Account executives are quite popular among professional business people because they are known for their very high mobility. All of this mobility is useful in achieving company business. At first glance, this position is often mistaken for Sales or Marketing. In fact, their duties are very different, you know! What exactly is meant by Account Executive? And why are many fresh graduates interested in this position?
What is an Account Executive?
Account Executive is a person who bridges the company and client in terms of finding out the client’s wishes. The bridging action can take the form of meetings, brainstorming, even even small talk. This position is often mistaken for Sales and Marketing. Truly it is very different. Indeed, Account Executives are still interested in sales. However, sales and marketing activities by Account Executives do not relate directly to goods sold and use offer letters in offering company products or services.
The most obvious example of an Account Executive position is in the field of advertising. They will focus on finding companies that fill the ad slots they have and make sure that the costs incurred by the company are quite commensurate with the benefits of advertising. Because they have to convince others, their appearance must be neat and attractive to be more professional and convincing by the client
Account Executive Responsibilities
Account Executives have several key responsibilities that they must fulfill while working for the company. This responsibility also plays a role in evaluating the performance of the extent to which an Account Executive is able to carry it out, following his responsibilities:
- Attend meetings with clients to discuss products
- Identify client needs
- Providing products that meet the needs based on market research
- Develop ideas for marketing
- Make a product introduction plan to the client
- Finding out the most effective way to get good impressions from clients
- Analyze costs or sales budget
- Monitor the application of marketing ideas
- Evaluate the application of marketing ideas in a certain period
Account Executive Required Skills
Besides looking attractive and strong attending many meetings with clients, a professional Account Executive is also required to have some skills to improve their competitiveness when promoting or even negotiating with clients. What are the required skills?
Sales
Although not directly related to sales, an Account Executive must understand the sales process and how the sales team works. That is because the goods must be convinced to the client itself.
Communication
Communication is important in this position, it takes quality communication skills both verbal and nonverbal to attract and maintain good relationships with clients.
Negotiation
Because they often meet and look for solutions for the mutual benefit of the client, the ability to negotiate is an absolute must have in order to reach a mutually beneficial agreement between the company and client.
Project management
Because it handles more than one client, project management capabilities are needed to monitor whether the relationships with various clients at once are well established.
Strategic Planning
Planning must pay attention to even small details in order to assess the vices of each client and help plan appropriate and accurate strategy in dealing with clients.
Presentation
Competent ability in presentation is needed to convince the client of the product offered. All ideas and concepts must be presented with clarity so that misunderstandings do not occur.
Account Executive Duties
The main task of an Account Executive is to approach and offer a variety of companies to produce a profitable partnership, Here are the tasks:
Maintaining an old client
the first is to retain clients who have collaborated with the company so that relationships can remain established. The ability to retain clients is created from high curiosity and the ability to explore business needs. So as to be able to identify opportunities and potential for new collaborations that might not have existed so far. By doing this, the old client will feel comfortable working with the company.
Looking for a new client
Not only retaining old clients, Account Executives are also required to find and attract potential potential clients to create more business for the company. The new client is based on certain targets to bring new clients and increase the company’s business sales.
Maintain customer satisfaction
Maintaining client satisfaction can be done by consistently asking for feedback about the company as a vendor. Feedback also makes clients feel more valued and listened to their opinions and provides strategic advice that contributes to the company’s sustainable growth. The feedback collected can be a strategic component for the next period.
Collecting and Analyzing Data
Collect and analyze important data to help companies determine the ideal service and the right growth targets. The data analysis can include information about client behavior, industry trends, and growth potential for each new client.
This data will be useful not only when searching for potential new clients for the company but can also help inform the picture of the company’s sales strategy.
Eliminates threats from competitors
the last is ensuring that the client or prospective client does not turn to competitors. To avoid this, the Account Executive can use the identification of advantages and disadvantages of competitors and then recognize the appropriate client needs. That way the company can always be superior to competitors.
Hard work and dedication is absolutely essential to become an Account Executive. Thus, it is expected that prospective employees who want an Account Executive position can improve their abilities for the achievement of professionalism and appropriate skills.
Experienced Recruiter with a demonstrated history of working in the media production industry. Strong human resources professional with a Bachelor’s degree focused in Psychology from Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana.