I fully subscribe to the saying that time is money. Whether it’s billable hours or my own free time, in my world, time has a price that I value greatly. I do not get the sense that everyone shares this point of view; at least not in any consistent manner.
I will be the first to admit I am not perfect & have made my share of mistakes & thus have wasted people’s time. There are plenty of quotes & cliches related to mistakes & learning from them. I will not take the obvious route & choose one, but would like to think I’ve learned plenty.
I have been involved in account management in some capacity (mostly in an agency environment) for 10 years now. Over that time, I have had great mentors to learn from while also given the opportunity to observe, first-hand, some fairly poor account management practices. Most of these gaffes are avoidable by simply having half a brain & giving a shit preparing. Sounds simple, right? Yet the ineptitude I observe on a semi-frequent basis ceases to amaze me.
Admittedly, preparing can be tedious, overly time-consuming, & difficult. The majority of us are over-worked & could use some help. But that’s just it; we’re all in the same boat. So start pulling your own weight! It sucks…we all want someone to put this stuff together for us, especially those of us who have “paid our dues”. However, at the end of the day it is the people paying the bills (clients) who need to be happy. They are just looking for ways to succeed in a tough economy & in some instances are under more pressure than we are.
I could get into things like personal work ethic & pride, but the bottom line remains the same. If you don’t do it, no one will. Get it done. Knowing when we last spoke, what it was about, what the open projects/tasks/issues are, how we are going to proceed, & how we are measuring up against key metrics is a nice start. Bad account management is costing your company & clients money. The longer it takes me to spend my money with you, the smaller the amount of my budget for you becomes.
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