Account Management vs Sales: What‘s the Difference? [FAQ]

Account managers and salespeople are both critical customer-facing roles, but many people are fuzzy on how the two jobs actually differ. As someone who has worked on both the sales and account management side, I‘m here to clear up the confusion. In this guide, I‘ll answer all your burning questions about the key responsibilities, goals, and skills of each role, show how the two partner together, and share advice for excelling in either career.

What Exactly Does an Account Manager Do?

An account manager is responsible for nurturing relationships with a portfolio of existing customers. While the specific duties can vary across industries, the account manager is essentially the client‘s primary point of contact and advocate within the company after the initial sale.

On a day-to-day basis, account managers will regularly communicate with their assigned clients to understand their evolving needs, goals and challenges. They then work internally with various teams (like product, customer success, support, etc.) to ensure the client is getting the most value from the product/service and that their objectives are being met.

Some typical account manager activities and responsibilities include:

• Developing success plans to help clients achieve goals
• Proactively monitoring account health and resolving any issues
• Conducting regular business reviews with key stakeholders
• Providing strategic advice and sharing relevant resources
• Identifying expansion opportunities and facilitating upsells
• Securing contract renewals
• Soliciting client feedback and acting on it
• Managing client expectations and escalations

The ultimate aim is to establish a trusted partnership, maximize customer satisfaction and retention, and grow the account over time. Key metrics for account managers often include client NPS scores, renewal rates, upsell revenue, and churn percentage.

What Do Salespeople Actually Do?

A salesperson‘s primary objective is to bring in net-new customers and revenue to the business. They are in charge of all front-end sales activities – from prospecting and qualifying leads to pitching, negotiating deals, and getting contracts signed.

Here‘s a peek at some common day-to-day responsibilities of salespeople:

• Sourcing new leads through research, networking, etc.
• Following up with and qualifying inbound leads
• Conducting discovery calls to understand prospect needs
• Delivering product demos and presentations
• Developing proposals and quotes
• Negotiating pricing and contract terms
• Overcoming objections and roadblocks
• Coordinating with legal, security, procurement, etc. to finalize contracts
• Hitting monthly/quarterly sales quotas

Once the prospect signs on the dotted line, the salesperson will hand off the new customer to an account manager and share key information uncovered during the sales cycle, like pain points, use cases, success metrics, and so on. This allows for a smooth transition and accelerated time-to-value for the client.

Account Management vs Sales: The Key Differences

While account managers and salespeople are both in the business of revenue generation, the two roles serve distinct purposes within the organization. Here are some of the most important differences:

Goals & Metrics

Salespeople are laser-focused on hitting their bookings number – the total contract value of deals closed each period. Their performance is measured by metrics like number of deals won, average deal size, length of sales cycle, lead-to-opportunity conversion rate, etc.

In contrast, account managers are generally on the hook for retention, growth and satisfaction metrics. Some KPIs include logo retention rate, net revenue retention, upsell amount, NPS, product adoption, etc. The goal is to keep customers happy and coming back for more.

Customer Interactions

Salespeople have a high volume of customer touchpoints as they attempt to connect with and qualify new prospects. Interactions tend to be more transactional in nature, focused on uncovering needs and closing the deal. The salesperson is driving toward a clear endpoint (getting ink on the contract).

Account managers have more of an ongoing relationship with a defined set of customers. They engage in regular check-ins, quarterly business reviews, and as-needed conversations to continually deliver value to the client. It‘s about being proactive and deepening the partnership over months and years.

Skillsets

Both roles require excellent communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving chops. But there are some key skills that are more important for each:

Account Managers:

• Emotional intelligence
• Active listening
• Collaboration
• Strategic thinking
• Project management

Salespeople:

• Prospecting
• Discovery/Probing
• Objection handling
• Closing
• Resilience

Of course, there is plenty of overlap – stellar account managers and salespeople will have abilities across the spectrum.

Compensation

Salespeople tend to have a larger portion of their pay tied to performance incentives, with 64% of compensation on average coming from variable commissions and bonuses. Top performers can make huge money by smashing their quotas.

Account manager compensation skews more toward base salary, comprising about 80% of on-target earnings (OTE). Though many AMs do have a variable component tied to retention/growth targets, it‘s not usually as large as the typical sales commission.

According to Glassdoor, the average base pay for account managers in the US is around $60k. Meanwhile, the average base for salespeople is about $50-55k but with much higher earning potential with commissions – $85k+ OTE is common.

