Held To Account

FP7 boss Sasan Saeidi lays down his ground rules for good account management

At almost every agency on the planet, I bet you can find a negative point of view about “client servicing”. I despise that term, and believe that this very labeling has led to behavioral change and is one reason our business has lost some of its value. That department is called unpleasant names – paper pushers, bad suits, wastes of space – and the days when its status was elevated have gone.

Account management, as I want to call it, is not dead yet, but it needs immediate cardiac rehab if it is going to survive.

As planner turned suit, and now CEO, I have a personal point of view on the importance of good account management for our business. My humble advice is from the heart, so I will use an appropriate analogy.

An electrocardiogram detects your heart’s electrical activity. It can show how fast your heart is beating and whether its rhythm is steady.

Account management has had an irregular heartbeat for a while now, leading it to perform at sub-par levels, and the industry in general has not conducted regular ECGs to ensure all impulses are functioning properly.

Account management as a function has become more redundant over past years. It is simply not pumping the energy needed for an agency to function in its true form. This makes me sad, as the role has immense importance – not just for the creative product, but also for client management, product integration, growth, relationships and the reputational excellence of the agency.

I have worked with some brilliant planning and account management women leaders over the years. From them and years on the job, I have learned all that I know today, and I want to outline some pointers that have worked for me. I believe that if these basics are applied today, a lot of the arrhythmia that this function is experiencing can be rectified and the entire organ salvaged.

1. YOU ARE CONSULTING, NOT SERVICING