Account Manager vs. Project Manager: All Differences

Account managers and project managers are different jobs that still have something in common.

They perform different tasks, but closely work together to achieve the common goal.

You want to know the difference between account manager and project manager jobs, their tasks and average salaries? Maybe, choose the most suitable job for you?

I will discuss all the differences between them further.

Account Manager vs. Project Manager: Job Descriptions

Account Manager is a person working for a company and responsible for the sales and customer relationship management. An account manager maintains the existing relationships of a company with some particular client or group of clients, so that they will continue doing business with the company. (According to Wikipedia)

Project Manager is a professional from the project management field. The responsibility of project managers are project planning, procurement and execution, in any domain of engineering. In case of any issues or problems arising in various departments in an organization, project managers are the first people to contact before the problem escalates to higher authorities. (According to Wikipedia)

Let’s make it more clear. An account manager is responsible for sales and CRM, while a project manager looks after current projects and tries to optimize the work between different departments, he also solves any possible problems until they escalate, and prevents the new ones. Account managers connect clients and sales department of the organization, project managers connect different departments of the company involved in one particular project.

Let’s look at the exact tasks that the account and project managers have.

Tasks of Account Managers

Here are the main tasks of an account manager:

Customer relationship management all the time while the company have this customer

Retain and satisfy customers

Generate sales and search for new sales opportunities

Interact with the sales team

Determine budgets with company and customers

Tasks of Project Managers

Below you can see some of the main tasks of project managers.

Estimating the needed resources: costs, time, human resources…

Setting the project deadline

Managing and optimizing the workflow

Solving any emerged problems

Connecting different company’s departments involved in the project

Meeting the deadlines and not exceeding the given resources for the project

If you would like to choose one of these jobs, one of the main factors for you may be salaries. So, here are the average salaries of Project and Account managers. In the end, I will make a full comparison of these positions.

Average Salaries of Account and Project Managers

Here are the average salaries of specialists in these two positions. Data for US taken from Indeed.com, UK from CWJobs.co.uk, Switzerland from Payscale.com. All the statistics is made on the basis of big samples, so the data is realiable.

Country (Currency) Account Manager (yearly) Project Manager (yearly) USA (Dollars) 62,659 81,003 UK (Pounds) 42,500 61,187 Switzerland (Swiss Francs) 82,586 133,008

As you can see, having a need of more technical and analytical skills, rather than interpersonal ones, project managers have higher salaries (proportionally to the amount of knowledge they need to perform their jobs).

Now, let’s see the actual difference between the work and tasks of account managers and project managers.

Difference between Account Managers and Project Manager Jobs

After a full overview of the tasks and salaries of the two kinds of managers, here is a full overview of their jobs, so that you could easily find the most suitable for you.

Criterium Account Manager Project Manager Departments CRM, Sales Any department involved in the project Kind of Job Communication Analytics, planning, may be connected with solving technical issues Goals Increase sales, satisfy clients, find new customers Meet the project objectives set before Length of Work While the company has customers he is responsible for Until the end of the project, if the next project doesn’t start Can be Outsourced No Yes Main skills Creativity, interpersonal, negotiation and sales skills Project management, team management, know relevant ISO standards, risk management, PMBOK Salaries (US, dollars yearly) 62,659 81,003

It was my full overview of differences between account managers and project managers. I will be glad to hear your feedback. If you have a project to manage, hire me now!