Account Management Interview Questions with Examples [2022]

Account management is not a new concept, and it has gained prominence recently as companies have started to realise its importance. A key account manager understands that customer service, relationship building, and loyalty go hand in hand. If you are a future account manager looking to learn how to answer account management questions for an interview, read on.

Naturally, they constantly look for the best talent in the market for account management. Organisations also realise that keeping a customer happy is more important and economical than getting a new one.

What is Account(s) Manager?

First, it is called “account manager” and not “accounts manager”.
The difference between the two is vast. The first is part of the sales
function, while the latter is part of the finance function. Also, within
finance, they don’t use this word often, and they use specific roles, like
accounts payables’ or receivables manager.

From a sales perspective, an account manager is a person who takes care of a portfolio of “accounts”. The word accounts is another word for
corporate clients who have worked with the company at some point. So,
generally, an account manager is assigned clients to take care of and nurture. They must “farm” these accounts and bring more business to the
company.

Top Account Management Interview Questions

Recruiting and hiring managers always ask situation-based questions on account management to gauge the candidate accurately. While there is no right and wrong answer, how interviewees answer these questions decides their fate.

Following are some of the critical questions that one can consider answering carefully.

Q: How Do You Qualify a Potential Account for Your Portfolio?

Answer: I have noted some of the mandatory criteria I consider crucial before I fix my preliminary meetings. For example, does the company achieve a minimum revenue threshold that we expect our clients to achieve? Or do they meet the minimum ticket size to qualify for our products?

Another one is whether they are already working with our competition. Do we have products and services that can help them solve their problems? How often do they buy products from our market segment? Is this number monthly, quarterly or annual? Once I answer all these questions and review them objectively, I decide if it is worth my time or not.

Q: Have You Heard About the Term “Brick Walling?” How Do You Execute it with Your Accounts?

Answer: Yes, I am aware of the concept of brick walling. It means to build a fence or a fortress around your top customers so that you can keep the competition attacks at bay. Brick-walling helps to build a strong foundation and, in turn, leads to more profound farming activities.

I start with an account mapping activity to create a substantial brick wall around my valued clients. By mapping the client’s organisational chart, I get valuable information on the who’s who of each department of the company. Next, I identify the leaders of these clusters and reach out to them. Better yet, I introduce my leaders to them, which helps us generate trust faster and build loyalty.

Q: You Spoke About “Profound Farming Activities”. Can You Elaborate?

Answer:  Since our main KRA is to get business from the assigned existing clientele, farming is the only way to go about it. Also, meeting only the gatekeepers is not a good idea, and they may or may not be the right people and may block us from uncovering the organisation’s potential. 

Profound farming activities are about educating, informing and entertaining the account, and the idea is to get business from them now or soon. These activities could include organising a leadership meeting between the two companies, which could also mean collaboration to get business from an outside opportunity. Lastly, it could be sponsoring client events with a calculated mutual future benefit.

Q: An Account Manager Mostly Never Has Time, or so the Legend Says. How Do You Stay on Top of Everything?

Answer:  I divide my day into clusters and dedicate the first half of the day to meeting customers. On most days, I return to my office by 4 pm, and I commit myself to my desk for the next 2 hours focusing on the admin tasks of the day. They could be managing emails, writing reports, updating the CRM or resolving service or financial issues. Lastly, I allocate 1 hour to making plans for the next day. 

Another way to stay on top of work is to segment my portfolio into different categories. For example, these could be rated A, B, C or D based on the annual revenue they bring to us. I block my calendar to visit all the A’s once every week, B’s every two weeks and C’s every three weeks, and I only telecall D’s once a month. I also check my emails earlier in the morning and once in the evening daily. Lastly, I use To-do apps to prioritise my day.

Q: What is the Most Critical Thing to Crack a Dead Account?

Answer: A dead account for us may not be the same for competition. Clients often grow defunct with us due to either service issues or pricing challenges. There are many things account managers can do to bring them back to the fold. 

The most crucial thing to do is to get the client leadership to start a dialogue with our leadership. It is not a quick-fix and a sure-shot win formula, but it works. Account managers should strive to get both managements engaged in cracking the irreversible damage done in the past or resolving massive pricing differences. It is not an overnight task, but it is doable with the help of profound farming activities.

Account Manager Roles and Responsibilities

Account Managers wear multiple hats for their clients, which is why the clients keep returning to give more business opportunities. The product may be great, and the service may be excellent, but account managers bring the personal touch, customisation and prioritisation, making the client feel important.

The Client’s Advocate

Account managers act as a bridge between the company and the client. They help iron out issues for the client and put their employer’s best interest in front of the customer. They actively advocate and protect their client’s interests too.

These managers also give the right advice to their customers that can help them save unnecessary costs and get more benefits, among other things.

The Service Maestro

As a concertmaster synchronises and leads the orchestra, account managers act as service maestros. They show and supervise the after-sales service for their customers, ensuring they have a great service experience per their needs.

