Account Managers are the liaisons between a company and its customers. Their primary goal is to achieve optimal customer satisfaction while growing accounts to increase company revenue. Account Managers might work with many small accounts or a few large ones and are generally responsible for all aspects of customer relationship management. They also work closely with a variety of different teams including marketing, sales, and customer success. Doing so requires them both to deeply understand the needs of their clients to bring them solutions and to communicate and collaborate effectively with the internal teams in the company.
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Presenting
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Active Listening
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Customer Relationship Management
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Teamwork / Collaboration
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Product Knowledge
Interview questions for Account Managers that effectively assess core skills
While it might seem difficult to figure out whether a candidate will succeed as an Account Manager in your company, a well-developed set of Account Manager interview questions and answers that tap into the core skills required to perform in an Account Manager role will go a long way in helping you decide.
But where do you start? How do you develop a set of great interview questions to ask Account Managers?
The best interview questions come directly from a job analysis. A job analysis is an evidence-based method that focuses on assessing key features of a particular role. These features describe both the job itself (i.e., tasks, responsibilities, and performance objectives), and the characteristics required of someone to perform successfully in the job (e.g., knowledge, skills, and abilities). A job analysis forms the basis of many HR practices such as compensation, performance management, and - you guessed it - how to interview and hire candidates.
Account Manager interview questions and answers
At Hireguide, we’ve done the job analysis work for you. We’ve used the method to identify a core set of skills associated with the Account Manager role, and we’ve developed and validated a list of behavioral and situational questions with answer guides that tap directly into those core skills.
And that’s not all. We’ve compiled these questions and created an Account Manager interview template for you that integrates other interviewing best practices. Skills-based interviews will not only help you make higher quality and evidence-based hiring decisions, but research also shows they enhance fairness and reduce bias in your hiring process.
Account Manager interview guide (Hireguide preview)
Account Manager sample interview question 1
Tell me about a time when you’ve presented a product/service to a potential customer in the past and successfully aligned their needs to what your company offered? What presentation tactics made the conversation successful?
Answer Tips
- Conducts research to understand the customer’s needs and business
- Prepares in advance to align the value proposition with the customer’s needs
- Asks questions to clarify and better-understand needs to tailor offering
- Prioritizes the customer’s needs and reactions as they present the product/service
- Adapts their presentation tactics to ensure it is well-received by customer
Account Manager sample interview question 2
Imagine you were in a scenario where you accidentally made a customer unhappy and it could potentially cost you their business. How would you navigate that scenario?
Answer Tips
- Acknowledges and apologizes to the customer for their mistake
- Thoughtfully engages the customer to better-understand/clarify their needs
- Evaluates the customer's concern and offers alternatives if possible
- Shares key learnings and how to apply them in the future
- Emphasizes the value of maintaining high quality relationships for company success
