Understanding the difference between landing new business and managing existing accounts is critical for your sales organization’s success.
On the surface, sales and account management have similar goals: Build strong relationships with customers and increase profitable revenue. But while both roles drive revenue, they require two different skill sets.
Understanding the Core Differences Between Account Management and Sales
The main difference between the two roles is that sellers convert new prospects into paying customers and account managers nurture and expand existing customer relationships.
New business sales professionals must:
- Prospect and identify potential customers
- Build relationships from scratch
- Navigate complex buying processes
- Compete against incumbent solutions
- Drive decisions and close new deals
In contrast, account managers drive value through:
- Deep understanding of the customer’s business and long-term goals
- Strategic planning for account growth and retention
- Cross-selling and upselling opportunities within established relationships
- Regular business reviews and relationship maintenance
- Proactive problem-solving and customer success initiatives
Account management is a client-facing, post-sale role. Once the deal is won, the account manager continues to build a strategic relationship with the customer—ensuring they’re achieving the highest level of satisfaction and advising them on long-term growth strategies.
Account managers keep customer service and customer success top of mind. They also focus on business development and growing accounts through upselling, account management training, and cross-selling opportunities.
Essential Skills for Sales vs. Account Management
The specific requirements of each role will vary depending on your company’s unique market, environment, and goals. Also, not every company has a dedicated team of account managers; depending on the size of your organization and sales force, the two roles may be combined.
New Business Sales Skills for Success
In general, strong sales professionals usually have a hunter mentality. They should have the skills to move a prospect through each stage of the sales process. Sales training should emphasize the following skills:
- Prospecting and qualification: Identify and screen potential customers to ensure they’re worth pursuing based on specific criteria.
- Developing rapport: Identify a buyer’s behavior style and tailor your communication to match.
- Discovery and needs analysis: Skillfully uncover a prospect’s pain points, challenges, and requirements through strategic questioning.
- Competitive positioning: Effectively differentiate your solution from competitors by highlighting unique value propositions and advantages.
- Negotiation and closing: Reach mutually beneficial agreements while maintaining deal value and completing sales transactions.
- Pipeline management: Strategically track and manage multiple sales opportunities through various stages to ensure consistent revenue flow.
- Territory planning: Systematically organize and prioritize sales activities within a geographic or account-based region to maximize coverage and results.
Account Management Skills for Success
The role of an account manager requires more of a “farmer” mentality. After a prospect has converted to a customer, the account manager nurtures the relationship and helps it grow to its full potential.
An account manager must be able to identify key accounts and prioritize their time based on which accounts have the most potential for growth. Account management training should emphasize the following skills:
- Relationship building and maintenance: Cultivate strong, long-term connections with key stakeholders through consistent communication and value delivery.
- Strategic planning and account mapping: Analyze customer organizations to identify growth opportunities and prioritize profitable accounts.
- Project management: Orchestrate multiple initiatives and stakeholders to ensure successful solution implementation.
- Customer advocacy: Represent customer interests within your organization to secure resources and support.
- Industry and product expertise: Maintain deep knowledge of your solutions and the customer’s business context to provide strategic value.
- Customer success measurement: Track and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate and improve the effectiveness of your solution.
While a consultative sales approach benefits all sellers, it’s especially important for account managers. Sales professionals tend to think shorter term (e.g., converting prospects into customers and making sales). Account managers must focus on building strategic, long-term relationships and defending their accounts from competitive encroachment.
Sales Leader Recommendations
To lead both functions effectively, sales leaders must:
1. Provide Role-Specific Training
- Account managers need training in relationship management, strategic planning, and product knowledge.
- Sales professionals need training in prospecting, competitive selling, and closing techniques.
2. Establish Clear Metrics
- Account management KPIs should include retention rates, account growth, and customer satisfaction.
- New sales metrics should track pipeline velocity, conversion rates, and new logo acquisition.
3. Create Appropriate Compensation Models
- For account managers, reward retention and growth within existing accounts.
- For new sales, incentivize new logo acquisition and deal closure.
4. Enable Success Through Tools and Resources
- Account management and sales require a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, success planning tools, and customer health monitoring.
- New sales also require lead generation tools, sales intelligence platforms, and proposal software.
Aligning Sales and Account Management
Success in modern sales organizations comes down to both acquiring new business AND growing existing accounts. Leaders who understand and support these distinct functions while maintaining their integration will drive sustainable growth.
Both account management teams and sales teams have the end goal of increasing revenue, but the paths they use to get there can be very different.
While distinct, these functions should work together, using:
- Clear handoff processes between new sales and account management
- Shared customer intelligence and feedback loops
- Collaborative territory and account planning
- Unified customer experience strategies
Whether your business has a dedicated team of account managers or you’re relying on your sales professionals to fulfill both roles, make sure your team has the skills to build and maintain long-term relationships with high-value customers.
Ready to level up your account management approach? The Brooks Group’s Strategic Account Management training program teaches participants a highly practical system for identifying key accounts and developing them in ways that will strengthen the client relationship—and drive additional sales revenue for your company.
