When new upper leadership came in to oversee the Target business in 2025, the culture really shifted. Before that, I felt like I mattered. I felt heard and trusted, and like I was truly a strategic partner. After the change, it started to feel much more transactional — like account managers were numbers tied to performance instead of people. You can see that shift reflected in the turnover over the last year.
The workload also became unrealistic. Each account manager represents too many brands and owns everything from vendor setup to launch, plus all the operational pieces like accounts payable, vendor income, inventory, and system setup. Most rep groups have support layers under account managers — Bluebird doesn’t. It all sits on one person.
At the same time, the focus was constantly on launching new brands every cycle instead of doubling down on and supporting the big brands we already had. Account managers did the majority of that launch work, but the compensation structure didn’t reflect that the way it does for sales.
Overall, the role shifted from strategic account management to being overloaded operationally, without the support or recognition to match.
