology.

Salary

If you are involved in B2B sales, you could earn €45,000-€60,000 per annum as a key account manager in Dublin; this tends to fall by €5,000 a year or so if you work in one of the other major cities in Ireland. As a client services manager, you can expect to earn anywhere from €40,000 to €60,000 a year.

If you are after a career in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), you can expect to earn €45,000-€55,000 a year though this can rise to €70,000 when on target earnings (OTE) are taken into account. For those in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) field, earnings are a little higher with key account managers earning up to €60,000 a year without OTE. The dream ticket is to become a sales director because no matter what part of sales you work in, it is a role that often carries a salary of over €100,000 a year.

What Are The Good Points?

It is a role that allows you to really make the most of your creativity and people skills. You get to meet new people and form lasting relationships while engaged in a job that is extremely rewarding. This means showing hospitality to clients in order to make senior management figures feel good about how you are handling their accounts. Although there is a lot of hard work involved, you will have a tremendous amount of fun in a job that is often deemed to be quite glamorous.

There are also a host of career development opportunities; if you take on larger agencies with more clients, you could end up at the top of your profession and become a board director.

What Are The Bad Points?

Occasionally, things will go badly wrong during a project despite your best efforts and ultimately, you are the one that will get the blame as senior management, clients and internal staff all line up to criticise. It can be quite stressful since you have to manage the expectations of your clients while ensuring your company has the ability to fulfil its obligations.

Is It The Right Job For Me?

If you are creative, work well under pressure, motivated and have the ability to get the best out of a team, you should consider becoming an account manager. Here are a few other key capabilities:

  • Confident and persuasive.
  • An excellent business sense with the ability to work within tight budgets.
  • Strong negotiation and presentation skills.
  • Well organised with time management skills.

If you liked the information provided in this Account Manager job description from the duties to salary to progression opportunities, then a career as Account Manager might be right for you.

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