Welcome to Episode 50. This milestone episode is with Tom Ollerton, Founder of Automated Creative. If you're interested in seeing how artificial intelligence is being used by agencies right now, with some of the world's biggest client brands, to improve advertising performance, I think you're going to love this episode. If you're an account manager, you're looking for a new role, who likes the sound of working with such cutting edge technology and making an impact with his blue chip clients plea...
Nov 30, 2021•36 min•Ep. 50
Today's episode will be particularly beneficial for you if you're an agency owner looking to grow. I chat to ‘Agencynomics’ co-author, Peter Hoole, about some common challenges faced by agency owners today, when it comes to business growth. We also talk about: • the importance of looking at your team's skill set to make sure everyone's sitting in the right seats • what point in the agency's revenue growth does an agency typically employ their first account manager? • And the implications of havi...
Nov 16, 2021•58 min•Ep. 49
Welcome to Episode 48. This episode is for you if you want to use LinkedIn in more effectively to grow your business, or to help your account management career. James Potter enlightens me on so many things I didn't realise about LinkedIn. We talk about: - why it's useful to know who could be looking at your profile - what typically holds business leaders back from posting - how to avoid making awful faux pas when connecting with people - the benefits of being more selective about who you add to ...
Nov 02, 2021•49 min•Ep. 48
Welcome to Episode 47. Have you ever wondered why sometimes you're just in flow at work? You're doing something you love, time seems to just stand still. And you feel like you could do this task for ages. And sometimes you're doing tasks that feel heavy, hard, difficult. And you look at someone else doing it and then think, why did why does that come so easy. I've invited business and performance coach Osman Sharif, to talk to us about how understanding your own unique superpower can help you en...
Oct 19, 2021•56 min•Ep. 47
Welcome to Episode 46, with Robert Solomon. He's the author of the must read book for anyone in agency account management, 'The Art of Client Service'. In this chat, we talked about: - why there are fewer account managers doing more with much less experience - why some people believe the account manager role is becoming extinct and what we both think about that - and why often the work of great account management isn't recognised. Robert also talks us through his approach to managing difficult c...
Oct 05, 2021•58 min•Ep. 46
Welcome to Episode 45. Today's chat with Richard Long, Director of Strategy & Communications at earthware will be particularly interesting for you if you're curious to understand how management consultancies operate versus agencies, and why they could potentially be posing a threat to your agency business. This is going to be particularly relevant if you're working in healthcare communications, because Richard currently works for an independent healthcare digital agency, but was also working...
Aug 27, 2021•50 min•Ep. 45
Welcome to Episode 44. In this episode, I talk to Alex Raymond from Kapta about everything to do with account management processes. Not project management systems, not CRM systems, but having a dedicated system to guide the agency account management team, when it comes to managing and delve developing existing client relationships. Kapta is a key account management platform. We chatted about: - the importance of having a client development plan - the value of running quarterly business reviews -...
Aug 24, 2021•51 min•Ep. 44
Welcome to Episode 43. This episode is for you if you're interested in the role of agency Client Services Director, or maybe you're just curious to see how our copywriting and content marketing agency works. Nina Whittaker is CSD for Stratton Craig, and she talked about everything to do with the CSD role: - the skills you need - the challenges you might find - and how she also adds value to her clients and keeps ahead of her clients' changing needs. I hope you enjoy the chat with Nina and have c...
Aug 17, 2021•49 min•Ep. 43
Creative agencies live and die by their ability to get, keep and grow clients. If you're a creative agency leader or in agency account management and want some useful insights and tips then listen to this episode. It's a compilation of soundbites from my guests who have shared some brilliant golden nuggets during the year I have been recording the podcast.
Aug 03, 2021•22 min•Ep. 42
Welcome to Episode 41. In this episode, Phil Cookson and I talk about the current trends in the creative agency recruitment space. We talk about why agencies are struggling to hire right now, what they need to do differently to attract the right people, how the market is evolving. And there are also some tips for you if you are currently looking for a role and you want to find the right agency. I hope you enjoy this chat with Phil. I certainly did. A quick reminder that my next Account Accelerat...
