Your account managers are the backbone of your business, and just like your own spine, you have to take care of them, or you can end up feeling some serious pain in the form of unsatisfied customers.
“It builds stability not only within the company but for your clients as well,” says Mackenzie Payne, branch manager for the residential division of Southern Botanical, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas. “This allows for knowledge and trust to build through experience. Every manager you bring in takes an upfront investment of time and money that you can’t get back.”
Protecting Managers from Burnout
One reason account managers may end up leaving is due to a lack of overall support from your company, and feeling burnt out.
Scott Myatt, owner of Myatt Landscaping & Construction, based in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, notes that their paid time off is the benefit that resonates the most with their managers. He says in good years, they will take off the week between Christmas and New Year’s so their team can enjoy some quality time with friends and family away from work.
Southern Botanical has KPIs and Intentional Plans for Success (IPS), which allow their managers to streamline their focus on the core tasks of daily garden walks, weekly client communication, and contract renewals.
Payne says in their weekly one-on-ones, they have built out templates where their managers can track what they should be doing and ask for assistance where they have questions. She says during periods of high stress, you need to be transparent and provide unwavering support by not skipping these meetings.
She advises acknowledging the challenges but focusing on putting together an action plan to move forward.
“We do not want to sit and wallow during these times,” Payne says. “How do we prepare better to reduce stress in the future?”
Myatt says when they’re dealing with periods of high stress, communicating so everyone knows what’s coming up and having a detailed plan on how to execute the work makes a huge difference.
He says it’s also important to equip your employees with the tools necessary to get the job done.
“We’re using the latest technologies for anything we do,” Myatt says. “We want to be on the forefront of anything that’s new, and when we have managers come in and say, ‘We need X to do our job,’ we don’t hesitate. We just get what they need.”
Payne acknowledges that their business operates at a fast pace and in some cases, certain managers may not be the right cultural fit. These individuals may be better suited to another company in the industry or ready to explore an entirely different industry.
“With either case, we typically are aware and having conversations before the change occurs,” Payne says. “Our one-on-ones allow for very open and candid conversations where we work through these sorts of concerns so we can help guide them in the right direction.”
Mistakes to Avoid
Payne says one of her early mistakes as a branch manager was focusing too much on the big picture and the branch’s overall success, instead of the individuals contributing to it.
“My time was spent in the numbers tracking progress and then pushing to fill the gaps with team goals,” Payne says. “I have since learned that if you make sure that every individual is invested in with time, training and support that the business will flourish because of that.”
She says they ended up losing a team member because they weren’t able to voice what they needed. Moving forward, Payne says she prioritizes not only the team but also the individuals.
Myatt agrees that communication with your account managers is key. Not communicating your expectations clearly and often can lead to one person thinking everything is fine and another not being happy with the results.
Another mistake is the temptation to retain an account manager as long as they are ‘good enough.’ Payne says she fell into this trap as she didn’t want to spend the time training a new one.
“The question I now ask myself is ‘Would I fight for this person if they put in their notice today?’” Payne says. “If my answer is no, then I either need to train them to change my answer, or a change is needed in that position. It does more harm to the team to hold onto the wrong manager than it does to take the time to find the right one.”
In Payne’s case, retaining this manager led to internal conflict with the team due to the lack of accountability.
“The team couldn’t trust the level of work that they were producing, which led to division between them,” Payne says. “Externally, clients would see delayed response times leading to dissatisfaction in our services. Everything would get done, but not to client expectations.”
Myatt notes you need to be patient when establishing your managers. It’s important to put in the time to train and properly equip a manager before deciding if you need to part ways.
“It takes time to learn to be a good manager,” Myatt says. “You must be willing for people to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes, and it takes years for somebody to become a great manager. They need to feel a sense of empowerment but also know that you are there to help whenever they need it.”
