Career Profile:

Job Summary:

A marketing account director works with brands across the world to produce creative campaigns. The role involves managing relationships and channelling communications between clients and the company’s various departments. A client’s project may involve strategy, digital and creative departments, so the account director acts as the single point of contact for the client. In the outdoor industry, the account director will work specifically with outdoor and sports brands.

Job Tasks:

Communication is at the heart of this role. Working between the client and other departments in the company your key tasks are to listen to the client, ensure you ask the right questions at the right time and relay the information to the members of your team, so that they can fulfil the clients’ requirements. Your written and verbal communication need to be good and you need to be able to handle lots of verbal information, and be able to translate that into language that staff in departments can understand easily.

Job tasks include:

• Documenting information
• Speaking regularly to clients
• Dealing with problems
• Managing client expectations
• Organising schedules
• Leading a team on daily and strategic goals
• Writing reports and summaries
• Giving staff briefings to relay key information
• Communicating with senior leaders
• Maintaining team performance
• Motivating account teams
• Ensuring communications are understood correctly
• Confidently speaking to clients & senior managers
• Presenting to clients

A key to this role is understanding what the clients want; having a background in sport is key to understanding the clients’ needs. You will need to have or gain an all-round knowledge of the outdoor/ sports industry to be successful in this role.

Skills Needed for this Job:

Outstanding communication skills are at the heart of this role. As an account manager, you will talk to people all day, checking in with clients to make sure you understand what they mean, or explaining what you want from them. You will be liaising with the team and working to meet targets and deadlines.  Listening skills will help you to really learn and understand your customers. Empathy, understanding and being friendly will help you to connect with the client and get the most out of your relationship.

Organisation and project management skills will help you to make sure projects stay on track and in control. You may be dealing with many different people in a single day, so staying on top of admin is important.

An understanding of the sports industry is vital.  You need to be able to give authoritative feedback to clients about their brand, about other sports brands and about their target customer. To do this, you will need to know the industry well.

In summary, if you consider yourself to be a relationship builder with exceptional organisation skills and a passion for sport, then this role could suit you.

Working Hours:

Standard working hours in this role are Monday – Friday, 9am – 5:30pm, however you may also have to work some evenings and weekends to meet deadlines. Depending on the company you may get paid overtime.

Income & Job Availability:

Across all industries, marketing account manager/director salaries range from £20,000 to £75,000, with the average being around £44,000.

Within the sports and outdoor field, salaries sit across the whole range, but job opportunities within the specific sports niche are fairly limited. Many people will enter this field from another career, often as a sports participant at a national level, gaining contacts along the way and then entering the role via an internship or work experience.

Training & Qualifications:

No specific training or qualifications are needed, but experience and industry knowledge are highly valued in this industry.  You will need to be willing to learn, put in effort and create your own opportunities along the way.

A degree in any of the following areas may be useful, but is not essential:

• Business
• Marketing
• Advertising
• Psychology
• Communication Studies
• Media Studies

The key two things, above qualifications, are experience and communication skills.

Mentors/ Industry information:

Ali Hammer, Account Director for Brandwave Marketing says:

My involvement in sport has got me all my jobs. Not directly, but indirectly. I trained hard at Triathlon and competed as part of Team GB in age-group racing. I then got my first marketing internship having met a managing director of a marketing agency while I was working in a hotel. He was also a triathlete and we had a lot to talk about. From there, my sport has always been the way in with companies. For me it is hugely beneficial to be passionate about a sport, as it can take you to very different places. Through triathlon training, my coach helped me realise you need to persist and keep trying till you succeed. I never thought I would be working in marketing, but now I’m here, I love it!

Progression and other Job Opportunities

Account Executive

Agency Manager

Agency Director

Chief Executive Officer

Marketing Director

Managing Director

Business Development Manager

Operations Director

Sales Director