Best interview questions for an Account Manager

Account Manager Interview Questions

An Account Manager is a link between a company and its clients. An expert communicator and negotiator, an Account Manager will manage any questions, comments and complaints a client may have, along with ensuring they’re paying their bills when needed and upselling any relevant services or products.

As the Account Manager will often be the representative for a company to its clients, it’s essential that you hire the right person for the role. Therefore, asking the right Account Manager interview questions is a must.

When bringing an Account Manager to the team, these are the skills you need to look for:

An excellent communicator.
Incredible negotiation ability.
Strong attention to detail.
Literate in MS Office.
Proven experience with invoicing software.
Ability to manage communication with multiple stakeholders at once.
Strong sales ability.
Confident in speaking on behalf of a team.

As the Account Manager in some businesses may have to meet clients face to face, ability and willingness to travel is important here too.

Interviewing an Account Manager

Having a good Account Manager onboard your team can make a huge difference in your client relationships, and a good client relationship can bring in much more revenue than a bad one. Therefore, getting the right candidates through the door is critical. A big step in this process is preparing the ideal interview questions for an Account Manager!

We’ve put together some guide interview questions to help you with this. Keep in mind, these interview questions are best done are best asked early in the interview process to ensure the candidate is a good fit from the start.

How to open the job interview

The best way to start an interview is by putting your candidate at ease. This will ensure that they perform to the best of their ability, without those first-interview nerves getting in the way. You can easily do this by asking a few laid-back queries, before jumping into the more gritty Account Manager interview questions.

This part of the interview only has to last a few minutes but will help with establishing a more conversational atmosphere.

Job Description available

See our Account Manager Job Description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What are your favourite things about being an Account Manager?

Why did you choose a career in Account Management?

Behavioral Questions

When receiving multiple time-sensitive requests from different clients, how do you ensure you meet these deadlines?
Working in Account Management often involves juggling multiple stakeholders and requests at once, seeing how a candidate would behave under this pressure means you can assess how well they would suit the role.
When receiving negative feedback from a client, how would you react?
Keeping a professional manner when dealing with clients is essential in an Account Manager role. Here, a candidate can display their people skills, alongside their problem-solving ability.
How would you deal with a prospective client that you were not getting along with?
Some personality types will not connect as well as others, in this situation it’s good to know that your candidate can behave professionally and work to sign a client regardless.
How well do you work to sales targets?
This is an especially important Account Management interview question if your business works with sales targets. Knowing a candidate can handle this pressure and feel motivated to hit targets will be a huge help in this type of company.

Soft Skills

How would you deal with an extremely demanding client while also managing requests from other clients?
It’s important in an Account Management role that a candidate can set boundaries in a professional and respectful manner. This question will also highlight a candidate’s time management skills.
How would you approach a client who had not yet renewed their contract, as the deadline to do so approached?
A great skill for an Account Manager to have is forward-thinking, and this question will highlight that perfectly. It will also test their sales skills.
How would you turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’ when discussing contract renewal with a client?
This, again, will test a candidate’s persuasive skills as well as ensuring that they can handle sales without coming across as demanding.
How do you usually plan a day that contains multiple client meetings?
In a fast-paced environment, multiple meetings can fall on the same day, this question will ensure a client can handle this situation and will demonstrate their planning and time management skills.
If a client needed an urgent answer from you, but you needed information from someone within the business, how would you deal with this?
Ensuring efficiency while maintaining high standards of work is essential for an account management role, this answer will walk you through a candidate’s way of thinking and make sure they fit this description.

Hard Skills

Which CRM software do you feel comfortable using?
Here you’ll find how well the candidate fits with your current way of working, and what they may need training with.
What technical products have you represented as an Account Manager before?
If your business is SaaS or works with other technical products, this question will give you an idea of how well a candidate fits this position and how well they absorb technical knowledge.
How do you prepare when gearing up to reach out to a new prospect?
If your business requires Account Managers to reach out to new leads, this question will give you an insight into a client’s research process.
What size client portfolio do you have experience working with?
Some Account Management roles require an individual to work with bigger portfolios than others, this answer will give you an idea of how well the candidate’s experience fits with your current portfolio
How do you usually measure your client satisfaction rate?
Knowing that a candidate can measure and analyse their own performance is a great help in this role, as it will mean they are constantly improving.
What skills and abilities do you think make a good Account Manager?
This answer will give your candidate a chance to show off their skills and give you an insight into what areas they are most confident in, along with how this will fit into your team.

Operational / Situational Questions

Describe a time when you have experienced a miscommunication with a client and how you rectified this?
In a role heavily based on communication, some miscommunication is bound to happen. How a candidate handles this is extremely important. This will be revealed in this answer.
Walk me through a time when you have experienced pushback from a client on an important issue, and how you handled the situation?
This is another chance to get an insight into how well a candidate can use their persuasion skills.
Think of a time when you were working with a product or service you were unfamiliar with, walk me through your research process.
It is essential that a candidate has a good research process if they will be working with a complex service or tool, this answer will give you a chance to evaluate whether this is something they have.
When receiving a rejection from a prospective candidate, how do you react and learn from this?
Receiving a client rejection can be upsetting, but it is a good chance to re-evaluate your approach, this will let you know how a candidate does this.
Tell me about a time you decided a prospect was not worth pursuing, how did you come to this conclusion and handle ending the process.
It is reassuring to know that a candidate knows when it is not worth investing their time in a lead anymore. This answer will give you an idea of how well they can tell that it is time to do this.