Project Management

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Account Manager Vs Project Manager

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Anonymous

Hi All



I'm a PM with a Mobile Data company that has a Web-Development department (my department).



I constantly run up against the Account Managers in battles over ownership of Projects, in that they expect me to liaise with and 'stroke' the client throughout the life of the project (and often for evermore afterwards), whilst i believe my role is to deliver the product according to the requirements I have gleaned and refined in conjunction with the Account Manager and client.



I feel my hands are totally full dealing with Tech-Heads and Account Managers without having to worry about kow-towing to a client as well.



Needless to say, without this ownership and clarification mistakes are often made, assumptions hastily acted upon, and tasks are mis-allocated or even missed out altogether.



I guess I am asking this:

"What is the role of an Account Manager ? Is it to sell a project, then move on, never looking backwards and leaving the PM to own, manage and be responsible for every single aspect of that project, or is it (as I believe) to own, manage and be responsible for the entire relationship between our company and the client ?



A difficult one, I think you'll agree...



TIA



Neil
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Michael Wood Project Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent Contractor Gig Harbor, Wa, United States
The role of the account manager is to coordinate all services provided, cultivate and sustain a productive and profitable relationship, and to increase the penetration of services into the account. They should be roadblock removers.

With that said, its everyone's job to promote effective, productive and positive relationships with the client. Its not a matter of kow-towing to the client but a matter of conducting oneself in a professional and cordial manner at all times; always listening and seeking to understand the client's needs and concerns.

Hope this helps
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Anonymous
think the role of the account manager and the PM is what ever your company says it is, and that you need to clearly define these terms.

In our organization (construction), the account manager is the salesman , once the project is turned over to the PM (operations) he owns it and is responsible for it. The account manager inteacts with the customer for PR and hopefully future work. But the PM is responsible for managing the expectations of the customer. So I think in the end, you need to find out how it is defined in your company and what each individual's responsibilities are.

If they are not clearly defined at the begining of the project, define them in a turnover meeting and hammer out the differences with the account manager. Lastly, get senior management to agree to the division of responsibilities. This should make a lot of your problems go away, you may end up with more work than you like but at least you'll have a clear understanding of what is expected of you.
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Faiq Ahmed Wyne Business Development Executive| AbacusConsulting Lahore, Pakistan
Neil (I guess)

I completely agree with your perspective of an Account Manager owning on to a project after he/she has brought it in. Client correspondence is a very sensitive issue and understanding their unique and complicated requirement is a must. Account Manager is a liaison between PM and client and helps ensuring that agreed upon SLAs are meet.

On the other hand PM has to focus on the delivering side of the project. As far as I have seen within the service/Tech industry Account management => Project Management concept is more efficient + productive + long-term.

I hope you feel good to see someone on your side for a change ;-)

Cheers,
Faiq
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Krishna Singh Mumbai, Mh, India
Well to answer the question in simple IT/SW world and not relating to construction/MFG:
1. Account manager - Sales / Customer Relationship manager
2. Project Manger - Solution development / Customer satisfaction with quality deliverable

Making it more clearer - Both have to work together but Account manager has to be involved if the customer demands are UNREASONABLE! HE is the bridge.

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