Young and hungry, the AOR Account Coordinators recently took on the Windy City to attend an intensive two-day training account management boot camp hosted by the Agency Management Institute (AMI). The boot camp is geared towards entry and intermediate-level account personnel eager to learn more about the industry and get the latest industry tips and tricks on how to be invaluable to their agency.
AMI owner Drew McLellan split us up into groups in a classroom-style room as we did the classic “Introduce Yourself!” icebreakers. After that, we dove right in…
Drew gave us a brief background on his impressive history in the agency world and we quickly shifted focus to life on the Account Team; what our clients expect from us, what our owners expect from us, and what we should expect from ourselves. Of course, this is all relative, but the common theme was results; being an account person is a bit of a juggling act and it is not designed for a 9-5 mindset.
We were also able to share our pain points with one another and collaborate to come up with innovative solutions to alleviate them – we each took advantage of the opportunity. This was a great reminder for us to use our resources and to approach needing help, feedback, or advice as a learning opportunity and not as a failure.
Our group work was definitely designed to help us hone our communication skills and understand how we each operate in a team setting. However, beyond that it was meant to give us confidence – a 17 hour turnaround on an RFP with strangers; how could we be sure about what we were presenting and who we were presenting with? We all felt like we succeeded to the best of our ability and worked cohesively with one another, but we still weren’t sure what Drew had up his sleeve as a result of this project.
Drew critiqued our presentation skills individually and gave us feedback on the content. He also drove home the point that in reality time won’t always be on our side – there are going to be instances like this again and he helped prepare us for that. He taught us that staying on our toes is a good thing and we left Chicago feeling empowered and eager to bring everything we had learned back to AOR.
Want the Account Coordinators to prove to you how much they’ve learned? Email us at hello@thinkaor.com to start your next project (time sensitive or not!).
In the meantime, see our recent work here. And don’t hesitate to reach out.