Seems simple right?  I imagine that depending on your current role or profession that you have thoughts on which group/person and why.  But let’s explore.

Part of the challenge in this question is first reaching a common understanding of roles in organisations these days.  Over the years we have seen the evolution in quite a few areas, that take the place of the traditional sales person.  The first few that pop to mind are on online sales and marketing, inside sales, partner channels and licensing resellers/specialists.  Then there are fine-tuned areas like partner enablement and customer success, plus relationship focused roles oriented around delivery success and renewals.   Even back at the more traditional sales roles, Business Development verse Account Management hasn’t shifted much but even these roles have unique lenses on all clients.

With the increased awareness that relationships are key to new and repeat business, roles like Relationship Managers are starting to appear more and more.  Some businesses are still attaching the role to sales and/or delivery while some are detaching the role completely from other influences to be able to focus 100% on what the client wants and needs.  Some businesses are keeping these roles in house while some are also engaging external firms like ours to complement their team on the client journey.

Role understanding is key to this question for two reasons:

• The simple art of teamwork – knowing what to expect from each other and knowing what others expect of you.  It’s partly clear responsibilities and ownership, partly performance/goaling and partly process.
• Because as you can see above, the number of people that have touch points with a client can be a lot, and this can lead to positive and negative experiences just by itself.

So then, who owns the client relationship?   The client does.  I am not trying to be smart or controversial, after thinking about all the conversations I have had over the years with internal team members and clients, I think not appreciating that the client should be setting the queues for your relationship is by far the largest mistake I see.   In my experience the client tends to provide a few major queues:

• Role: Pretty common, often times a client will want to engagement from a certain role/level of your business and take this as an indication of their value to you.   This may mean you need to shape in some blended meetings to balance pure face time with other members of your team that can contribute to the client.   Or leave it with that person and have the team work behind the scenes.
• Personality: often, depending on your client’s background and personality, they may just gel with someone in your team more than others.  If this is the case then perhaps there are some adjustments you can make to utilise this – without undermining others and their functions.
• Time: the client should 100% drive meeting times and frequency.  It is your job to find ways for that time to be spent so well that the client sees value and perhaps opens up new discussions for assistance.
• Needs: if a client doesn’t feel they have any needs you can solve they will tell you.  Yes, sometimes they may not understand what you have/do enough to see what you see, but trying to force them with brochures and meetings isn’t going to work.  Focus on the relationship with the time they provide and build trust and understanding.

As someone who loves structure and role clarity, I also feel there is a need for a client relationship to be guided by one person on business/sales side.  A different kind of ownership.  I believe this is the Account Manager, with a few notes:

• Ultimately it is the account manager who has clients and opportunities aligned to your business front of mind.  It is this orientation that guides the rest of the team to what is important for the company and ultimately everyone – including the client by selling what you do best.
• An account manager like other managers is there to move people in a similar direction.  This doesn’t translate to restricting other roles, or telling those roles how to work.  A good account manager helps a team understand the client and their organisation so they can all do their best work.

My other observation around the Relationship Management journey with a client is that all the roles in your business will peak and fade depending on what the client is doing / not doing.  This awareness should drive some deliberate activity and discussion in your business.  Sometimes change comes from observations of the client, and sometimes change needs to be made from within your business.   Two examples:

• Sales cycles and renewals is an easy one to observe the increase is activity, discussions etc for the Account Manager.  Other roles are likely pulled into discussion to ensure consistent plans and messaging occurs with the client.
• Post a sale is another good example when we likely have a very fast shift from Account Manager to delivery or post sales functions.  Depending on your business several teams and roles may become the normal touch points for a client and will need to stay in sync.

So, primary decision making and direction will shift among the team – there really is no single lead.

Please share your perspective and any particular role perspectives you have experienced that others can learn from!