As an account manager, you will never do everything right—although striving for that is a great goal. Clients tend to criticize. It is just something they seem to do. So my advice is: Don’t fight it at all. Accept that from time to time you will be criticized, sometimes openly and sometimes very politely, with venting done behind closed doors. Accept whatever criticism comes your way clinically and without emotion. It doesn’t really matter how you got the information. What matters is what you do with it. After all, criticism is little more than feedback on your performance.

Probe what you are being told extensively. Make sure that you understand it and are in a position to make the changes necessary to get back on ...

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