Behind the Scenes: The Art of Managing Accounts and Relationships

What is the difference between communications and marketing? AI will tell you that “marketing tells people what you sell; communications shapes what they believe about you.” That description is a surprisingly perceptive way to sum up how we spend our days.

Our job is to help organizations manage how they share information and shape how audiences perceive them. You can’t do this well without building close relationships with clients, listening carefully and understanding the challenges and opportunities that they face. This is where expert account management is critical.

At Cookson, account managers are an essential bridge between clients and our creative team. We invest time at the beginning of an engagement for discovery. This includes gathering information, asking questions, understanding client goals and priorities and forging a partnership where Cookson can serve as an extension of a client’s organization. This advance work leads to a mutual understanding of the specific direction and goals. We translate what we learn to our internal teams to craft strategies and projects that help get clients to where they want to go.

Although it is an account manager’s job to oversee timelines and budgets, account management goes far beyond the measurable – it’s about building trust, understanding needs, and creating partnerships that last.

How do you effectively do that? Here are a few tips from Cookson’s account management team:

1. 1. See Opportunities for Connection
      Matt Cookson, President and CEO
      The virtual world is important, but talking to people one-on-one and attending events in person enables us to bring our storytelling to life. Deeper connections often reveal opportunities to pay it forward and connect others in mutually beneficial ways. For example, we are working on a three-year strategic plan for New Hampshire’s Corrections Education and Vocational Planning Group. The legislatively created group is looking into how best to expand educational offerings that will enable incarcerated individuals to receive training to increase their chances of successfully engaging in society and the workforce upon their release. Our work coincided with the first graduation ceremony for associate degree recipients within the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility in Berlin. The ceremony mirrored those across New Hampshire’s community colleges (also a client of ours) and the stories from graduates were powerful. It has been rewarding to see the alignment of between two clients play out in ways that amplify the impact of both.

1. 1. Walk the Walk
      Jennifer Sperazzo, Senior Account Manager
      To really understand a client and be able to articulate what sets them apart, you need to dive below the surface to experience their world. As the senior account manager for Spaulding Academy & Family Services, I learned about the Choose Love Movement. Scarlett Lewis founded Choose Love after her son, Jesse, was killed during the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in December 2012. The movement is a nonprofit organization with a mission to create safer and more loving communities through Character Social Emotional Development programs that are suited for all stages of life. Spaulding became the first ever Choose Love certified campus. To have a deep understanding of what that meant, I attended Choose Love master classes from November 2024 through May 2025. This training enabled me to communicate more effectively with both Spaulding and Cookson’s creative team about the impact of Choose Love. It became a theme for the annual report we developed last year and drives daily decisions at Spaulding on how they interact with students and each other.

1. 1. Value Authenticity and Respect
      Jason Boucher, Director of Social Marketing
      Authenticity transforms business partnerships. Honest conversation, mutual respect, and treating people exactly how we would want to be treated is foundational for building trust and long-term relationships. Our clients know they can count on straightforward answers, whether that means celebrating a campaign’s success or honestly assessing when something isn’t delivering the expected return and developing ideas to change course. Partnership means listening to new ideas, presenting the pros and cons, and making a collaborative decision to experiment. When one client wanted to try Google Ads, we designed a campaign for them after thoroughly discussing strategy and what would constitute a “win.” Through careful monitoring and detailed reporting, we were able to show that the campaign increased web clicks and inquiries — the guidelines that the client and Cookson had set for success.When you treat people with genuine respect and transparency, business partnerships naturally evolve into trusted collaborations where both sides are invested in long-term success rather than short-term transactions.

1. Learn About the “Why”
   Charlotte Ulrich, Account Strategist
   We get to know our clients inside and out – their team, mission, vision, values and culture. But we also go a step further to understand the personal commitments that are behind those organizational priorities. For example, we work with Focused Eye Care, an area eye care center with a busy team of doctors. Through a multi-hour session, I sat down with each doctor to learn about their passions, commitment to their work, interests, family and more. After that day, I truly felt as if I not only knew the doctor’s stats and facts, but also the reasons they chose their career path. By taking the time to connect on a deeper level with many of the individuals whose stories we share, we can tell their stories with greater authenticity and understanding.

As these tips indicate, managing accounts and relationships in a communications firm is both a skill and an art. There is skill in managing timelines, budgets, measurements and strategies, but there is a lot of art in knowing when to listen, understand and pick up the phone or have a personal meeting instead of sending another email. In a field driven by deadlines and data, human connection plays the most crucial role in successful account management.