PM and Account

In an agency, the Project Manager and the Account Manager share a lot: the relationship with the client, the project’s numbers, the responsibility for a result that is both good and sustainable. It is precisely this overlap that makes it necessary to define clearly who does what. When the boundaries are blurred, the client gets two versions of the same story; when they are clear, the client gets a team.

The Account: the client’s face

The Account looks after the commercial relationship and is the bridge between the client’s needs and the agency’s capabilities.

• Knows the client: listens to their requests, understands their vision, reads their expectations.
• Advises: proposes solutions and strategies consistent with the client’s objectives.
• Looks after the relationship for its whole duration, not just the project’s.
• Handles the commercial side: quotes, negotiation, contracts, the client’s overall financial performance.

The PM: the project’s helmsman

The PM is the real owner of the project: plans its execution, coordinates the phases, answers for time, cost and quality. There are four points of contact with the Account.

• Budget: takes over the economics that were sold and answers for costs and the planned margin.
• Opportunities: being inside the work every day, the PM is the first to spot the client’s new needs, and shares them.
• Escalation: monitors progress, identifies problems and obstacles, and alerts the Account when they affect the relationship or the contract.
• Communication: keeps the client and stakeholders updated on the status of the project.

Who does what

Moment	Account	PM
Quote and proposal	Leads, negotiates	Estimates the work, checks feasibility
Statement of Work	Shares it with the client	Writes it with the team
Planning	Kept informed	Leads
Status updates	Kept informed, joins the key moments	Leads, updates the client
Change of scope	Agrees the extra with the client	Estimates it, assesses the impact
Quality issue	Defends the work done	Takes charge of the solution
New opportunities	Turns them into a proposal	Spots them and flags them

It is a pattern, not a law: every agency has its own balance. What matters is that the balance is written down, and that both know it.

The handover

The most delicate moment is when the project moves from sales to production. The Account knows things that aren’t in the contract: what was promised verbally, who really counts on the client side, what tensions there were in the negotiation, where the budget was squeezed to win. If this information doesn’t reach the PM, the PM will find it out the worst possible way.

A good handover takes an hour and covers: the client’s objectives, people and roles, promises made, economics and margins, known risks, the deadlines that matter.

Opportunities, together

Upselling and cross-selling only work if PM and Account work in tandem. The PM brings the project data and what they see every day; the Account brings knowledge of the client, their needs and their priorities. Together they build proposals with real value for the client, not just for the agency, and present them consistently.

Two is the perfect number

In client relationships there is an axiom: one is too few, three or more is dangerous.

A single contact risks ending up in situations with no way out: nobody to bounce off, and if they disappear, the channel disappears. Three or more create confusion: different messages, different priorities, nobody with the full picture. Two can split the tasks, back each other up, play different roles.

One condition, though: they must be aligned. If the client glimpses a misalignment between their contacts, sooner or later they will use it to their advantage. That is why PM and Account talk before every important meeting, and never contradict each other in front of the client.

Good cop, bad cop

It is a well-known technique, born in interrogation rooms: one stern interlocutor and one understanding one, to apply pressure. Applied to client relationships, its spirit has to be reversed. It is not about manipulating anyone, but about holding together two things that seem opposite: flexibility towards the client and firmness about what the project can bear.

It works like this: faced with a request that goes over budget, the PM holds firm on time and cost, and the Account proposes the solution with an agreed extra. Faced with a complaint about quality, the roles swap: the Account defends the work done, the PM takes charge of the problem and solves it.

The rules for it to work:

• Roles rotate. If the same person always plays the “bad cop”, the client stops talking to them.
• Align beforehand, on what can be conceded and what can’t.
• No play-acting: what is said is true. The levers are arguments, consistency, trust built over time; never psychological pressure or a distorted reality.
• The goal is the project, not winning the argument.

With difficult clients

When several people come from the client side, and some are difficult, “man-to-man marking” helps: each person on the client side is matched with someone from the agency, who follows them and picks up their mood and requests. The PM stays free, keeps an eye on the overall climate and steps in where needed.