Challenging the one size fits all model – why gold standard account management means different things to different clients

12 July 2023

One of the long-standing challenges for medical communications agencies is understanding their clients' needs and how best to support them. 

On many occasions, breakdowns in client–agency relationships can stem back to diminishing or poor standards of account management, such as ineffective project tracking, poor financial management, or lack of proactivity. 

Sometimes the agency’s perception of what a client needs does not always match the client’s reality. At Impact, we regularly seek feedback from our clients to understand how we are performing and to see what more we can do.  

However, the world we operate in has changed considerably in recent years. The COVID pandemic permanently altered the nature of medical communications. The world of biosimilars in which Impact operates has become increasingly complex, with more market entrants, evolving communications needs, and an ever-expanding potential patient population. These changes mean new challenges for our clients and potentially different perspectives on what high-quality account management might mean.  

We used a recent team meeting to assess our work through our client’s eyes, asking ourselves a series of key questions: 

• How would our clients know if we shared their ambitions? 
• How could we as an agency make our clients’ lives easier? 
• How do our clients would want to see their accounts being run? 

As a medical education agency specializing in biosimilars and supporting global teams, some key themes came out in our discussions.  

In addition to the expected core themes of proactivity, clear communication and excellent project management, everyone agreed on some key principles that were particularly pertinent to Impact’s unique position supporting biosimilar commercialization:  

• Staying at the forefront of our field, so that we remain a trusted source of expertise and strategic counsel in biosimilar medical education 
• Respect and understanding for each client’s unique working reality, be that global or local, with the associated complexities of stakeholder management 
• Individualization to each client’s needs and preferences, particularly with different time zones, geographies, and work cultures  

Client–agency relationships are built on trust and understanding. The importance of ensuring that as an agency team we are regularly self-reflective was not lost on the Impact team. There is no doubt this is an exercise we will revisit again as our clients’ expectations continue to evolve. 

Impact is a global healthcare communications agency, with a particular specialism in launching and supporting biosimilars. To find out more about what we do,  click here.