Jul 25, 2021•51 min•Ep. 41
Welcome to Episode 40. For this week's podcast, I was delighted to speak to Zoe Scaman. We talked about the creator economy and fandoms; why the traditional agency business model is under threat, and we talked about her recent article called Mad Men Furious Women, in which she talks about misogyny in the ad industry. I hope you enjoy this episode with Zoe and come away as inspired as I was. If you're not already doing so, I'd highly recommend you follow Zoe on Twitter @zoescaman.
Jul 20, 2021•48 min•Ep. 40
Welcome to Episode 39. This episode's for you if you're an account manager managing client relationships on a day to day basis. In this episode, I'm going to share with you three key steps to leading a client meeting. One of the many roles of an account manager is to lead meetings where you may have several clients involved, and also several members of the agency team. This might be a presentation of your new ideas, or it could be campaign results, or even you might be conducting a post project ...
Jul 13, 2021•11 min•Ep. 39
Welcome to Episode 38. This is part two of a two part interview with Simon Rhind-Tutt and Carey Evans from Relationship Audits and Management. If you didn't catch the first part, I would urge you to go back to Episode 37 and make sure that you listen to that one, because we covered the three themes of their interviews with hundreds of clients over the last year: - Is your agency fit for purpose? - Are you nimble enough? - Are you communicating in the best way? This episode, we're going to cover ...
Jul 06, 2021•34 min•Ep. 38
Welcome to Episode 37. This is part one of a two part interview with Simon Rhind-Tutt and Carey Evans from Relationship Audits and Management. They've put together a report summarising what clients are telling them about agencies. They've taken this data from hundreds of interviews that they've conducted with clients over the last year. There are six themes in total, and they talk us through each theme, share some insights, share some quotes from clients, and then, most importantly, what they be...
Jun 29, 2021•26 min•Ep. 37
Episode 36 is all about personal branding. I spoke to experts in this area, Ryan O'Keeffe, and Steve Richards from Jago. They work with entrepreneurs, business leaders and employees and they've done a lot of work with agencies and agency owners particularly. They share some really powerful insights and tips, not only how personal branding works for agency owners, but also how it can benefit agency account managers. We cover: What is personal branding? Why is it important to pay attention to your...
Jun 22, 2021•52 min•Ep. 36
This week I invited my good friend, Ceylan Boyce to talk to us about strategic thinking and getting brief writing right. We talked about: Why it's so important for an agency account manager to have that important skill of writing briefs Why it's important to agencies and clients to get the writing of the brief right What's the implication of having a shitty brief Where briefs go wrong and some of the important elements to include in a good brief. I'm also asked J to share some experiences that s...
Jun 15, 2021•39 min•Ep. 35
Welcome to Episode 34. One of the things that account managers who come on my Account Accelerator programme tell me is that they have a barrier to growing existing business, because they don't feel like they're talking to the decision maker. They say that their client contact is not senior enough, or a major decision maker, and therefore, are not really going to be open to new thoughts, new ideas, and have any authority to open the door to other people within the organisation, or to say yes or n...
Jun 08, 2021•12 min•Ep. 34
This episode's for you if you have a difficult client situation to manage. At some point or other as an agency account manager, we have to manage difficult clients. It's kind of part of the job. And in this interview, I love how Dr. Mark Goulston weaves some practical tips and examples of how to manage difficult people into his engaging stories. If you're old enough to remember the OJ Simpson case, like I am, he also shares how he was subpoenaed to appear at the trial, and how he handled the mom...
Jun 01, 2021•47 min•Ep. 33
Welcome to Episode 32. In this episode, I chat to Matt and Emma in the account management team at Purpose Media. They've shared with us their tips and insights into their role. And they've shared: - how they approach client management - how they run their discovery workshops - the key questions they asked their clients at the beginning of the relationship - and how they always aim to position themselves as trusted advisors to their clients from the start. There's lots more. I think this chat wil...
May 25, 2021•41 min•Ep. 32
Welcome to Episode 31. This episode's for you if you're interested in the idea of podcasting becoming part of your new business strategy. Perhaps you've been considering having podcast for a while. Or maybe you've got one already, and you're looking for some tips to make it even better. Or maybe you're just simply open to the idea of having a podcast or maybe you're dead against it. Hopefully, Nathan Anibaba is going to shed some light on this. He is an expert in this area, having hosted his own...
