Since you will be responsible for handling client accounts on behalf of your employer, your job will require plenty of skill and finesse. The following account manager interview questions and answers are designed to help you ace your interview and stand out from other applicants as the best choice for the position.
What Makes an Account Manager Successful Overall?
This question will help your interviewer judge not only your character, but also your work ethic. To properly answer this question, you will need to provide three or four ideas that attest to your personal experience. Do you have great communications skills? Do you negotiate well? Do you understand market research? All of these things are very important to the success of an account manager. Provide the idea confidently and then a sentence or two explaining why you feel that idea is important to your overall success—and the company’s.
Do You Always Achieve Your Goals?
There is a lot of goal-setting associated with working as an account manager, whether you set goals in an effort to retain customers or simply meet deadlines. When an interviewer asks you this question, you are being provided with an opportunity to provide your ideas for strategies to reach certain goals or perhaps even examples of difficult goals you have conquered in the past. It is very likely that your interviewer will judge your communication skills based upon the answer you provide here, as well.
What Type of Work Environment Best Suits You?
An account manager’s job requires face time with existing and potential clients as well as time behind a desk completing paperwork, entering data into a computer and researching. You should be careful with this question since many people tend to answer in a manner that would indicate they are happier behind a desk than with clients and customers. Here, the interviewer is likely testing your interpersonal skills and your ability to lead. You should provide an answer that indicates your eagerness to work in an environment in which you can interact and provide support.
What Will You Do to Increase Revenue?
No matter your position within a company, your sole responsibility will always be the same: you will be required to help that company generate revenue. Your interviewer will ask this question not only to see which tried-and-true methods you tend to use, but also to determine if you have anything fresh and new to offer the company. You should be honest when answering this question, but the focus of your answer is simple. You should respond that you will continuously perform market research to determine the wants and needs of your clients and effectively communicate your findings to other departments within the company so that they can create new products or services that will be in high demand.
When you are being interviewed for an account manager position, you should be sure to consider the type of product or service that your potential client or customer is offering before you answer any question. Your answer may need to be tailored just a bit in order to be relevant to that product or service.
