I was leafing through Campaign the other day, and something caught my eye. It was in The Internet Question section written by one Max Harrington (Campaign, 21 March). Here’s what made me stop:

“Would agencies be more efficient without account handlers?”
Eh? Come again? I thought. But he went on to say:
Why do so many agencies employ so many useless pen-pushing people called account handlers? As a client, I don’t want to have people get in the way between me and the smart and creative people. They love meetings, but never bring the people we clients really want to meet – the planners and creatives.

Ooh, I love a rip-roaring discussion. So here I go.
My opening gambit is this: Account handlers are the lynch-pin that keep every agency and client relationship going. They are the people who ensure anything gets done. But then I would say that. I am one.

But really – “useless”, “people getting in the way” of Max Harrington and “the smart and creative people”. Hang on, who is this guy’s agency? No client should ever feel like that.

This brings me to the question, what makes a really great account handler? What is the most important attribute? Is it someone who’s got great attention to detail? Perhaps someone that thinks creatively but can stay focussed on the overall purpose of a communication? Or is it someone who can bring great strategic thinking to bear on client objectives?

Well I would argue that a good account handler is all of those things. They can bring the people who are necessary to meetings and let them get on with the actual doing when they are not needed. A good account handler is the person who pulls together all the skills and talents from the agency and ensures they work to deliver the client objectives on time and on budget and on brief. I think we’re pretty good at that at Whitewater myself, but it’s true good account handlers are hard to find. Obviously Max should keep looking!

Niamh Neville