Why Account Management Needs a Rebrand
Before founding her client leadership consultancy, Cultivagency, in 2023, Lori Bartle spent the best part of 30 years in account and agency leadership. Initially beginning her career in media sales, she is a former board member of Worldwide Partners, Inc and also experienced the business client-side. Her first agency job was in DDB’s media department, and soon switched, somewhat reluctantly, to account management, only to find that it was her true calling. “It definitely was the right decision for me, the best decision I ever made,” she tells LBB.
After nearly a decade focused on new business, Lori turned her attention back to her passion, advising and helping account teams to develop. This sparked three years of reading and research, which has culminated in a self-published book: ‘The Agency Within Us’ - a plan for adding value to your agency’s brand of account management.
The book establishes that if account management was a brand, it would be considered stale and in need of an overhaul. It highlights several issues, including how the discipline has become confused with project management, causing its value proposition to suffer.
The book also aims to ‘refuel the agency’ - meaning human agency - of account management groups within their organisations. Lori writes that this is the key to ‘successfully transcending from a passive, reactive and executional brand of account management into something that is proactive and drives real strategic value’.
“Those who have been around this business for longer than 15 years know that a kickass account group can be a game changer for clients and agencies. It hasn't been as strong as it used to be, so a lot of people don't know what is possible,” she says.
“Great account and client leaders still exist… But unfortunately, they have become a rarity - the exception rather than the rule. A great client leader drives value by cultivating growth. They're leaders of collaboration, and terrific influencers of creativity. The great ones give important, meaty contributions.”
LBB’s Ben Conway caught up with Lori to discuss her findings from writing the book, and her proposal for giving account management a much-needed rebrand.
LBB> Why do you believe the industry understands less about the role and value of account management today than, say, 15 years ago?
Lori> A lot of people will say it started with the ‘08 recession because we lost a lot of people. The depth chart got much thinner, the work was piled on, and now instead of being proactive, they're reactive. But there's other things, too.
There's project work that’s less conducive to leadership. We tend to be in triggered a tonne of executional work, which can be overwhelming and blur the line with project management.
The rise of project management has also definitely been a factor. If you don't have strong client leaders, I can see how these disciplines could become confused with each other. So that's definitely been an issue.
Last is what I call ‘the triumvirate of strategy, media and creative’. They're going to take the ball and run with it, and unless the account leader is really strong with a strong, informed point of view, it's very easy to become the note taker and the facilitator.
But the biggest hit has probably been a result of the slimming margins that we've all been living with. This ‘do less with more’ mandate that’s resulted in virtually no talent development.
So it’s been coming from a lot of different angles and it's my opinion that this group can't dig its way out on its own. This is a leadership issue. It's an agency issue. And we need to make some different choices in order for this group to really thrive again. It's taken 15 to 20 years to get here, so it's going to take a while to turn it around.
"This group can't dig its way out on its own. This is a leadership issue. It's an agency issue. And we need to make some different choices in order for this group to really thrive again."
LBB> What are some of these choices?
Lori> One of the devices in the book to get people thinking differently, is to think about account management as if it were a brand - so we could be more objective and more strategic in our evaluation of it. Right now, we think about them as people, and as a legacy discipline, so it’s cloudy and hard for people to tackle it.
The vernacular we use - ‘management’ and ‘service’ - is not getting us anywhere. Management is now confused with project management. Service is tied to order-taking - which as we all know, nobody wants to do. So as our new North Star, we need to think about and strive for leadership. If we start with that and think that's what this role is here to do - to lead - then it starts to change everything.
We need to look at that delineation between project management and account management, and really create differentiation between the two. We've got to give aspiring client leaders the tools to get back to being critical thinkers and strategic contributors. It will not be easy, but I think it will be empowering for people, and more satisfying
Above: Lori Bartle, Cultivagency founder and author, 'The Agency Within Us’
LBB> If things can’t return to how they were, and the current situation isn’t working, how would you describe the ideal modern role for modern account management?
Lori> It's moving away from the idea of being a generalist, which I don't think has done our discipline any favours, and [instead] being a specialist in our clients’ business. Nobody is better positioned to specialise in our clients’ business and brand than the account team. Day in and day out, being fully immersed and on top of it, knowing and understanding that business holistically, not just the part that we're working on.
This is a shift. You've got to train people so they understand not just what's happening with their client but what's happening in the industry...and where the industry is heading. Being business-focused gives them the foundation to build their voice, have an informed opinion, and be at the table as part of the decision makers.
That's my belief, and it's missing. Everybody needs to be more grounded in the business, and this group can be the SMEs [subject matter experts] of our clients’ business. Going back to the device of thinking about account management as a brand, that's our point of difference.
"We've got to give these guys the tools to get back to being critical thinkers and strategic contributors... Nobody is better positioned to specialise in our clients’ business and brand than the account team."
LBB> How would you suggest agencies seek and train this new generation of ‘SME’ account management talent? You yourself began in media sales and worked client-side at points - does that shape your approach?
Lori> Yes, it does. Coming up the traditional pathway is not necessarily the best way. We bring young account people in, they start out as an account coordinator, and their focus is really narrow. It's budgets, timing and basic project management…and it's hard to break out of it! They need to understand all of the other disciplines on a much deeper level, so cross-training is definitely something that we need to figure out.
