Episodes

  • Mastering client-centric account growth in 2025, with Jenny Plant

    Mastering client-centric account growth in 2025, with Jenny Plant
    Jan 14 2025
    Welcome to episode 129. In this episode Jenny breaks down the three key areas to focus on if you want to maximise the growth of your existing client accounts in 2025: 1. Finding COMMERCIAL CLARITY Agencies who predictably forecast revenue growth from existing accounts are clear where to focus their team's efforts and provide sufficient time and support for developing an account growth strategy. They have client development plans in place and work differently with 'growth' clients than ‘maintenance’ clients. 2. Having CONSULTANCY CAPABILITY Spotting account growth opportunities and proactively developing ideas and solutions for them requires a consultative skillset and entrepreneurial mindset. Client-facing team members need to be able to have conversations about adding value and ask for testimonials and referrals comfortably. 3. Embedding CULTURAL CONTINUITY To make account growth systematic and scalable it needs to be embedded as a defined repeatable process in the agency that’s followed by everyone. A process helps new joiners hit the ground running and ensures client-centric behaviours are ‘hard wired’ into the business. She shares soundbites from participants of her Account Accelerator programme who provide tips and examples of how they’ve implemented strategies in each of these areas. If you’re considering improving your client retention and growth skills, check out the training options on our website, https://www.accountmanagementskills.com and if you’d like to discuss your training needs with Jenny you can book a 20 minute call here: https://calendly.com/jennyplant/account-accelerator-discovery-call Sign up to receive our regular newsletter where we share account management tips, and notify you of upcoming podcast guests and trainings.
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    29 mins
  • How to be a leader people want to follow, with Traci Schubert Barrett

    How to be a leader people want to follow, with Traci Schubert Barrett
    Dec 31 2024
    Welcome to episode 128. This conversation is going to be particularly interesting for you if you’re keen to develop your leadership skills. It’s for you if you’re currently in charge of the agency and leading the whole team OR you’re leading an AM team within the agency - and you want to go from being a ‘good’ leader to being a ‘great’ leader. Founder of Navigate The Journey and author of ‘What If There’s More?: Finding Significance Beyond Success’, Traci Schubert Barrett shares actionable tips and advice on how to lead with purpose, navigate the complexities of scaling an agency, and foster authentic connections both with your team and your clients. Whether you’re an agency owner grappling with leadership challenges or an account manager aspiring to step into a leadership role, this chat is packed with wisdom and practical takeaways to help you grow. You can connect with and find out more about Traci Barrett here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracischubertbarrett/ Book: https://a.co/d/184VveL Website: https://www.navigatethejourney.com https://www.tracischubertbarrett.com If you’d like to stay updated with more tips and resources to enhance your account management skills, be sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter at https://www.accountmanagementskills.com You'll receive updates about new podcast episodes, expert guest announcements, and information about training courses designed for creative agency account managers at all levels. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast, leave us a review, and share this episode with a colleague who could benefit from these insights.
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    51 mins
  • Top 10 tips & insights from the podcast in 2024, with Jenny Plant

    Top 10 tips & insights from the podcast in 2024, with Jenny Plant
    Dec 9 2024
    Welcome to episode 127. Thank you for listening in 2024. Looking back at this year, I’ve been reflecting on the superb guests I’ve had on the show. I thought I’d select a handful of soundbites from this year’s podcast episodes to share with you. This isn’t a comprehensive list - there have been so many standout moments - but these clips include tips, advice, or insights that stayed with me. I’ve shared 10 soundbites that I hope you find as useful or insightful as I did. Stick around until the end to hear a clip from one of the most popular episodes and one that I received the most positive feedback from listeners! You can also read more about each of these guests by visiting this episode's page on my website here: https://www.accountmanagementskills.com/top-10-tips-insights-from-the-podcast-in-2024-with-jenny-plant These episodes are mentioned: 1. Episode 125: Dan Pfister, "How to Win Back Clients for Exceptional ROI" 2. Episode 120 & 121: Carey Evans & Simon Rhind-Tutt, “What Your Client Don’t Tell You” 3. Episode 116: Jack Skeels, "Why Agencies Need to Rethink Project Management" 4. Episode 117: Tim Williams, "Why Time-Based Pricing Doesn’t Work" 5. Episode 114: Gareth Healey, "Stand Out or Die" 6. Episode 115: Tim Riesterer, “Why selling to client and prospects is different" 7. Episode 109: Michael Farmer, "Why the Agency Business Model Isn’t Working" 8. Episode 91: Sharon Toerek, "How Agencies Are Navigating the Legalities of AI Use" 9. Episode 111: Alison Coward, "How a Workshop Culture Builds High-Performing 10. Episode 105: Benjamin Dennehy & Marcus Cauchi, "How to Sell" If you’d like to be kept up to date with who is coming on the podcast, the topics we’re covering, receive tips about agency account management or to be notified about trainings I’m doing, you can sign up for my newsletter at my website: https://www.accountmanagementskills.com
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    26 mins
  • Who cares about advertising? - with Brian Jacobs and Crispin Reed

    Who cares about advertising? - with Brian Jacobs and Crispin Reed
    Nov 19 2024
    Welcome to episode 126. In this episode, I chat to Brian Jacobs (Founder, BJ&A) and Crispin Reed (Founder, Skyscraper Consulting) about what’s wrong with the advertising industry. And what specifically prompted the launch of their ‘Who Cares?’ initiative, aimed at tackling the pressing issues affecting the advertising industry today. We cover: · what's actually wrong with the industry itself · the need for greater creativity and transparency in advertising · how Brian developed the ‘Who Cares?’ idea · how a one-off event has turned into a well-supported movement · how industry stakeholders can get involved to collaborate on initiatives I do hope you’ll listen to this important discussion and visit https://www.advertisingwhocares.org to find out more and get involved. If you’re an agency owner and would like to discuss account retention and growth training and coaching options – or would like to reserve a spot for the next Account Accelerator (January 2025) - you can schedule a no obligation call with me to discuss your needs, via my website: https://www.accountmanagementskills.com/account-accelerator
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    43 mins
  • From Lost to Loyal - How to win back clients for exceptional ROI, with Dan Pfister

