Senior Account Manager Hire for Killens Media (Saved $46K/Year)

Snapshot:

Business: Marketing Agency

Roles Hired: Account Manager

Objective: Hire a senior client-facing operator capable of owning strategy, client relationships, and team management to remove the founder from delivery.

Outcome: 1 direct hire placed. $46,000 saved annually versus a comparable U.S. hire while creating capacity for continued agency growth.

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The Problem:

Shawn had built an agency with a small team and was scaling rapidly, opening up new lead channels. The bottleneck was the founder himself. He was still running strategy, meeting with clients, and managing the team, all while trying to grow. To keep that momentum, he needed to remove himself from delivery entirely and hand it to someone who could own it: client strategy, client relationships, and team management.

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The Strategy:

We sourced across e-commerce email marketing agencies and in-house brands, targeting operators with three to five years of experience in the niche, specifically people who had served as the main point of contact with clients. That last filter mattered: we weren’t looking for someone who’d worked behind the scenes, but someone who had already owned the client relationship directly and could step into that role from day one.

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The Result:

We placed an Account Manager based in Canada, saving Shawn $46,000 versus a comparable U.S. hire. He now has someone who owns the strategy, runs client meetings, and manages the team, which frees him to do what he was scaling toward: opening new lead channels and growing the agency instead of being stuck inside its delivery.

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Why It Works:

Agency founders often become the biggest bottleneck to growth.

When the founder owns strategy, client communication, and team management, every new client creates more complexity instead of more leverage. The solution isn't working harder — it's hiring someone capable of taking ownership. ⚡

By targeting experienced operators from e-commerce agencies and in-house brands, Zabota identified candidates who had already managed client relationships directly and could step into a leadership role immediately. 🚀

The result is an agency structure where strategy, delivery, and client management are no longer dependent on the founder, creating the capacity needed for sustainable growth. 📈

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