My friends who work at Facebook gave me access to their onboarding training since we are tuning up how we hire up new account managers.
What I’ve learned……
– Role-playing is critical to being good with clients, so trainees take turns practicing as the client, account manager, and observer, grading the role-play across key factors.
– They’ve left nothing to assume— thick workbooks spell out the fundamentals of digital marketing and the steps of booking client call— before, during, and after.
– Practice what we preach. New Facebook team members have to create a business page and know how to run ads, so they have empathy from the client’s point of view.
– Humanity is critical. It’s not enough to have product knowledge or be able to blindly follow a script with robot precision. Teach active listening skills— listening to understand instead of only to sell.
While a consultative sale does require product knowledge, more important is building empathy with the client— showing we care and being reliable with frequent, lightweight touches during the relationship.
As we hire up account managers (a lot of moms, it’s starting to look like), I’m building in soft skills to be honed via role play and testing for EQ.
I’ve found that the technical execution of driving more patients for chiropractors is far easier than finding and teaching the relationship side of things.
Thus, a successful account manager is not a call center employee, VA, or technical specialist, but an intrapreneur who cares deeply for their clients as quasi-children.
We love stay-at-home moms, by the way!