How Account Managers & Salespeople Collaborate

Account management and sales are highly interdependent functions. When the two teams work in lockstep, it‘s a virtuous cycle that benefits the company, employees, and most importantly, customers.

Some key areas of partnership include:

• New Customer Onboarding: After closing a deal, the salesperson will introduce the account manager to the client and do an internal transfer of knowledge. Sharing info about the client‘s goals, concerns, and preferences helps the AM hit the ground running.

• Cross-Sell/Upsell: As the client‘s trusted advisor, account managers can spot opportunities to expand product usage and uncover additional business challenges. They will often partner with sales on pursing expansion deals and facilitating the process. According to Forrester, 76% of account managers view identifying upsells as a primary job responsibility.

• Client References: Happy customers can be a salesperson‘s secret weapon. Account managers can connect sales with clients who are willing to be references and sing the company‘s praises to hesitant prospects.

• Market Intelligence: Talking with clients every day gives account managers valuable insights into industry trends, competitor moves, and emerging needs. Relaying these learnings to sales helps them tailor messaging and discover new business opportunities.

Why Split Account Management & Sales?

Many companies choose to split account management and direct sales into separate roles for a few key reasons:

1. Specialization: Having dedicated roles allows account managers and salespeople to hone the specific skillsets needed to excel at managing existing clients or bringing in new business. Splitting the focus avoids stretching employees too thin.

2. Customer Experience: Giving customers one go-to person post-sale provides consistency and builds deeper relationships. Account managers have the bandwidth to be highly responsive and deliver personalized attention without the pressure to seek out new deals.

3. Profitability: Keeping and growing existing customers is often more cost-effective than converting new ones. Having account managers focused on maximizing lifetime value and reducing churn has a huge impact on the bottom line.

That said, the account manager and sales roles can certainly be combined, especially at smaller companies with leaner teams. Some businesses also have hybrid roles like account executives who handle the full customer lifecycle, from acquisition to growth. It really depends on the company‘s sales motion, market maturity, and average deal size/complexity.

How to Be a Successful Account Manager

For aspiring account managers, developing the following skills and knowledge will set you up for success:

• Industry expertise: A deep understanding of your target market, key business challenges, and emerging trends will help you become a trusted consultant to clients. Stay on top of industry news and make learning a priority.

• Product knowledge: Being well-versed in your company‘s offerings is essential for recommending the right solutions to customers and driving adoption/value. Shadow internal experts, dive into product docs, and actually use the tools yourself.

• Relationship building: The heart of account management is forging strong partnerships both externally and internally. Focus on building trust, establishing regular touchpoints, and keeping lines of communication open with all key stakeholders.

• Creative problem-solving: Your clients will look to you to help overcome obstacles and achieve their goals. Hone your strategic and analytical skills to develop out-of-the-box solutions. See problems as opportunities to deepen the relationship.

• Proactiveness: The best account managers anticipate client needs before they even arise. Pay attention to shifts in the client‘s business or industry that could impact their priorities and be ready to pivot your approach as needed.

Becoming a Top Sales Performer

For salespeople looking to crush their numbers, here are some must-have skills and attributes:

• Prospecting: Master the art of sourcing high-quality leads through channels like social selling, networking, email outreach, etc. Having a full pipeline is key to consistent performance.

• Discovery: Hone your active listening and probing abilities to uncover the prospect‘s true pain points, objectives, and decision criteria. Develop a bank of open-ended questions to understand their unique situation inside and out.

• Objection handling: Prepare for common prospect objections/concerns and practice reframing them into positives. Demonstrate empathy, use social proof, and emphasize value to move past blockers.

• Closing: Know the signals a prospect is ready to buy (e.g. questions about implementation or pricing) and confidently ask for the business. Negotiate in good faith and always aim for a mutually beneficial outcome.

• Time management: Maximize selling time by ruthlessly prioritizing accounts, automating non-revenue-generating tasks, and limiting distractions. Block off time for high-impact sales activities.

• Coachability: Seek out feedback from managers and top-performing peers. Be open to constructive criticism and committed to continuously improving your craft. A growth mindset is a must.

Whether you pursue account management or sales, both can be incredibly rewarding career paths with lots of room for growth. Folks in either role have the opportunity to build meaningful relationships, flex creative problem-solving skills, and make a real impact on the business. Hopefully this guide has given you a clearer picture of how account management and sales differ – and work together – to drive company success.