Art of Account Management: Why Lori Bartle Believes in the Value of Productive Disagreements
After beginning her career in media sales, extending into client-side marketing and ultimately account and agency leadership, Lori has a track record of highly successful client partnerships and collaborations. With a focus on growth-oriented strategic planning, brand development, and brand innovation, she has led long-term collaborations among national and international brands with particular expertise in travel, entertainment, education, and the wine industry. (Do you see a pattern there?)
Taking her collective knowledge and expertise and putting them to work in a different capacity, she has started a consultancy called Cultivagency, to further develop and cultivate the mindsets, skill sets, and operational alignment to advance client leadership in agencies. Lori is also an official member of the Forbes Coaches Council.
LBB> How did you first get involved in account management and what appealed to you about it?
Lori> I almost missed my onramp into account management…as initially I passed on the opportunity to move from media into account management. I loved the process of strategic media planning and had a super smart boss who was giving me all kinds of opportunity for growth and learning.
So, when the call came from leadership that there was an opening in account management and they wanted me to take the job, I said, "Thank you very much, but no thank you." That lasted about a day. They called me into one of their big offices and ran through a long list of reasons I should want to make the move.
Most of it went in one ear and out the other…until they started talking about the chance to have more autonomy in the way I approached the work, guiding the client’s programme of work and making a difference in their business. That resonated with me – big time – and it was the best professional decision I ever made.
LBB> What is it about your personality, skills and experience that has made account management such a great fit?
Lori> As I mentioned, my first agency job was in the media department. But prior to that I was a media rep: print, then radio. When you work in local media sales, you are, in effect, functioning as a consultant to your direct clients.
So, when I made the switch, I was already wired for a business-first, consultative approach with my clients. It wasn’t overly aggressive and ‘salesy,’ but I wasn’t shy about digging in and uncovering opportunities to level up their strategy and their work. The clients responded well because I always connected the marketing to their business outcomes.
LBB> What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting their career in account management?
Lori> There are two distinct approaches to account management. One, in a sense, works for the client. They’re highly responsive, responsible to budgets and timing, and ultimately, reactive. The client is the one leading, for better or worse. The alternative approach can be considered as working for the business and brand.
They’re proactive… adopting a learning mentality with a relentless curiosity for business and industry knowledge… partnering with internal teams and the client to ultimately do what’s right to move the business forward and drive growth. Our industry needs more of the latter approach. That combination of knowledge-based partnering and proactivity is extremely valuable and will carry you far in your career.
LBB> Thinking back to some of your most challenging experiences you’ve had in your career, what do you think tends to lie at the heart of the more tense or difficult client-agency relationships?
Lori> When I was younger, I might have come up with an answer around insecurities or egos getting in the way. But today I believe it’s a lack of alignment, that goes back to the start of the client-agency relationship. The key to building a productive and healthy relationship (which was your next question) is having honest and assertive discussions at the very beginning about what kind of relationship we are going to have.
We need to be crystal clear about how they want to work, what they value in a relationship, and whether it’s going to be a true partnership (or something else). Knowing where we stand at the beginning will help us to develop the appropriate vision and goals for the relationship, the work and the business. And with that foundation, we’re better able to hold each other accountable to those expectations.
LBB> What’s your view on disagreement and emotion - is there a place for it and if not, why not? If so, why - and what does productive disagreement look like?
Lori> I love this question! If you believe effective marketing and advertising is an emotional proposition (which I do!) then you must allow for disagreement and emotion as part of the process.
Productive disagreement can be rooted in the various perspectives that exist among the client and agency team. Effective client leaders know the importance of receiving and processing those perspectives so all viable and appropriate scenarios can be considered. Then, what’s great about today is that we can bring our tools and technology to the party, neutralising any overly emotional subjectivity and make an informed, data-driven decision.
LBB> Historically, account management has been characterised as the mediator in an adversarial client and creative relationship - what do you make of that characterisation, is there any nugget of truth in that or is it wildly inaccurate?
Lori> Yikes - isn’t mediation a precursor to divorce? This goes back to alignment at the start, which should alleviate the conditions that lead to adversarial dynamics.
But if it’s an issue, proactive client leaders can drive value in the relationship (as opposed to putting a band-aid on it with mediation) by building and implementing a client engagement plan that creates opportunities for the client and creative team to get to know and understand each other outside of the pressurised work-specific process. We’re in this together with our clients, so let’s ensure both parties feel heard and understood when it comes to their world and their motivations.
LBB> These days, agencies do so much beyond traditional campaigns and as account management you’re pulling together creative, experience, data, e-commerce, social and more - and that complexity can often be mirrored on the client stakeholder side too? What’s the key to navigating (and helping the client navigate) that complexity?
Lori> A big, beautiful, clear vision for where we want to go with the client’s business. With that as our north star, we can be relentlessly focused with an integrated, innovative planning approach that leverages the collective brainpower and talent across all the disciplines.
LBB> What recent projects are you proudest of and why? What was challenging about these projects from an account management perspective and how did you address those challenges? What was so satisfying about working on these projects?
Lori> I’m my new capacity as a consultant focused on partnering with agencies to advance client leadership, I heard very clearly the need for account teams to develop business acumen, enhancing their ability to be informed, proactive partners for their internal teams, their clients and to grow the business.
In other words, you must know the business to grow the business. In response, I developed and introduced a new training curriculum called 'Building Business Acumen'. Inspired by my favourite MBA business course, it is a six-session learning and development experience focused on the fundamentals of business, understanding business context and enhancing one’s ability and confidence to speak the language of business.
Although the first cohort let me know loud and clear that I may have put too much on their plate (considering the demands of their day-to-day agency workload), those who completed the work described it as an ‘enjoyable challenge’ that helped them to grow their skills and their confidence.
I’m incredibly proud to report that the pre and post polling showed confidence in their ability to speak the language of business and strategy grew by 9% and 25% respectively. Confidence and self-efficacy are real accelerants to the leadership mindset and behaviours, so I’m thrilled with this initial success, and excited to offer a 2nd cohort this fall.
