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A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ACCOUNT MANAGER

WITH PAT JOHNSON

Pat Johnson explains a day in the life of an Account Manager, what it takes to
thrive in the position, the hardest parts of the job, and much more…

I’ve been working as an Account Executive for 33 years and each and every day is as different as

a fingerprint, and I can tell you that until a friend of mine told me about the open position I would have never
dreamed of being in steel sales. I interviewed with my former General Manager, John M. O’Connor, and I

was so impressed with not only his character, but his open, friendly, and sincere attitude during the interview

process—such that I felt that even though I had another job offer, I needed to accept his offer, and I’ve never
regretted it. The Account Manager’s job on the inside is, simply put, to make it happen for the customer. That

is, taking the accounts you have, and doing your best to grow them through accurate, timely, and competitive

quotes that can then turn into profitable orders for the company. It’s about developing relationships with your
customers so that you’ll have credibility when you communicate with them. It is about not only handling the

easy things (i.e. sending orders in), but also skillfully handling customer problems to retain and still grow the

account. I think maybe a misinterpretation of Account Managers is that we just sit and take orders….that is
the farthest from the truth! We’re also entering quotes or following up on them, entering orders, tracking

down material for customers, and taking care of issues that undoubtedly pop up during the day. I think

some of the strengths one might need for this job are attention to detail, instinct, organization, the ability
to prioritize, and the flexibility to change in an instant what you’re doing. We deal with virtually everything

associated with taking care of the customer: purchasing and inquiring, following up on material, working with

credit, traffic, or paper trail issues. Like I mentioned earlier, no one day in this job is the same as another.
The goal is clear, though: taking care of the customer. A typical day for me starts with following up on orders

that did or did not ship, handling back-orders, taking care of quotes and prioritizing those, then following up
and turning the quotes into orders. I think one of the hardest parts of my job is accepting things that are out

of my control (i.e. mis-shipped material, truck issues), but taking that negative and making it into a positive. I

would recommend this job to others, as through the years Kloeckner has been a good company to work for.
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