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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, and much more…

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

fingerprint, and I can tell you that until a friend of mine told me about the position that was open 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, that I felt that even though I had another job offer, I needed to accept his
offer, and never regretted it. The Account Managers job on the inside is, to simply put it, the ones that

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, (orders just sent 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 using

either 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 is an attention to detail, instinct, organization, the ability to prioritize, and the flexibility to change

in an instant what you’re doing. As inside, we deal with virtually everyone associated with taking care of

the customer. Whether it's with purchasing & inquiring, and following up on material, to working with credit,
traffic, or paper trail issues. Like I mentioned earlier, no one day in this job is the same, the goal clear

though, and that is taking care of the customer. A typically a day for me starts by following upon what orders

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, it has been a good company to work for.
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