Executive Headhunters
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CV searching in account management recruitment is often a long and arduous task. When you’re searching through hundreds or thousands of CVs it’s very easy to succumb to tunnel vision. This applies to roles of every level.
Let’s say you’re looking to hire a new account manager to help grow your business and your client base. How can you make the process of searching through the potential Account Manager CV pool less painful, and more efficient? How do you identify the very best account managers from just their CV?
Here we will outline some of the things to look for in an Account Manager CV that can help determine how high-quality the candidate is, what potential they have, and whether they are right for you and your business.
Above all else, perhaps the single most important thing to look out for in an Account Manager CV is quantifiable statistics. Quality account managers should have a good understanding of their own quantifiable achievements and be able to prove these to you clearly in their CV as their main selling point as a candidate. Candidates should be able to prove their concrete achievements to you. They should tell you “I helped my business go from X to Y in Z amount of time, and this is how I did it”.
A surprising amount of account manager candidates completely forgo including tangible statistics in their CV, which is a major oversight. Providing impressive and quantifiable statistics at an early stage such as in a CV shows concrete, easy to interpret and compare achievements. It also demonstrates the candidate’s understanding of their own account management skills and worth as a candidate for your role as a manager. This shows clarity, directness, and understanding of ability and influence, all of which are key attributes of successful account managers.
Quantifiable statistics also allow for candidates to be more easily compared to each other when creating a talent shortlist.
When you’re hiring for a new account manager, you want proof of their abilities and the positive effect they have on their business. Quality candidates have the ability to demonstrate their proven return on investment (ROI) for their business. Look for signs of ROI in your candidates’ CVs.
Your ideal Account Manager CV should demonstrate two key factors; account retention, and account growth. A basic candidate can manage your accounts, but a truly high-quality one can go beyond this. These individuals can actively work to retain current accounts that may be at risk, as well as grow accounts and generate business. You want to hire someone who is eager to go above and beyond in their role, with an ambitious and enthusiastic approach to account management.
One great feature of any CV is readability and how easy it is to scan through. Quality candidates should know how to effectively highlight the most important information in their CV so that it stands out to the reader. Candidates should understand that the reader will be reading hundreds of CVs at once and as such won’t spend much time on each CV. In fact, a 2012 study found that recruiters generally spend only 6 seconds scanning each CV. Though of course, for more senior roles with fewer applicants, this number could be higher. However, when searching for senior candidates it’s not uncommon to come across CVs that are multiple pages long and list every bit of experience and every career achievement with no visual highlighting. You want to feel like you’re reading a CV, not an essay or a life story.
By highlighting only the most important information and making it stand out to the reader, the candidate shows a good understanding of their own top selling points.
This also shows respect for the reader’s time and understanding of their position. This level of thought can be a good quality in a top candidate.
When looking at an Account Manager CV, try to identify the candidate’s geographical area of work. Are they used to working in small areas or over a large region? This shows their type of experience and flexibility, and can tell you how easily they may be able to adjust to working in your business. Even if a candidate has excellent experience retaining and growing accounts locally, this doesn’t mean that these abilities will necessarily transfer over to a more regional role, and vice versa.
This also applies to the candidate’s area of operations. For example, do they have primarily stationary experience? Are they used to travelling around and commuting in their account manager roles? Your account manager should be comfortable and confident in adapting to the requirements of your role.
In addition to this, you should consider each candidate’s sector experience, as candidates with strong experience working in your sector or industry may be ideal for your business. However, you should also try to consider account managers from less directly relevant businesses.
This is because many of the key account management skills required to succeed and thrive are highly transferable between businesses.
Quality key account managers need to be consistent and reliable. When looking through CVs, you should identify signs of reliability. Signs of reliability include remaining in roles for a significant amount of time, not ‘job-hopping’, having no unusual gaps in employment, etc. You want to make sure the candidate you hire can be trusted to settle into their role and grow accounts over time, instead of being at risk of leaving after a year. After all, one of the key responsibilities of an account manager is to manage and grow accounts, and this can only be done effectively over a significant period of time.
Watch out for red flags of unreliability in CVs. Generally speaking, candidates who have more than 3 jobs in the space of around 5 years may be less likely to stick around in your role for more than a year or two. It’s often a good idea to look for candidates who hold account manager roles for around 3 years or more. This provides more time for account retention and growth, and shows greater reliability. The chances are you’re hiring for your next account manager with long-term goals in mind. As such you should only consider candidates who have proven long-term growth capabilities, otherwise you are risking shooting yourself in the foot.
However, you should also be wary of candidates who have spent too long in one role or company. Ideal account managers need to be reliable yet also diverse. Working in a few different areas shows diversity and experience, whilst spending too long in one role with no real experience elsewhere shows a risk of institutionalisation. This may mean that they struggle adjusting to work in businesses or roles outside of their current position, as they become too adjusted to it.
Of course, you probably aren’t just looking for candidates with experience alone, you also want proof of sufficient achievements. Keep an eye out for candidates whose experience and achievements don’t match up sufficiently. At first glance, it may seem fine if a candidate outlines extensive experience as an account manager for a few different businesses, but what have they actually achieved in that time?
Even with strong experience, candidates who fail to outline their achievements throughout their career as account manager may be more likely to lack the ambition or drive to put the effort in and retain important accounts.
Essential for any high-level role, communication skills are the foundation of quality managers. Your candidate should be able to communicate effectively with others within your business, and especially with clients. Look for any evidence of the candidate’s experience using communication skills to drive business.
In addition, your ideal manager should have proven organisational and multitasking abilities. Quality account managers have the ability and the willingness to work independently, show initiative and keep themselves as well as their accounts well organised and managed at all times.
This goes hand-in-hand with communicative ability. Your ideal account manager should be adept at managing workplace engagement and building new relationships. Relationship building expertise is crucial to generating new business and forming a powerful business network. Your candidate should ideally have a strong network of connections, and they should be eager to further expand this.
We live in a society that is increasingly reliant on technology. This is especially true in the workplace. Ideal candidate CVs should outline their ability and experience using technology to increase their productivity and effectiveness managing accounts. Specifically, quality account managers should have a strong understanding of and experience working with CRM software.
The account management skills provided by modern CRM software can be hugely beneficial. By outlining their experience with various pieces of CRM and CRM-related software in their CV, candidates are demonstrating flexibility and understanding of relevant technology. This is an invaluable trait in today’s society.
A 2012 study found that when browsing LinkedIn pages, recruiters spent an average of 19% of their time focusing on candidate’s profile pictures. What does this mean? Well, for one it means that that’s almost a fifth of their times taken up by looking at a candidate’s picture. This tells us very little about a candidate’s ability, but is visually interesting enough to be a focal point, creating unnecessary visual complexity and loss of focus as a result. Including a profile picture also creates a greater possibility of bias, which candidates should be aware of.
Generally, remember to put as little focus as possible on candidate’s pictures should they be included in their CV. Don’t let them distract you from their actual achievements and abilities.
Last but not least, conciseness is a valuable trait in CVs of all roles and industries. Ultimately, candidates need to be able to prioritise their key experience, achievements, qualities and present them to potential employers in a way that is concise, focused, and easy to understand.
By taking into account these key features, and putting the effort into analysing your candidate’s CVs, you’re taking the first steps to hiring a trailblazing, high-quality account manager. This individual can help your business retain and grow its accounts, and generate valuable new business. Remember to keep an eye out for quantifiable statistics and return on investment, achievements, and proven reliability. Should you do this, the process of searching through candidate CVs during your account management recruitment process should be much more efficient, and you may just find the ideal account manager for your business.
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