How To Become A Software Account Manager: What It Is and Career Path

What is a software account manager and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Jerri Lynn Kyle

There are more people involved in running a software company than just engineers and coders. Once a product is built, it needs to get into the customer's hands, and its uses need to be publicized. A software account manager is one of those people helping connect customers with a software product by managing customer accounts.

The software account manager's daily duties include whatever it takes to find new customers and keep existing ones happy. They can cold-call potential clients and convince them to switch to their company's products. Or, they can provide technical support to existing customers in order to help them use the software properly.

Software account managers need to know a lot about sales and business in order to find a market niche for their company. That is why many have bachelor's degrees in business. They also need practical experience in customer support as well as some technical background in order to explain their software product to customers. They are compensated for their expertise with an average salary of $120,375 a year.

What general advice would you give to a software account manager?

Jerri Lynn Kyle

Senior Instructor, Internship Coordinator, Missouri State University

1.Don't be discouraged! Jobs are out there but you might not get your dream job starting out. It's a journey, so try to make the most of every stop.
2.Start building your professional credibility, both with how you perform your job, and how you interact with your coworkers.
3.Finally, be confident, but at the same time be teachable and coachable. Your degree doesn't make you an expert. Sometimes you realize you don't even know what you don't know, and that's okay. You aren't going to know everything and that's why you need to be coachable.

ScoreSoftware Account ManagerUS Average

Salary

7.7

Avg. Salary $104,783

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.4

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.24%

Asian 4.07%

Black or African American 3.24%

Hispanic or Latino 9.82%

Unknown 4.41%

White 78.23%

Gender

female 43.35%

male 56.65%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

6.4

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a software account manager

Explore software account manager education requirements

Most common software account manager degrees

Bachelor's

76.7 %

Master's

9.0 %

Associate

9.0 %

Start to develop specific software account manager skills

Skills	Percentages
Account Management	31.52%
Software Account	22.91%
Customer Satisfaction	10.05%
CRM	7.43%
Sales Process	3.73%

Complete relevant software account manager training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New software account managers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a software account manager based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real software account manager resumes.

Research software account manager duties and responsibilities

Manage accounts while providing excellent customer service, help build financial relationships, redirecting calls in upselling credit per customer needs
Assign exclusively to Daimler-Chrysler in 2001 and gain the establishment of WebSphere as company's standard web-development platform.
Conduct regular account appraisals to accelerate customer adoption by working closely with the customer to educate and assess cloud technology needs.
Submit invoices electronically to various invoicing and payment sights against POs on a weekly basis.

Apply for software account manager jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a software account manager job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do software account managers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

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2 stars

1 star

Software account manager reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

Speaking g at trade shows and seminars. Contributing to the software products we sold. Technical writer for the owners manual.

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2019

Pros

Meeting with consumers, educating, coaching, discussing products

Cons

None, I really enjoy it