Should I hire an account manager? This is a question most language service providers (LSPs) will be trying to answer at some point during their growth trajectory.
The answer is likely already there, within the existing team. Account management is one of the three activities of the sales Core Function. The company’s salespeople or project managers already have this role, if not the title.
Once a lead becomes an actual customer, the sales Core Function of an LSP takes the form of account management. The key responsibility of the account manager is to foster the relationship and grow the business with this customer.
While the role of an account manager can be filled by someone already on payroll, the question of hiring a dedicated person to do it becomes a question of scalability.
Sometimes, the people you have are not enough to respond to growing demand from your existing customers in a timely manner, because no one anticipated it. Or worse, you are missing out on potential opportunities to grow the business because production is too absorbed by delivering projects and salespeople are too busy hunting for new clients and you didn’t know there was a whole new business line to develop with the customer. These are the moments you should seriously consider bringing on board a dedicated account manager. The larger your company grows, the bigger the need for one becomes.
If you want to learn more about the three Core Functions of an LSP and how to put them in place, check out The General Theory of the Translation Company.
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