Art of Account Management: “Be a Great Listener before You Are a Great Talker” with Rebecca Mendelson
With over 25 years of account management experience, Rebecca specialises in strategy planning, integrated campaign development and execution as well as brand stewardship across channels. Rebecca joined RPA in 2011, bringing a deep passion for relationship building to both client organisations and internal teams.
Currently, Rebecca heads large, cross-functional teams for La-Z-Boy Furniture and Spectrum Business. She has also worked across multiple categories on Intuit QuickBooks, Tempur-Sealy Mattresses, First Entertainment Credit Union, ARCO Gasoline and the Paediatric Brain Tumour Foundation, broadening her expertise of digital and social landscapes and gathering key insights on consumer, small business and retailer behaviours.
Rebecca started her career with one of the biggest brands in finance, leading Wells Fargo strategy and creative through the financial crisis and the acquisition of Wachovia, gaining deep understanding of complex organisations and meeting all of their brand, in-store and sales communications needs.
LBB> How did you first get involved in account management and what appealed to you about it?
Rebecca> I was fortunate enough to start in advertising as a “floater,” which was essentially like a paid intern, but for all departments. I “floated” from department to department and learned how each worked individually, and with each other. When I “floated” to account management, I realised it meant I got to stay involved with all of them, seeing projects from start to finish as well as being the point of contact with the client, all things I already loved. It was the perfect fit, so I stayed put.
LBB> What is it about your personality, skills and experience that has made account management such a great fit?
Rebecca> I have always been able to naturally put myself in other people’s shoes, and in account management this has been invaluable. Understanding the perspective and priorities of each group internally, as well as that of my clients, helps me identify how best to help the team move forward, even in challenging situations.
Combined with a history of event and conference planning, a deep love for making a plan, and a truly wide range of personalities in my family and friend circles, account management turned out to be the best of all worlds for me.
LBB> What piece of advice would you give to someone just starting their career in account management?
Rebecca> Be a great listener before you are a great talker. Even if you know the answer, especially after some time, getting everyone’s perspective before proposing a plan or pushing back on a team will help you frame your words. This ensures that everyone feels that you are on their team, even if they don’t agree with your answer or direction.
LBB> Thinking back to some of your most challenging experiences you’ve had in your career, what do you think tends to lie at the heart of the more tense or difficult client-agency relationships?
Rebecca> Lack of trust, which is usually a result of a client feeling that the agency is not invested or doesn’t understand the business challenge at hand or has made promises they cannot or will not keep. Go above and beyond. Learn their business. Show them that even when you have bad news, you’ve already come with a few alternate solutions. Make sure they can see the relationships you have built with the team internally. And don’t procrastinate those hard conversations. Sooner is better, even if it’s scary.
LBB> And what are the keys to building a productive and healthy relationship?
Rebecca> Frequent, clear communication, consistent effort, and honesty. If a client or an internal team member thinks you are in any way hiding information, “spinning” the news or over-promising, only bad things happen. Also, when you can, infuse as much fun and recognition as you can, for the whole team.
Make a calendar with your clients’ birthdays and show up with a card, ask about the latest dog-park story from your account executive, send thank-you emails after a big project to another group lead and cc their boss. The seemingly smallest bit of extra effort will come back to you x10 the next time you have an aggressive deadline or need a moment of grace from a client.
LBB> What’s your view on disagreement and emotion — is there a place for it and if not, why not? If so, why — and what does productive disagreement look like?
Rebecca> Trying to remove emotion from the room will quickly turn all the emotions in the room negative. Disagreements are a normal and expected part of any set of relationships, professional and personal. It is okay to be upset, passionate, excited — whatever the case may be. That said, it is important to deliver those emotions at the right level, and to the right audience, and with as much empathy as possible for the opposite perspective.
LBB> Historically, account management has been characterised as the mediator in an adversarial client and creative relationship — what do you make of that characterisation, is there any nugget of truth in that or is it wildly inaccurate?
Rebecca> There is definitely a nugget of truth in terms of mediation. Often times, clients and creatives come from wildly different perspectives and strengths, leading to challenging conversations. But I don’t think it needs to be adversarial. The best account managers are able to represent the best of the creative to the client and the best of the client to the creatives, hopefully increasing empathy and understanding on both sides.
LBB> These days, agencies do so much beyond traditional campaigns, and as account management you’re pulling together creative, experience, data, e-commerce, social and more — and that complexity can often be mirrored on the client stakeholder side too. What’s the key to navigating (and helping the client navigate) that complexity?
Rebecca> An attention to detail and organisation, an ever-evolving map of your own creation (in whatever format works best for your brain,) and an ability to pull yourself up out of the trees to see the forest. Your value lies in the fact that you have access and interest in ALL of those pieces and can put the pieces together to offer connections and solutions throughout and as a whole.
LBB> What recent projects are you proudest of and why? What was challenging about these projects from an account-management perspective and how did you address those challenges? What was so satisfying about working on these projects?
Rebecca> Last year, I was able to lead our team, along with my counterparts in strategy, creative, and production, to a new brand platform, “Long Live the Lazy™” for our client La-Z-Boy. It was a huge strategic and creative shift, helping them lean back into strengths but in a modern way.
In addition to the rest of the “usual” account management, we were given a chance to work closely with the client team on change management with various stakeholder groups and expression throughout the organisation, not just in the marketplace.
It was an honour to be trusted with that responsibility and to work in true partnership, but it did require extra effort, and even deeper business understanding and application. I’m incredibly proud of the work that was launched and the commitment of the team.