[When] recruiting for this role, people complain about how hard it is to find qualified client leaders. My idea is to look beyond the account discipline. Maybe they're a media person who's very strategic and has a great rapport with a client. Maybe they’re a sales rep, because they’re not afraid to talk about numbers and sales. Different experiences and perspectives can really help a person to excel in this role.
Hire from the client side! When you work client-side, believe me, every day you’re aware of what is going on at the business level - that’s drilled into you. That business-first mindset is what’s needed to help make this change.
"People complain about how hard it is to find qualified client leaders. My idea is to look beyond the account discipline… coming up the traditional pathway is not necessarily the best way."
LBB> What were some key findings from your research and writing process for the book?
Lori> One of the first findings - and I heard this qualitatively before it was proved quantitatively - was that there's a clear desire to move from this reactive state to one with more initiative and proactivity. So I started to study proactivity as a behavioural concept, and it didn’t take too long to find the concept of human agency – which is where the name of the book comes in. Having agency within an agency was just very interesting to me.
As I studied, I learned that high agency and leadership are linked. Leaders are likely to have a highly developed sense of human agency, and people with high agency are very likely to take on the challenge of leadership. So this becomes a new thought process for account people to step into the leadership mindset and behaviours.
"We have to hold them equally accountable and create space for them to do that work. But let's start by getting on the same page with what that contribution needs to look like."
Another really telling finding was that there's a big gap in perception of the account management group’s contribution [to the agency] between the account management team and the rest of the agency. Account management were almost twice as favourable about their contribution to creativity and big ideas. That suggests somebody's not being honest. That wouldn't happen if we were crystal clear with expectations - but we haven't been.
In fact, in some agencies, there are double standards for account teams within the same group. One set of expectations exist for one team because they have more skill, and other teams are allowed to underperform. We can't have that, it's unfair and confusing. We've got to get on the same page.
This goes back again to the language. If your North Star is to deliver leadership, then what you're doing in order to get there becomes much more clear. We have to hold them [account management teams] equally accountable. But let's start by getting on the same page with what that contribution needs to look like.
LBB> Are there challenges to implementing this recognition or almost new definition of account management on an industry scale?
Lori> There is a desire for more brand-defining work. There's been some questions about the creativity in the industry, so if we better understood the business and the brand - and if we can agree that's the main role of the account person - then there's room for the work to get better, and to more effectively correlate the work to business outcomes.
We just have to keep bringing it back to the business. And that's what the industry should want, right? There's a lot of talk that the agency model is broken, and I don't necessarily agree with that, but I do think that the account management function is broken and that's the disconnect that I think we need to all recognize and talk more about. This is a pivotal role and if it's underperforming, then an agency is at a disadvantage.
There’s a line in the book: “Killer brand and campaign metrics won’t save us if the business isn’t growing. Killer account teams, on the other hand, who proactively widen the lens and keep teams apprised of the bigger picture… they can keep us from falling into ‘save mode’ in the first place.”
"Killer brand and campaign metrics won’t save us if the business isn’t growing. Killer account teams, on the other hand, who proactively widen the lens and keep teams apprised of the bigger picture… they can keep us from falling into ‘save mode’ in the first place."
LBB> If not broken, the agency model is certainly shifting - with more project work and fewer AOR relationships, for example. How is that affecting things?
Lori> Yes, we mentioned some of the challenge of project work earlier. Nobody takes project work on without the hope of turning it into something [long-term], and our chances of success are much better if the account team has the wherewithal to make some inroads and establish more of a partnership with the client.
But, what AI can do for an account team in terms of getting smarter, faster is amazing. Training will help to be able to think about it critically and put it into context, but the information is there right at our fingertips within minutes or even seconds. So, Account Management's embrace of AI is something that I’m definitely encouraging and working on with agencies. Time is money. Time is precious. And we need to use these tools to help our whole team get smarter, faster and better equipped to convert projects into long-term relationships.
"Why are we allowing account management to languish like that? This is a cutthroat business. If any other discipline was underperforming like this, we would be on it."
LBB> Did anything surprise you while researching or writing the book?
Lori> The reception to the very idea of a book about account management has been surprisingly positive. It's very affirming because we hardly ever talk about it or the challenges associated with it. But the most surprising thing was that my data really didn't surprise anybody. The response sometimes was like, ‘No shit, Sherlock’ - and so then, why?
Why are we allowing account management to languish? This is a cutthroat business. If any other discipline was underperforming like this - your creative, strategy or media team - we (as agencies or as an industry) would be on it. But in this case, they know that there's a problem but they’re not doing anything about it? Really?
LBB> Why has there been that apathy?
Lori> Probably because there are so many other moving parts in an agency - and I get that! Look at all the change that's happened in the last 10 to 15 years. Account management is a group that is kind of selfless, and maybe they haven’t advocated for themselves the way the other disciplines do. But to succeed in leading clients, we need resources, we need talent development, we need space to think.
There isn’t one silver bullet, but the fact that there was all this knowledge and just not any real appetite for action means it's time for someone like myself to raise awareness of the issue and of the opportunity. We've got big problems to solve in this business and a really effective account group and discipline can make a difference.
If there's one stone left unturned, let's turn it over. We complain about the state of our agency-client relationships. Well, what about the people on the front lines with our clients? They can set the tone for better or worse, and so, let’s all work together to make it for the better.
