Account director vs account development manager

The differences between account directors and account development managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-8 years to become both an account director and an account development manager. Additionally, an account director has an average salary of $114,728, which is higher than the $72,375 average annual salary of an account development manager.

The top three skills for an account director include account management, project management and work ethic. The most important skills for an account development manager are customer relationships, customer accounts, and CRM.

Account director vs account development manager overview

	Account Director	Account Development Manager
Yearly salary	$114,728	$72,375
Hourly rate	$55.16	$34.80
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	132,260	214,004
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 80%	Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Average age	46	46
Years of experience	8	8

What does an account director do?

An account director is responsible for managing client accounts, monitoring budgets, and sales forecasting. Their goal is to maintain stable account management strategies, meet clients' demands, develop healthy professional partnerships that would generate revenues, increase profitability, and achieve the organization's long-term goals objectives. Account directors supervise the account management staff, ensuring the project's successful completion with the highest efficiency and accuracy. An account director also plans training programs to maximize their performance and productivity, especially when dealing with deadlines and clients' requests.

What does an account development manager do?

An account development manager's responsibilities revolve around securing and reaching sales targets, creating business plans, developing strategies, and building positive relationships with clients. They must also reach out to clients through calls and correspondence, offer products and services, and address any issues and concerns, resolving them promptly and efficiently. There are also instances when they have to collect and process payments, perform follow-up calls, negotiate contracts, and even open and close accounts. Furthermore, as a manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the team to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

Account director vs account development manager salary

Account directors and account development managers have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Account Director	Account Development Manager
Average salary	$114,728	$72,375
Salary range	Between $82,000 And $158,000	Between $43,000 And $120,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Sacramento, CA
Highest paying state	New Jersey	New York
Best paying company	BuzzFeed	NVIDIA
Best paying industry	Professional	Technology

Differences between account director and account development manager education

There are a few differences between an account director and an account development manager in terms of educational background:

	Account Director	Account Development Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 80%	Bachelor's Degree, 78%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	University of Southern California

Account director vs account development manager demographics

Here are the differences between account directors' and account development managers' demographics:

	Account Director	Account Development Manager
Average age	46	46
Gender ratio	Male, 50.9% Female, 49.1%	Male, 61.8% Female, 38.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between account director and account development manager duties and responsibilities

Account director example responsibilities.

Manage coordination with HCP agencies for launch.
Manage the development and creation of print and broadcast advertising and in-store merchandising.
Manage relationships with all GPO pharmacy, medical device, and physician preference teams.
Manage client accounts as well as introducing cross selling into other verticals to increase the portfolio.
Manage RFP / RFI process and drive all opportunities that provide a consultative, long-term solution and support.
Increase clients SEO rankings and achieve first page placement both locally and nationally for highly search phrases for a client.

Account development manager example responsibilities.

Manage sales opportunities, client information, and internal departmental processes within CRM database.
Manage training budget to maximize ROI within assign territory.
Manage accounts while providing excellent customer service, help build financial relationships, redirecting calls in upselling credit per customer needs
Utilize company's internal CRM system to effectively plan and execute daily and weekly call schedule.
Conduct regular account appraisals to accelerate customer adoption by working closely with the customer to educate and assess cloud technology needs.
Assist in development of new contracts and negotiation of expiring contracts including RFP's and RFQ's.

Account director vs account development manager skills

Common account director skills

Account Management, 9%
Project Management, 7%
Work Ethic, 7%
Healthcare, 7%
Digital Marketing, 5%
Email Marketing, 4%

Common account development manager skills

Customer Relationships, 12%
Customer Accounts, 10%
CRM, 9%
Product Knowledge, 6%
Account Management, 5%
Salesforce, 5%

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Account Director
Account Director vs Account Development Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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