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Internet Marketing Account Management?
Written By wrttnwrd on Oct. 18, 2007.
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Last week I posted about issues within my company. After a weekend and some good advice, those problems don't seem so serious. The real issue, I think, is the lack of good account management.
I've made, I think, some bad hires in this area. The old account management model doesn't work in the internet world (duh).
The folks I hired were plenty smart. But they just couldn't handle the clients. They passed information back and forth between my team and my clients, no problem. But the clients ran roughshod over them as far as setting priorities and sticking to a smart marketing strategy. And in the end, that's what they're paying us for.
If you've had experience as an internet marketing account manager, or hiring them, or working with them, can you help me out by describing what worked, what didn't, etc.?
lorenjohnson
Written Oct. 31, 2007 / Report /
In my own web business strategic consulting of one form or another is where I begin working with most of my clients and something I continue throughout the work cycle. Though there are plenty of technical pieces of my job which I'm happy to hand-off to others, the direct relationship with the client themselves is the most valuable (for them and me both) part of my work. Web strategy is a very dynamic thing and with many clients your hired reps will have to have enough knowledge and fortitude to make strong reccomendations sometimes against the client's first assumption. This requires very good bedside manor, a clear head and confidence.
Without this strategic consulting layer happening I think that most web projects are bound for failure of one sort or another. Can you hire people to do that with your clients, sure. Is it hard to find people with enough knowledge and experience to do the job that aren't already employed or running their own consultancy? Yes, very.