Are you a good fit for client service in advertising ?
Who is the greatest band of all time? Who is the best actor or actress? Who has had the most impact on our world? Who was the greatest athlete of the modern era? What is the best restaurant? What makes a great scotch, great?
It depends.
Does it? On what though? Subjectivity and personal perspective? Objectivity through specific criteria-setting? Maybe a combination of both?
It depends.
The value and complexity of understanding a good account person
It depends on what you’re trying to “rank”. When it comes to determining and ranking what makes a good account person, I’ve come to realize that getting to any final or absolute answer is arguably less valuable than the thought process itself. At the end of the day, the question is more interesting when it comes to figuring out if a person would be a good fit for advertising.
It may seem like a cop out answer, but like any good presentation pitch, showing the thought process of how you got to your final idea IS part of explaining the idea.
In doing this exercise over the span of the last 3 months, I’ve read a few books, countless papers and surveyed a ton of people. I also had to take a look back at all my learnings from my 15 year career and the fact remains: it’s tough to put your finger on what makes a good account person, for the purpose of explaining it to someone who’s never done the job.
So many young coordinators get on this career path without really knowing what they’re in for and what the role entails. I’ve learned firsthand how complicated it can be to figure this job from the ground up and while that shouldn’t stop you, setting the right expectations will definitely equate to better growth.
As you may or may not know, client service is the department that manages the client accounts in an ad agency. While it may sound pretty straightforward, managing accounts, clients, and colleagues - in the context of an advertising agency - adds layers of complexity that aren’t typical for the average managerial job.
Secondly, there are hierarchical layers as every step of client service has its own set of realities and expectations. Thirdly, the job itself is constantly evolving due to the nature of the industry itself. More is expected every day out of the agency and the client service department is no exception to that.
Put all of that into consideration and compound it with the speed at which the day-to-day goes, the time it would take for agencies to properly onboard, and groom an account coordinator isn’t always realistic.
The unfortunate consequence of “trial by fire” can greatly contribute to how we burn young account people before they even start or worse, is that we create bad account people.
In all likelihood
If you’re at the front end of your career and you're looking to be an account coordinator, it can be of great value in contextualizing what is a complicated role. In doing this exercise, I’ve come to realize the easiest way for me to outline what it takes to be a good account and help you determine if you’re a good fit, is to use this approach: “If you’re (insert skill), then you’re likely to be (insert secondary skills)”.
For example: “If you’re a very “athletic” person, then you’re likely to be “disciplined”. If you’re “diplomatic”, then you’re also likely to be good at “persuasion”. Although this approach does rely on a series of assumptions, it should still give you a bit of context to each chosen skill as it outlines how they can be useful in your daily grind.
So let’s get to it, what makes a good account person? How can you gauge whether you’d be a good fit?
The top skill
If I had to pick one skill and one skill only that towers above them all, it would be this: being curious.
Here’s why. If you’re curious, you’re likely to:
Be good at asking questions and understand that asking questions isn’t a sign of weakness.
You also understand the importance of asking one pertinent question is more valuable than asking a lot of questions for the sake of justifying your presence.
Being able to ask pertinent questions means you’re likely to have a keen sense of observation. You pay attention and you listen actively.
If you do that, then you probably know how to read people: how to figure out what they want when they can’t verbalize it properly.
You can connect with them thanks to that (and more importantly), they connect with you.
It also means that you’re likely to value meaningful communication and exchanges.
By knowing how to ask the right questions, it means you probably have a thirst to understand. Until you have made sense of it all by asking all the right questions, you don’t move on.
You always want to know what other people do, how they do it, and why they do it the way they do it.
Being curious also means being resourceful (or capable) when necessary.
Being curious means you’re interested in knowing and that will take you a long way in this business, especially in client service.
Again, let’s be clear, it’s purely hypothetical that by simply being curious, you are also all of the above, but the odds are that some of these other traits are dormant in you somewhere in some form.
The top 3 skills
If I could pick three skills, I’d pick: being curious, good at building relationships, and being accountable.
If you’re good at building relationships you’re likely to:
Consider that the ups are just as important as the downs in a relationship. Meaning, you don’t shy away when the going gets tough between people. You’re accountable for 50% of the downs.
You value others and specifically what ties you together - that means you know the value of leveraging the downs to build stronger ties.
You also understand that a relationship needs to be maintained. If it’s not proactively fostered and nurtured, it will dwindle.
It also means that people tend to migrate and rally around you because you’ve given them a reason to. You’ve built trust.
Your ability to earn trust through meaningful and genuine ways helps you get the best out of people.
Above all, if you’re good at building relationships and trust, you’re likely a good communicator. Show me a genuinely healthy relationship and I’ll show you people who communicate well.
If you’re accountable you’re likely to:
Accept ownership of mistakes without letting them affect your sense of self-confidence. You know that a single mistake doesn’t define you globally as a person.
That requires a sense of self-awareness and that could very well mean you have a decent level of emotional intelligence.
Similarly, it helps you segregate events from people. It helps you not generalize. If a person fucks up, it doesn’t make THEM a fuck up.
Generally speaking, being accountable often equates to being open-minded.
It helps you navigate through nuances and find different solutions for different problems.
That openness and healthy link to “failure” means you’re also open to learning.
It likely means you’re also humble when it counts.
The top 5 skills
If I could pick five skills, I’d pick: being curious, relationship builder, accountable, structured and passionate
If you’re structured it means you’re likely to:
Be good at being on top of your work which can lead to helping others be on top of what they need to do...without necessarily being a control freak.
Being structured could also mean an ability to prioritize for yourself but for others as well.
It could also mean that you may have the ability to structure your thoughts, which can lead to clear and concise communication.
If you’re overly structured it may also facilitate your ability to declutter and look ahead. Your sense of organization can help you anticipate what’s coming which can be of great help to you, your clients, and those around you.
If you value structure and organization, you’re likely to value preparation as well, you’re likely to value setting and understanding expectations ahead of time.
If you’re passionate you’re likely to:
Get excited about some form of creativity, whether you’re creative as a person or not.
You’re likely to not shy away from calculated risks.
You’re also likely to have some kind of positive infectious energy that helps people around you level up.
It’s also not impossible that you’re the kind of person that doesn’t count their hours of work - which when approached in a healthy way - can lead to great things.
You’re also likely to have a hobby or something that drives you outside of your work, something that refuels you and brings you energy.
The real value of this exercise is to think about what the role needs rather than what a person needs to be: a fit. At the end of the day, it’s best for a person to stay true to themselves and if they can fit within what the role requires, there’s a chance they may thrive. As many advertising veterans will tell you, it takes a special breed of person to be in client service and make a meaningful career out of it. Forcing a fit may not be to your advantage.
In reality, there’s no guarantee with 100% certitude if someone has what it takes. Having said that, if you are a curious, passionate, individual who understands what it means to be accountable, values structure and that enjoys building relationships - chances are the role may suit you well.