1. Effective Account Leadership
Lagos, March 2011

2. DDB Mission
To find creative solutions to business issues

3. Our Arsenal
Corpus of knowledge and experience
Strategic Tools
Network strength- unity in diversity

4. Tree of Knowledge

5. Scope of this EAL Session

6. Scope of this EAL Session
Account Management

7. Scope of this EAL Session
Account Management
Account Leadership

8. Scope of this EAL Session
Account Management
Account Leadership
Managing and Making Money

9. Scope of this EAL Session
Account Management
Account Leadership
Managing and Making Money
Creative Briefing

10. Scope of this EAL Session
Account Management
Account Leadership
Managing and Making Money
Creative Briefing
Creative Assessment

11. Scope of this EAL Session
Account Management
Account Leadership
Managing and Making Money
Creative Briefing
Creative Assessment
Creative Presentation

12. Future Modules
The Whole Business:
Digital
Direct Marketing
Sales Promotion
Multi-disciplinary Creativity
Overview of Media Channels
Overview of Data Sources
Inspiring Your Team, Your Clients, and Yourself

13. Topic 1:
Account Management
Module 1: What it means
Module 2: Mastering the basics

14. What is Account Management?
“Hard to define, but impossible to do without.”

15. Your Definition?

16. “Herding Cats” Video

17. Effective Account Leadership: The Essentials
Get the details right
Build trusting relationships
Be proactive and passionate
Know your client
These are the consistent themes from 30+ DDB Worldwide
leaders, asked for their advice on the keys of success in
account management

18. DDB Leaders’ Quotes
“Stop taking the brief and start making the brief”
Paul Price
“Have an attitude that you will know your clients’ business as well as --
if not better -- than they do”
Marty O’ Halloran
“Always try and make your client look good before you try to make the
agency look good”
Liz Ross

19. What is Account Management?
The Interface
Agency/ Global Account
Management
al
Ex
rn
te
te
Planners
rn
In
al
Creatives DDB Network
Production Partner Agencies
Finance Account Client(s)
Legal/HR Management Media Agencies
Project Mgt Research Agencies
Not the bottleneck
or the meat in the
sandwich!

20. What is Account Management?
Everything...from service to leadership

21. What is Account Management?
Manages:
Work
Teams
Relationships
Money
Nobody loves us but everybody needs us
And you can aspire to more...

22. Personality/Qualities
Open Positive
Sociable Driven
Resourceful Skilled
Ethical Informed
Trustworthy Efficient
Tenacious Organized

23. Aspirations: What do Account People Want to Be?
Ahead of the game: thought-leaders, challenging, anticipating, initiating,
upselling
Idea champions: recognizing big ideas, loving them, pushing them forward
Strong partners: demonstrating the integrity and passion to build trusting
relationships with client and agency terms
Hunters: building business and profit for agency and client; always seeking
new opportunities
Impresarios: harnessing talent, instilling enthusiasm, developing people; “the
circus ring leader”
Masters of detail: paying attention, checking, chasing, communicating

24. How to do it
The Foundation of Good Client Relationships:
Getting the Basics Right

25. Leading the Bull
“Imagine your client as a bull. Always lead the bull: if he leads you, you
can never hold him.”
James Hayhurst, DDB London

26. Enraging the Bull
Clients’ top criticism of agency day-to-day:
“not returning calls or emails promptly”
“coming to meetings unprepared...”
“poor attention to detail...repeated errors”
“not collaborating well with other agencies”
“overcharging”
“..when they are not on top of timing...”
“not saying they are having issues when they are”
“coming back with the same ‘break-through’ ideas presented three years ago!”

27. Taming the Bull
Clients’ top joys working day-to-day with agencies:
“when they are one team with us, rather than ‘the agency’”
“they proactively come with competitive intelligence”
“they save you money”
“being close to the business even when it is not a sexy account”
“providing a different perspective on the market...”
“...flowers on my birthday”
“their offices and their food...”
“...makes us feel special and cooler than we really are”

28. “There’s no point having a strategically brilliant
mind or a great creative brain as an account
man if you just don’t do those basics.”
“They are absolutely crucial and, annoyingly,
they only really get noticed if you don’t do
them.”

29. Getting the Basics Right: Managing the Process
1. Time Management
Time is money
Plan your time carefully
Allocate it effectively
Record and analyse to do better (time sheets?)
Be on time; late is rude (and wasteful)

30. Getting the Basics Right: Managing the Process
2. Workflow Management
The timing plan is the backbone; update it daily
Keep clients regularly informed of progress and changes
Production Management

31. Getting the Basics Right: Managing the Process
3. Meeting Management
Regular job status meetings with team and client
Agenda to structure/control meetings to lead to the detailed outcome
Prepare the room; know the equipment; Rehearse
Agree allocation of resulting actions and get collective and individual
commitment to them
Welcome feedback

32. Getting the Basics Right: Managing the Process
4. Report Management
Weekly status reports- clear and comprehensive
Record agreements and actions arising from all meetings/conversations; send
these ‘contact reports’ to the client within 24 hours
Keep files of client-related materials and all past projects- someone will ask
for them!
Think of the implications for the future; look for further opportunities

33. Getting the Basics Right: Managing the Process
5. Cover All the Bases
Know enough of what everyone else does to be able
to stand in for them, evaluate their input, ‘manage’
them
Don’t abrogate responsibility to ‘specialists’; you
need their respect
“A great account handler is a jack of all trades -- and
a master of every one”
Nigel Beard, DDB London

34. The Power of Getting the Basics Right
Excel at the Basics
Win New Business More Client Trust
Retain and Grow Sell Better Work
“You earn trust on small things which you can leverage later on big issues.”
Pierre le Gouvello, DDB France