    From Lost to Loyal - How to win back clients for exceptional ROI, with Dan Pfister
    Oct 22 2024
    Welcome to episode 125. Have you ever considered contacting your old clients to see if they’d like to work with you again? If not this episode may change your mind. Dan Pfister is the master of running client winback campaigns and here’s what he shares with me: · The compelling reasons why WinBack campaigns could be the most successful and profitable thing you ever do to grow your business (the ROI is staggering) · A step by step guide to how to approach running a client winback campaign – and what to avoid · Results and examples of campaigns from many companies who have been successful Dan is very passionate about this topic and he had me gripped with this episode, I hope you’ll end up putting some serious thought into running a client win back campaign after listening to this compelling chat. If you haven’t already you can find his book “Million Dollar Winback” on Amazon now. You can also connect with Dan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmpfister http://winbacklabs.com/ If you want to receive weekly tips on agency account management, learn strategies for client growth, get notified for any trainings I’m running and stay in the loop about our upcoming podcast episodes, be sure to sign up for my newsletter at https://www.accountmanagementskills.com
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    41 mins
  • How a new head of client services impacts the agency, with Emily Brown & Matt Loughlin

    How a new head of client services impacts the agency, with Emily Brown & Matt Loughlin
    Oct 22 2024
    Welcome to episode 124. This will be particularly interesting for you if you want to know how much the head of client services role can impact the agency's business. Listen in if you don’t currently have a client services team and you're perhaps thinking about having one, or your client services function isn't performing as you'd like it to and you're exploring options for perhaps bringing in a head of department. Or maybe you are the client services director in your agency and are curious to understand how someone else in this role operates. Emily Brown and Matt Loughlin joined me today from digital marketing agency, Receptional. I met Emily when she was just a few months into joining the agency and I've been very lucky to have the opportunity of working with her in my Account Accelerator programme, and that means I've been working with her for almost a year. This conversation reflects on what she's achieved as the new head of client service. Here are the key themes that we cover during our chat: • why the agency decided in the first place to hire a head of client service • Emily's first 90 days in the role, and how she pinpointed and tackled the key priorities and established herself with the team • the impact this CSD role has had on the agency's operations team and clients just 16 months later • and the learnings from both Matt and Emily's perspective of establishing this new role in the agency that hopefully you can benefit from in your agency. They share lots of detailed tips and examples that I'm sure you're going to find useful. You can connect with Emily and Matt here: https://www.receptional.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-brown-5073993a/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattloughlin/ If you'd like to discuss training and coaching for your client-facing account management team, then you can book a no obligation call with me via my website: https://www.accountmanagementskills.com. You’ll be able to see the different training options I have available, from self-study to long term coaching, and also sign up for my regular newsletter.
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    47 mins
  • How to evaluate your agency operations, with Harv Nagra

    How to evaluate your agency operations, with Harv Nagra
    Oct 8 2024
    Welcome to episode 123. This episode will be particularly interesting for you if you're responsible for your agency's internal operations. You might be the operations director, head of project management, or even a client services director, but if you think your internal agency operations could be more efficient and streamlined, then this episode is for you. Harv Nagra is an agency ops consultant, a former in-house agency ops director, and Head of Brand Comms at agency work management platform Scoro. He's recently launched The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast. Here’s just a flavour of what Harv shared in our chat: • how to assess how developed your operations are using a five-stage business maturity model • what you should typically have in place at each of the five stages and what actions you need to take to move to the next stage. • and some of the key trends Harv is seeing for agencies when it comes to operations. Please do follow Harv on LinkedIn because he shares really good insights and tips about agency operations and project management. http://linkedin.com/in/harvnagra The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast: Podcast on Apple: https://apple.co/3y2R8DN Podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Lrg9f0 If you'd like to hear about my upcoming podcast episodes, account growth training sessions, tips about account management and news about the agency industry, you can sign up to receive my regular newsletter by going to my website, https://www.accountmanagementskills.com, or connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennyplant
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    51 mins
  • How agency owners create a 'market of one', with Robin Bonn

    How agency owners create a 'market of one', with Robin Bonn
    Sep 24 2024
    Welcome to episode 122. This episode will be particularly relevant for you if you're an ambitious agency owner looking to accelerate the growth of your agency. - Maybe you think you're not standing out enough from your competitors. - Perhaps you feel your positioning needs dialling in because maybe you've lost some pitches or you've had to drop your prices. - Or maybe you just want to be seen as more specialized and expert. Agency consultant and CEO of Co:definery, Robin Bonn, joins me to bust the myth that the agency market is oversupplied, and he explains how helps agencies create a future proofed, high margin agency business by creating their market of one. Robin explains exactly what a ‘market of one’ is, and how he's helped many agencies accelerate their growth with this approach. We also discussed some of the challenges agency owners are facing right now, and Robin offers some tips for how to remain positive and navigate the current climate. You can get in touch with Robin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinbonn/ https://www.codefinery.com/ Finally, if you are in an agency account management role and you'd like to be kept up to date with the next episodes that I'm going to be sharing on the podcast, and you also want tips about the account management role and any trainings that I'm doing in the future, then you can sign up for my newsletter via my website, https://www.accountmanagementskills.com
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    44 mins