“Creative may win the business, but the account management keeps the business.”

Time was when you could walk into a veteran account person’s office and see an array of framed photographs of this agency pro with a number of well-known and high profile clients. The photos showed proof of friendships and seemed to deliver on the value proposition of trust.

Is it just us or does it appear as though this message has gone the way of the dinosaur—extinct and uninteresting? It seems that not a day goes by where we don’t read of another big brand tossing an agency after what seemed to be a pretty short run. Often the creative gets blamed or the campaign didn’t deliver on proposed results. But are account service people partly responsible for simply not doing their jobs?

We would never argue that there’s not often a valid reason for an agency review. And perhaps the account service was more than adequate. But if the account people bonded with the client, if they were able to read and understand the clients’ true needs would they really be tossed like last weeks left over pasta?

It is hard not to believe that the core values once “carved in stone” are still there and held in high regard. But perhaps account people aren’t doing a good job of marketing themselves. On our side it is just assumed that they are still the underpinning of a mutually beneficial client/agency relationship. After all, “didn’t we save your proverbial behind just the other day when you (client) failed to tell us that your corporate brochure was promised to your boss last week?” This example is not meant to be reviewed as a blame game or to highlight a client’s inadequacy. We believe the value of a good account goes beyond traditional metrics. It’s about relationships.

Building Trust Based Relationships

“We see them as an extension of our marketing department”.

That’s the very best kind of compliment one can get from a client. It means a great deal more than delivering a project on time.

A good account person should make the client relationship a number one priority. That does not include blindingly pushing a project through the appropriate timeline and writing good contact reports. It’s about understanding a client’s business and understanding what is valuable to them. So we say to our account people, “go ahead and ask them questions.” It includes forward-thinking; a discipline that means you consider what is best for their business. It’s about going the extra distance to understand why they do business the way they do so you can apply that learning to working with your creative team on the next assignment. The result of that is called insight.

Understanding how to make clients successful

At Henderson Robb we focus on results, aka ROI. Budgets are crunching and we need to be accountable for our marketing programs. This is very valuable in any integrated marketing approach. But we are also referring to client results. Good, inquisitive and diligent client service will help us understand how to make you, the clients, successful. The result of our efforts may prove to be more valuable than delivering on the web metrics report on its own.

We take the time to know our clients’ business. We encourage clients to show that they care about what we do and how we do it. As far as being tossed out like last week’s pasta, we truly hope not, unless it’s gone bad of course.