So how do you network around the account?

Most people are delighted when they are first appointed to look after a strategic account. Not least because existing clients return roughly four times as much work in the first year as new clients. However, once in the role, you often find that the account’s ‘strategic’ status actually rests on a handful of relationships, some of which are weak.

Focusing on those few established relationships you inherit is comforting, but some of those people will move jobs and others will simply run out of work to give you. Not all cleared land stays fertile forever, so you need to develop new relationships in the account. Here is how to do that.