Event Recap: Building Strong Client Relationships
On Wednesday, January 11th, ThinkNW and our partner Quantcast hosted a virtual conversation between industry thought leaders about how they have established themselves as trusted partners, making their jobs – and their clients’ – less stressful and more rewarding.
Overview
Members of account management teams are usually tasked with leveraging their team’s skills to identify ways to grow a client’s business while maintaining client relationships. Building and strengthening these relationships takes time, effort, and tact. But it’s worth it because a good client relationship can lead to positive word-of-mouth, increased sales, more connections, and job satisfaction for the team.
Moderator
Ryan Berman | Senior Account Executive, Field West | Quantcast
Ryan Berman is a digital media expert who has spent the last 5+ years partnering with marketers from advertising agencies as well as global Fortune 100 brands such as Amazon, Microsoft, and GM. He has quickly grown his career through a deep understanding of his advertising clients’ challenges, priorities, and opportunities. In his current role, Ryan leads partnerships and innovation with his clients through collaboration and trust, ultimately leading to business growth.
Panelists
Lissa Blackaby Forsterer | Owner/Founder | Cheerful Persistency
Lissa is an experienced business development professional who has helped grow many small creative and marketing agencies over the last 20 years. Being a busy working mom to two college-aged daughters, she loves the cheerful persistency it takes to make connections that drive business growth. She truly gets excited about the 10th email, InMail, or phone call to finally get a conversation going with prospects. She can teach you in a simple, straightforward way to make these activities less stressful, more fun, and most importantly, get you the sales and growth results you want! Lissa has grown agencies at an average of 30% YoY growth by a strategic plan of individual outreach, organic growth strategies, and persistent prospecting follow-up activities.
India Jencks | Business Development Coordinator | DNA Seattle
A former college athlete, India Jencks brings her competitive spirit into everything she does. In driving new business with DNA, a Seattle-based advertising agency, her approach is no different. After receiving her MBA from Gonzaga University in the summer of 2020, India jumped at the opportunity to work in account management for the agency’s largest account, BECU, building client relationships with both them and PCC while managing internal brand projects. Looking to stretch her experience, she then transitioned to splitting time between managing accounts and new business generation for the agency. Falling in love with business development, she transitioned to building prospective client relationships full-time.
Sandy Ragnetti | Senior Account Director | CMD
Over the past 20 years, Sandy Ragnetti has worn many hats at various agencies, working with B2B, B2C, DTC, and social commerce companies, including Gatorade, Microsoft, NexGen Asset Management, Subway Restaurants, and more. She has lent her expertise as an account manager overseeing large-scale branding campaigns, strategy, and business development.
At CMD Agency, Sandy is a senior account director providing strategic and creative support for the agency’s clientele. Additionally, she leads the agency’s DEI Committee and is chair of CMD’s DEI Outreach subcommittee. Sandy is also the co-captain of the CMD Bowling team. Throughout her career, Sandy has built trust with her clients and teams by being a dependable knowledge base.
Outside the office, Sandy sits on multiple boards and is a community advocate focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Sandy feels most at home juggling several things at once – which bodes well with her current and more challenging role: a wife and mother to a teenage girl and an overly happy chocolate lab.
