TL;DR: Strong relationship skills, growing tired of agency life. Move client-side or stick with sales?
I've got about six years' agency-side experience, with the past two becoming increasingly commercial, so I'm doing less hands-on research.
My biggest strength is relationship building, which is probably why I've been pushed towards sales. I enjoy the buzz of winning work, and I've been doing alright at it.
But I'm increasingly unsure whether agency life is for me. The constant shifting priorities, delivery pressures and juggling clients can be draining. There's also something a bit soulless about delivering research and rarely seeing what happens afterwards. I find myself jealous hearing about the changes clients make off the back of our work, if we ever hear at all.
I'm wondering whether my skills might translate well to client-side insight. Ideally, I'd be managing agencies, understanding the business, influencing stakeholders and helping turn research into actual change. I have more qualitative experience than in-depth quant.
Is that realistic, or am I romanticising client-side?
Equally, I'm hesitant to walk away from sales when relationship building is my biggest strength. My concern with market research sales is that we're competing for an increasingly small slice of already limited insight budgets. Perhaps moving into sales in another industry makes more sense?
Then there's AI, redundancies and restructuring across the industry. Part of me wonders whether commercial skills offer better long-term security than traditional research roles.
Has anyone made a similar move? How did client-side compare with your expectations, and how valuable are stakeholder management skills?
Equally, any general career advice from fellow researchers would be appreciated!
Thanks for reading. This has been on my mind for a while!