Job Opportunity: Account Coordinator

Coalmarch Productions — a Web Design and marketing agency in downtown Raleigh, NC — is seeking a full-time, entry-level Account Coordinator to help us grow.

  • Love keeping projects organized and moving forward?
  • Want the fast pace of working at an ad agency but don’t want to work 80 hours a week?
  • Love marketing but don’t want the bureaucracy of a big firm?
  • Enjoy finding new ways to make things more efficient?
  • Like working with and coordinating a team of people?
  • Want to work with a variety of accounts in a wide range of industries?
  • Like helping Clients but don’t want a sales quota?
  • Don’t like wearing a suit every day?

Company Description: Coalmarch is a marketing agency in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. We make high-end custom websites and mobile apps, and we provide Graphic Design and online/offline marketing services. Coalmarch has been around since 2003. Our unique selling proposition (USP) is applying a “roll up your sleeves” work ethic to marketing and technology. We have a small team of employees and freelancers. Our Clients range from two-person startups to regional non-profits to international corporations. They like our high-quality creative work and responsive client service.

Title: Account Coordinator (aka “Project Whisperer”)

Salary/Benefits: $25,000 to $30,000, with generous benefits: 100% company-paid health insurance premiums (with vision/dental) after first 60 days, retirement account (with automatic company contribution), vacation/sick leave, free parking, work in downtown Raleigh

Reports to: Director of Client Services (but your job will involve working with everyone)

Deadline: If you’re serious about the position, please apply by December 17, 2010. We’ll consider candidates after that, but earlier applications get first consideration.

Job Responsibilities:

  • Manage ongoing projects and run the weekly Production meeting
  • Document client meetings and communications, including project kickoff meetings
  • Task project components to team of full-time employees and part-time freelancers
  • Respond to client service inquiries via our Project Management system and the phone
  • Create estimates and quotes for current and prospective accounts (with input from design, development, and marketing team members)
  • Identify opportunities to for company to upsell existing Clients on new services and/or retainer contracts, for followup by senior team members
  • Send invoices, log incoming Accounts Receivable payments, and follow up to resolve billing issues
  • Contribute new ideas to help Coalmarch grow
  • Serve as client service backup to Director of Client Services
  • Pitch in elsewhere, as needed

Qualities and Experience:

  • Organized (Because Project Management comes first.)
  • Takes initiative (We’re a small company. Everyone pitches in.)
  • Client service oriented (You’re the face of the company to many of our Clients.)
  • Comfortable with technology and marketing (You don’t have to be a web designer or an SEO expert, but you should have the basic background to know what we’re talking about when we mention Pantone, PageRank, and USP… or you’re willing to Google it.)
  • Strong writing skills (Your job is to translate between the Clients and the technical teams — kind of like that guy on Office Space, but effective. Also, you shuoldn’t require a grammar proofreader. Did you notice the typo?)
  • Comfortable working with a virtual team (Our team includes in-person and remote members. We use Skype a lot.)
  • Appreciate variety (No day’s the same.)
  • Willing to ask questions, willing to learn from your mistakes, and willing to escalate client service problems to a manager, as appropriate
  • Mac experience and Google Docs experience (or willing to learn quickly)
  • Prefer prior agency experience (or other track record at multi-tasking)

Ideal Results:

  1. You handle client service “triage” and take care of the smaller Clients so the Director of Client Services can focus on servicing our biggest Clients and landing new business
  2. You bring projects in on time and on budget, every time — or even better, you figure out a way to do projects faster and in fewer hours
  3. You help us encourage several of your accounts to increase their billings
  4. You learn about the marketing industry and help Coalmarch grow

Work Environment: 9am-6pm, Monday-Friday; casual attire (jeans, apart from some client-site meetings); mix of in-person and virtual team; open office (no cubes); collaborative culture

Mad Men Analogy: This position is a mixture of Joan (project manager), Lane (efficiency expert), and Pete (account manager). This is not primarily Don/Peggy (creative).

How to apply: Please send your cover letter email (in the body of the message) and resume (PDF attachment) to jobs at coalmarch.com. Please put “Account Coordinator” somewhere in the subject line and tell us about your favorite Coalmarch website in your cover email.

What happens after you apply: We’d like the Account Coordinator to start by early February 2011. Working backwards, we will:

  • Contact qualified applicants by email for a pre-screen via email (mid-December)
  • Conduct first-round interviews via phone or Skype (late December)
  • Interview each finalist in person — no suits, please (early January)
  • Make an offer to the top candidate (mid January)
  • Bring the new person on board in late January or early February.