Account Executive

San Francisco, CA, United States

Sköna is seeking a kick-ass account executive to join our client services team. The Account Executive is responsible for ensuring timelines are met and a high quality of work is delivered to their clients, requiring minimal guidance and managing the works in progress reports. We are looking for an experienced agency Account Executive with experience in tech start-ups being strongly preferred.

About Our Culture We’re a small (but mighty) creative agency based in San Francisco with an office in Stockholm. We work with high tech clients, most of them B2B, on a range of creative services including digital marketing, website development, marketing strategy, brand development, event marketing, outdoor advertising, and much more. Our team is tight-knit and we love what we do. We like to do great work but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We focus on collaboration to produce beautiful results, we leave our egos at the door and look for ways to always pitch in.

You in? We love meeting talented people. If you think you’re a fit for the Sköna team, apply for what makes your heart sing and let’s chat!

Candidates MUST have had previous experience working as an Account Executive in an Advertising Agency. No other experience will be considered. Working within a team and under an experienced Account Supervisor, the candidate should be able to understand, explain, and evaluate traditional and digital marketing; and provide strong, clear input to creative/production staff. The candidate must have demonstrated experience managing budgets and ensuring account profitability as well as the ability to present and foster excellent client/agency relationships. Must be familiar with and able to utilize a variety of applicable metrics and analytics.

Job responsibilities include (but are not limited to): Marketing Competency Understands marketing execution and agency process.

Writes short decks and has the ability to get into client-ready state with guidance from Account Supervisors and Client Partners.

Creates actionable creative briefs and steers client in appropriate direction at project kickoff; pushing back (when necessary) with positive results.

Listens for new opportunities to work with clients, and involves appropriate team members to sell in new ideas and work.

Understands the relative costs for different levels of project components (e.g. the cost of a landing page vs. a site redesign), and what constitutes positive ROI for agency.

Develops work that will drive higher performance for our clients.

Collects results from client for each program executed (where possible) and reports back to agency team.

Increases client satisfaction and grows revenue and profitability on assigned lines of business.

Project Management Skills Manages creative development for multiple projects or project components from start to finish, with ownership and accountability of budget and deliverables; leads estimating and invoicing.

Effectively uses internal planning docs and processes to reserve the resources needed to complete each step of each project.

Utilizes Wrike to organize and document all work on projects.

Serves as day-to-day contact for mid-level clients; engages in project-level strategic discussion, including optimization, lessons learned, etc..

Proactively identifies and resolves issues; knows when to push back on client while also being flexible, responding quickly and appropriately to change.

Keeps appropriate team members and clients aware of project status, implications, project details, etc. as well as this information’s impact on other project components.

Provides value-add creative feedback that is aligned with campaign strategy and objectives; synthesizes and validates client feedback before handing off to creative.

Highlights to senior leaders any project risks (i.e. resource problems, team problems, deliverable issues, client issues, etc.) and proposes solutions.

Identifies potential issues related to client relationship and escalates appropriately.

Communication Skills Displays excellent verbal and written communication skills; listens, comprehends, and re-articulates accurately to gain client buy-in and agreement.

Listens with 20/20 hearing – asks “why” until understands what’s behind the words

Is a champion of succinct communication – the goal is to create time for everyone involved in the project.

Manages client and internal meetings with clear meeting objectives, content, and outcomes; effectively communicates.

Leads set-up and wrap-up of client calls, setting clear expectations of the meeting and establishing and documenting next steps.

Makes sure clients understand their role and responsibilities in getting a job done – and holds them to their commitments.

People, Teamwork, Culture Communicates with peers and partners in a respectful way – assumes positive intent.

Is recognized by peers for facilitation/problem-resolution skills.

Regularly works to improve knowledge and skills through individualized external training – plan to be developed in partnership with manager.

Works as efficiently as possible so that all team members can better serve the clients.

Measurement Criteria Increased client satisfaction, revenue growth and improved profitability.

Employee satisfaction and growth.

Consistently willing to take on new responsibilities in moving team forward.

Solution-oriented process champion; takes personal accountability for improving how the agency runs.

Requirements 3+ years experience

Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing or Communications or a similar field

Higher education experience, especially community college experience

Expertise in planning and implementing marketing initiatives

Proactive and adept at documenting ideas and project plans

Self-motivated and deadline-oriented

Comfortable using varied media and tools to share information and ideas to internal and external audiences

Professional, adaptable, self-assured, and self-motivated

Comfortable with project management software, spreadsheets, and timelines, and have the ability to respond to changes with optimism

Results-oriented and eager to find new ways to deliver content and campaigns that drive results

Willingness to travel to client locations, sometimes up to several times per month

Excellent communicator – must be able to write well, stay organized, and give clear instructions

5 signs that you are the right candidate You like working in a small environment with a flat organization. Yes, you might even make coffee for everyone sometimes.

You have an entrepreneurial spirit – you are very proactive and are ready to get things done however small or complex the problems are.

You can handle multiple tasks simultaneously and can work under pressure without losing your cool – you’re organized and you understand deadlines and the necessity to prioritize.

You are a good negotiator with great people skills. You’re the connector between the clients and the designers and developers. Your job is to make everyone happy while delivering high-impact work.

You like design and strongly believe that creativity can drive business growth. Creativity is the agency’s product. You need to value it to sell and defend it.

5 things that describe you Customer-focused

Creative thinker

Drive for perfection

Salary commensurate with experience

401(k) plan, paid federal company holidays

Full medical/dental/vision package to fit your needs

Competitive vacation policy

Sköna is an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically encourages people from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to apply. Sköna does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), gender, national origin, citizenship, age, mental or physical disability, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation or any other basis prohibited by law.

You in? We love meeting talented people. If you think you’re a fit for the Sköna team, apply for what makes your heart sing and let’s chat!

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