Billing and Invoicing

One of the reasons why large organisations prefer an account manager over a random contact at a company is billing and invoicing. Imagine a company that has multiple transactions with a vendor. There would be many financial implications. For example, the creation of credit notes, invoicing, errors and omissions in billing, among other things.

Clients could be miserable without account managers who actively ensure that billing and invoicing are smooth and flawless. Most companies also prefer that account managers send bills and collect payments promptly.

Bidding, Negotiations and Closing

Conglomerates have a proper process for every deal they place in their vendor’s hands or the bidding market. These are called RFPs or requests for proposals. Clients create these RFPs keeping their business in mind. When the customer initiates this project, it is also called a tender. When the vendor participates, it is often called an RFP.

Whatever the name, the objective is to capture all the essential elements of the project. For example, offered services, pricing, tenure of such offers, and add-ons, if any, among other terms and conditions. Account managers’ primary duty is to lead such tenders or RFPs. They work on these projects, make their bidding, negotiate the terms, and close these deals for their employers.

Give and Receive Updates

Account managers take their clients’ latest updates back to their offices’ boardroom. These updates help managers identify their next steps in the client relationship.

Managers sit with their clients on quarterly reviews and give updates on their company. They also share information on things like target vs achieved growth quarterly.

Account managers also discuss how they can increase their business with their customers. They actively seek feedback from their customers on mutual goals and aspirations. They also actively probe if there are new avenues they can explore in the company to boost their sales quotas.

Role of an Account Management Director

Most account managers and associates eagerly look forward to having the title of an account management director or account director. After all, it is a lucrative role that has weightage, power and money associated with it. Most associates and managers do not realise that with power comes responsibility. It may sound cliche, but it is true.

Team Management

From creating a new team to nurturing an existing one to motivating them, the account director has their eyes set on the team at all times. They ensure that the team stays united on a common goal, and directors bring direction and stability to the team. They also ensure that their teams get enough learning, development and growth opportunities.

Strategy

Just as how account managers act as concertmasters for their customers, account directors do the same for their teams. They focus on the macro strategies to propel the team towards success. These strategies could be internal or external. For example, internally, directors can introduce an incentive plan for a product that needs traction. Or externally, they can create a hybrid pricing model for channel partners.

Revenue & Manpower Management

Account Directors take responsibility for the department or a team within a department, which depends on the company. They also take responsibility for revenue management. For example, they focus on growth via all possible avenues in the company, which could be B2B or B2C.

They could also take reviews with their teammates on critical sales pipelines or the funnel in general. Lastly, there might be specific key customers the company cherries closer to its heart. Account directors take sole responsibility for managing these accounts themselves.

Account Directors manage the team and are custodians of the workforce management in the department. They budget associates for different geographies, segments and accounts. Account directors work with HR to finalise the salary caps for each role open in their teams.

Lastly, things like onboarding new associates, putting them on performance improvement plans or letting them go are all done under the supervision of the account director.

Account Management Tools

Account management tools help make life easy for account managers. Since these managers have a busy schedule all day long, it is impossible to keep pace manually. Also, in a fast-paced company or a start-up where information is critical and prompt decisions are the order of the day, having a system helps.

Here are some tools to help any account manager tame their work and stay on the game.

Internal Processes

So many top-notch account management professionals are terrible at systems and processes. They get stuck in their positions or miss leadership roles due to a lack of knowledge of procedures. Some internal processes worth learning are CRM or customer relationship management platforms, industry-specific tools for intelligence and analytics, and internal communication tools.

These tools are worth spending time on. They help account managers streamline their work and identify and categorise leads worth spending time on. Moreover, it can give immense information and intelligence during strategy-making sessions.

Having these systems in place helps account managers take informed and educated actions rather than running like a headless chicken in the market.

External Processes

One can also look at email automation besides the regular emailing tool.
Advanced Microsoft Office to seamlessly create, modify and deliver information like reports and presentations to the customers. Integration of marketing tools with Sales, like HubSpot, is another example.

For lead generation, there are some external tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator. More tools like web-scraping platforms can help cull out cold leads for further processing. There are umpteen tools that can help account managers polish their game, and they have to identify what works for them best and go on with it.

Conclusion

Account Management is no longer just a role; it has become an essential strategy for companies to grow consistently. Loyalty, long-term relationships and trust have become synonymous with the idea of account management.

In short, there are many opportunities for a sales professional to grow as an astute account manager. Preparing for time-tested account management interview questions and honing related skills is the only way to stay on top of the game.

Take the Account Management Masterclass on Udemy

Learn how to deploy key account strategies via Strategic Account Plans (SAPs)
Learn the concept of account mapping.
Learn how to conduct Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs)
Learn the concept and use of Sales Intensity Plans (SIPs)
Learn how to formulate annual sales plans – strategies
Learn about RFPs & how to manage them

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