Account Executive Training
We just wrapped up one of our account executive training workshops -- we call it the Advanced Account Executive Bootcamp. A great group of dedicated account executives who all want to lead their team to even greater success. Whether I'm doing the advanced training or the Bootcamp for more entry level AEs -- we spend quite a bit of time talking about being a strategic thinker. Why? Because that seems to be agency owners #1 complaint about their account executive team -- great at following directions and taking orders but not so great at leading the client and growing that business. Are your AEs asking the right questions? I'm guessing not. Luckily for you and your agency, account executive training can fix that. I think there's a simple reason why your account executives are not performing as well as you'd like. They don't ask enough or the right questions. When a client calls and tells an AE they need to open a new project, the AE automatically goes into order taker mode. If they ask any questions at all, they're tactical questions about the deliverables the client is asking for. Most AEs have not been trained on how to step back and ask the why questions. They aren't comfortable suggesting that what the client is asking for might not be the right call. And they rarely know how to take that tactical request all the way back to the client's goals and objectives. Truth be told, depending on the sophistication of the client -- they might not know the answers if your AE did push back. But that's where the opportunities are buried. The sophisticated client will elevate your AE's status from vendor to thinking partner [...]