A Day in the Life: RTI Account Manager

Meet Our Expert

Hi, I'm Hans, an Account Manager at RTI, specializing in the Automotive Industry. I've been in this role for over 3 years. Before that I spent 10 years as a Software Developer in the Automotive and Semiconductor Industries. I decided to shift my career to Tech Sales because I enjoyed understanding the customer needs and trends in the industry.
Most people believe that an Account Manager role is only building and maintaining relationships with customers and the industry. But the reality here at RTI is that it requires a lot of coordination between different internal teams such as Engineering, Solutions, Finance and Legal to understand customer and prospect needs, develop opportunities and bring the right RTI resources together. This requires a depth of knowledge in different areas to communicate effectively between teams and align across departments.

My Workday

A typical workday starts by checking the status of my different accounts and reviewing their different needs. There might be days where a new opportunity is developing, requiring coordination with a new customer and internal RTI teams to understand their needs and determine how RTI can best address them. Other days might require a customer enhancement request which requires understanding the request, why and when the request is needed and delivering the related price quote. There are days that a workshop is needed at a customer site to expand the customer application. This requires coordination between the account team (Account Manager and Field Application Engineer) and our Solutions, Product and Engineering teams, as well as face-to-face meetings. When conferences arise, planning is required between the Account team and Marketing to define the scope of the conference, the audience and how RTI’s presence can be optimized through exhibits and speaking sessions.

A typical workday can be very different from one to another which makes it very dynamic (and far from boring).

My Responsibilities

I have 2 primary responsibilities:

• Understanding a potential customer’s business and technical needs and working with the RTI team to identify the right solution for them. 

• Expanding RTI’s presence in the Automotive and Agriculture, Construction and Mining industries.

Current Projects

I’m currently working towards closing a deal with a large OEM in the Automotive Industry who needs to decouple software from hardware, communicate ECUs no matter what OS and architecture they are running and where real time communication is needed. This is very exciting because I am constantly learning about the current challenges and needs within the industry and am able to transfer those learnings and my application expertise into working solutions using RTI’s technology. It is very gratifying.

Challenges and Resolution

The biggest challenges I face in my role are divided into two main areas: 

Organizational: As I meet with customers or prospects and learn of the pain points in their existing solutions, I regularly encounter solutions which have been developed in-house that have hit their limits or prove to be the source of their problems. The developers responsible for these in-house applications are very loyal to the solution they developed and can be reluctant to entertain a new one. To approach these situations with prospects, I showcase how and why other customers are using our technology and offer live, technical demos that are relevant to their use cases. For existing customers, I create an open dialog to learn about their current solution and the problems they are facing. 

Technological: 

• Challenges arise when customers are transitioning from one system architecture generation to the next. We have the industry’s best Services team, dedicated to customer success and providing world-class architecture, design guidance, system optimization, deep-dive system analysis and hands-on coding guidance. In the North American Automotive Industry, migrating to the next generation can take three to five years. This means that opportunities don’t arise as often and when they come, our team needs to be ready to jump in and give it all.  

• We are also in the midst of a very exciting time; we are expanding our presence in the North American and European Automotive Industry and our technology is already very popular in the Asia-Pacific region. We have taken on the challenges of this expansion in many ways, but my most influential contribution is my commitment to effectively communicate how RTI’s technical capabilities – such as performance, tools (for developing and debugging), use cases, architectural constraints and future proofing (to have the flexibility to add new futures that were not planned) – can help them be successful and quick to solve problems if they appear. 

Sometimes there is a combination of both of the above, such as when customers are very familiar with another vendor’s technology and they don’t feel comfortable with change, yet they know that our technology reduces the complexity of their development, testing and deployment.

My Go-To Tools

In my daily work I use many tools, however I use the following on the daily:

• Account Management: Salesforce 

• Research and Discovery: Gemini, NotebookLM 

• Presentation: PowerPoint 

• Collaboration: Google Workspace, Slack, Monday.com 

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

My position requires cross collaboration between different teams. The variety of teams depends on the customer’s or prospect’s needs. For an early prospect, this could mean that I work with our Legal Team to establish an NDA. For a current customer, I could be working with Engineering to understand a new requirement and determine whether it creates an opportunity to expand their use of RTI technology.

Essential Skills for this Job

Key skills and qualities that are essential for success in this position are:

• Communication: The ability to communicate expertly and clearly across the spectrum of stakeholders; from Software Engineers who are actually doing the hands-on work to Executives who are looking to understand how they could save money and time using RTI’s solution. 

• Problem Solving: Technical skills and a solution-oriented perspective that enable the delivery of the customer value.

Elements of a Great Account Manager

For those aspiring to become an Account Manager, my advice is to understand your customers’ challenges and work collaboratively with their teams and RTI experts to identify solutions that address those challenges. Developing this true partnership between customers and suppliers makes both organizations successful. 

Life at RTI

The two things I enjoy most about working at RTI are the flat organization structure and the culture. 

Everyone at RTI is reachable. It doesn't matter if you need to speak to the CEO/CTO/CFO or to an expert on our Engineering team, everyone is easily accessible. 

In terms of culture, RTI really cares about employees enjoying what they do. The company supports and guides us in challenges, as they arise, to ensure our success in what we do. My team is very open and easy to work with. If there are things I need from them to support prospects or customers, they make it a priority.

Interested in a career at RTI? Explore our open positions here.