Over the past seven years, I’ve worked with all different types of clients in account management at various agencies. I’ve found that some clients look to their agency for help and advice on their brand, some want their agencies to execute on ideas they formulate, and others aren’t exactly sure what they want. But one thing remains true no matter what — communication with all types of clients is the key to maintaining a good relationship. According to marketingforecast.com, “Marketing decision makers say they are most frustrated by advertising and Web design agencies that are not proactive, don’t communicate well, and fail to understand their clients’ businesses and their customers.”

What I have learned at this point in my career is that you have to do three things:

1. Learn as much as you can about your client’s business

2. Listen

3. Ask intelligent questions

Clients need to know that you as an account manager respect their business and value the relationship. 

One sure way to gain clients’ respect is to really know their business: their products, their customers, and their competitors. Being able to have an educated conversation with a client about products, features, target audience, and competitive set in order to suggest marketing solutions based on these facts is a great way to engage clients in conversation and let them know that you respect their brand and their job. 

Marketing is a fast-paced industry, and it’s easy to get caught up in the rush and forget to listen to what your client is really saying. We’ve all received those calls where the client says, “I need you to change that font to one of our brand colors and make our logo bigger.” As an account manager, you could just take that exact comment and ask the creative team to execute on it, but it’s likely the creative team won’t be thrilled with the result and neither will your client. You should think a little more about what the client is really saying; engage in constructive listening. By listening to what your client is asking for and asking simple questions like, “What are you trying to accomplish by making your logo larger?” you can learn a lot about what your client wants and how to achieve its end goals, so that both the agency and the client are happy. In this case what they probably mean is that their brand isn’t coming through enough, and there may be other ways to execute that, making a more effective piece of marketing overall.

In the end, both the agency and the client want to do what’s best for the overall brand, and communication between the two is key for this to happen. Clients don’t always know exactly what they want from their agencies, and agencies don’t always do exactly what their clients ask for, but if there is a mutual respect and a clear line of communication between the two, chances are much better that the work that is produced will be much more beneficial for both sides.