Tips and Tricks: What to Do Before You Execute

As an account manager, my job is to deliver services to customers on time. It may sound easy, but making sure both myself and the client are on the same page before even starting a project is one of the key factors in ensuring expectations and deadlines are met. Getting on the same page can be challenging. Here’s how I handle it.

Over-Communication is key

Jargon and Interpretation

Not being properly aligned with the client can easily turn this into a game of email tag between the client, myself, and my team. Many clients we work with may not be as familiar with marketing terms and may think they are articulating their needs effectively when in reality, the creative team has an entirely different take.

Discovery

As an account manager, I am the middle man in all of this, figuring out what each client expects and making sure everyone on my team knows exactly how to deliver. To keep interpretation to a minimum, I meet with the client to discuss their expectations alongside my account executive. In a discovery call, we go over absolutely everything from everyone that will be working on a project. This includes how long we expect a project to take before completion. 

It’s essential in these calls to reiterate exactly what we will be delivering, how we will measure success, and be extremely transparent with the client to ensure everyone is on the same page before moving forward.

Dissemination

Once we have gathered all the information, we create a strategy document that details our project plan task-by-task. It’s my job to send that strategy to the client for approval. Once it is approved, I break down the strategy into tasks for the creative team, including small briefs for each deliverable.

Although it may seem like a lot of back and forth, that kind of over-communication is what is necessary to avoid mistakes further up the road, when due dates are affected.

In Summary

Making sure everyone is on the same page before a project kickoff saves time on client edits, provides more detailed tasks to the design team, and most importantly ends each project with a happier client (which is the main goal in any marketing campaign at Presh). 

Learn more about our process to see what happens after the creative team starts working.