May 18, 2021•37 min•Ep. 31
This episode is for you if you're interested in the finance and operations side of the agency business. Mark Probert is an expert in helping agencies scale fast. In this episode, he shares with me some of the most useful financial benchmarks that high growth agencies use, such as what a healthy financial position looks like in terms of liquidity, typical revenue, target per staff member, average billable rates, and lots more. He also shares why agencies are hiring ahead of the business need curr...
May 11, 2021•46 min•Ep. 30
This episode is for you if you're interested in the role of account management within an app development company. Tim Moore, account director at Sonin joined me. He shared his experience of working in an app development agency; what he believes makes a successful account manager in his agency, the typical types of projects he gets to work on, and he also talked through the process that they follow from initial concept all the way through to final app development. This is a fascinating episode, I...
May 03, 2021•37 min•Ep. 29
Welcome to Episode 28. This episode's for you if you're interested in managing other people. Maybe you're in an account manager role now and you're thinking that the next step up for you is going to be an account director role, where you're going to be responsible for a team. And you're wondering what skills you need and how you should prepare yourself for the role. So I persuaded an expert to come and talk to us. We talked all about how to manage other people, and what skills you need to do the...
Apr 27, 2021•48 min•Ep. 28
Welcome to Episode 27. This is the top 10 tips to be successful in agency account management. And the reason that I'm giving you top 10 tips is because we've now passed 26 episodes on this podcast, and we've had some fantastic guests sharing really, really brilliant advice for agency account managers to up their game, to be more proficient in what they do, and to be much more successful in their role. So I thought what I'd do is reflect back on some of those interviews, and pull out some of the ...
Apr 20, 2021•25 min•Ep. 27
This episode is for you, if you're interested in improving your listening. You're going to learn why listening is a strategy and not skill; the only way we can tell if someone's listening to us, which I found really fascinating; some great tips for training yourself to listen better; and also why there are four listening habits, and how you can assess which listening dominance you have, and how that can help you connect better with others. I think there are loads of tips here for account manager...
Apr 13, 2021•46 min•Ep. 26
This episode's for you if you are looking to create more rapport with your clients and build trust. Dr Mark Goulston explains why empathy is so powerful and why people are afraid to empathise in business. He talked about how you can get your clients to trust you and you'll be asking yourself are you a plus-er or a minus-er or a topper? I hope you enjoy the chat with Mark and come away with a few ideas for how you could perhaps empathise more with your clients. If you would like to receive a week...
Apr 06, 2021•43 min•Ep. 25
Today's episode was a real treat. For me, I have the pleasure of talking to David C. Baker, who is a legend in the agency world. We discussed everything to do with account management, including why David thinks the account management role is the most difficult role in the whole agency. Also the problem with account managers doing project management tasks, where he sees performance deficiencies in account management, and some brilliant advice for how to address those deficiencies, and also up you...
Mar 26, 2021•48 min•Ep. 24
This episode is for you if you're working for a creative/digital agency and are thinking about becoming an agency owner. It's also one to listen to if you're in a planning role (sometimes referred to an agency strategist) or are wondering whether your talents might be suited to this role. Simon Barbato is the founder of Mr. B and Friends. Like me he started his career in advertising in the 1990s in client service. He quickly then transitioned into a strategist/planner role and then eventually be...
Mar 23, 2021•47 min•Ep. 23
In this episode Martin Lucas, Mathematical Psychologist and Founder of the company Gap In the Matrix is about to blow the lid off many of the sacred cows in the agency world. He has spent four years studying why humans don't understand humans and how brands are missing a trick when it comes to engaging their customers and understanding why they make purchasing decisions. Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy said this about Martin's company: "Gap In the Matrix is one of a tiny number of peopl...
Mar 16, 2021•50 min•Ep. 22
This episode is for you if you're in a digital agency project management role or are aspiring to work in project management in an agency. It's also for you if you're an agency leader who is looking to ensure the role of the project manager runs smoothly. Nadine Schofield is the Founder of Project Management on Demand and she'll be sharing with us: * The core (hard and soft) skills you need to be an effective project manager * Where agencies go wrong with approaching project management * The diff...
Mar 09, 2021•39 min•Ep. 21
