Account director vs customer account manager

The differences between account directors and customer account managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-8 years to become an account director, becoming a customer account manager takes usually requires 4-6 years. Additionally, an account director has an average salary of $114,728, which is higher than the $45,951 average annual salary of a customer account manager.

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

Account director vs customer account manager overview

	Account Director	Customer Account Manager
Yearly salary	$114,728	$45,951
Hourly rate	$55.16	$22.09
Growth rate	5%	8%
Number of jobs	132,260	110,138
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 80%	Bachelor's Degree, 56%
Average age	46	47
Years of experience	8	6

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 a customer account manager do?

Customer Account Managers are employees who specialize in keeping good, professional relationships with the company's clients. They are assigned specific customers and key clients to manage. Customer account managers are in charge of maintaining the customers' loyalty. As such, customer account managers are expected to provide first-class service to their customers. This includes providing them special promotions related to the company's services, keeping special communication lines for client concerns, and expediting client requests. They ensure that their customers receive their product or service requests on time and in good condition.

Account director vs customer account manager salary

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

	Account Director	Customer Account Manager
Average salary	$114,728	$45,951
Salary range	Between $82,000 And $158,000	Between $29,000 And $72,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	New York, NY
Highest paying state	New Jersey	Alaska
Best paying company	BuzzFeed	Mouser Electronics
Best paying industry	Professional	Technology

Differences between account director and customer account manager education

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

	Account Director	Customer Account Manager
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 80%	Bachelor's Degree, 56%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	California State University - Bakersfield

Account director vs customer account manager demographics

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

	Account Director	Customer Account Manager
Average age	46	47
Gender ratio	Male, 50.9% Female, 49.1%	Male, 59.4% Female, 40.6%
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, 10.9% Unknown, 4.7% Hispanic or Latino, 17.7% Asian, 5.3% White, 60.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	7%	8%

Differences between account director and customer account 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.

Customer account manager example responsibilities.

Lead project of reducing checks process by leveraging ACH payments resulting in a savings on head count.
Manage inventory logistics which includes coordinating inventory levels with production schedules and international delivery deadlines.
Assist in managing transaction logistics including quote comparison, term negotiation, facilitation and arrangement of delivery of automobiles to customers.
Decrease staff time (and payroll) with customer issues by launching CRM and leading regional implementation and training.
Enter invoices into QuickBooks from carrier that is delivering material to destination.
Take orders from customer, enter into QuickBooks, send customers order confirmation.

Account director vs customer account manager skills

Common account director skills

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

Common customer account manager skills

Customer Service, 26%
Customer Accounts, 17%
CRM, 10%
Collections Process, 8%
Persuasion, 8%
Customer Retention, 7%

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Account Director
Account Director vs Customer Account Manager

Updated January 8, 2025

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