Director, strategic accounts vs account director

The differences between directors, strategic accounts and account directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-8 years to become both a director, strategic accounts and an account director. Additionally, a director, strategic accounts has an average salary of $142,664, which is higher than the $114,728 average annual salary of an account director.

The top three skills for a director, strategic accounts include healthcare, account management and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for an account director are account management, project management, and work ethic.

Director, strategic accounts vs account director overview

	Director, Strategic Accounts	Account Director
Yearly salary	$142,664	$114,728
Hourly rate	$68.59	$55.16
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	70,675	132,260
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 82%	Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Average age	46	46
Years of experience	8	8

What does a director, strategic accounts do?

A director of strategic accounts is in charge of spearheading the efforts in building positive relationships with clients. They are responsible for setting objectives and goals, allocating budgets, devising strategies to identify new opportunities, and developing programs to attract potential clients and maintain existing accounts. They must also produce progress updates and presentations, reporting to executives and other high-ranking personnel. Furthermore, as a director, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations, creating new ones when necessary.

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.

Director, strategic accounts vs account director salary

Directors, strategic accounts and account directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Director, Strategic Accounts	Account Director
Average salary	$142,664	$114,728
Salary range	Between $90,000 And $225,000	Between $82,000 And $158,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	New Jersey
Best paying company	The Walt Disney Company	BuzzFeed
Best paying industry	Manufacturing	Professional

Differences between director, strategic accounts and account director education

There are a few differences between a director, strategic accounts and an account director in terms of educational background:

	Director, Strategic Accounts	Account Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 82%	Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Southern California	University of Southern California

Director, strategic accounts vs account director demographics

Here are the differences between directors, strategic accounts' and account directors' demographics:

	Director, Strategic Accounts	Account Director
Average age	46	46
Gender ratio	Male, 76.0% Female, 24.0%	Male, 50.9% Female, 49.1%
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 director, strategic accounts and account director duties and responsibilities

Director, strategic accounts example responsibilities.

Lead centralized, electronic referral center coordinating post-acute service needs of patients discharging from multiple acute facilities in Arizona region.
Enforce contractual obligations with commercial insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, TPA's, and hospital systems.
Create closed-loop marketing solution through data integration of CRM, SFA and other platforms.
Develop end-to-end strategy for business capture to include CRM, BD strategy, proposals, and direct sales.
Serve on KCI's PAC committee and lobby for Medicare reimbursement improvements for complex DME providers and skil nursing home chains.
Collaborate successfully to increase Medicare reimbursement level.

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.

Director, strategic accounts vs account director skills

Common director, strategic accounts skills

Healthcare, 18%
Account Management, 13%
Customer Satisfaction, 7%
GPO, 5%
C-Suite, 5%
Strategic Direction, 3%

Common account director skills

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

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Director, Strategic Accounts
Director, Strategic Accounts vs Account Director

Updated January 8, 2025

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