Early on in my career (and every once in while now) when a campaign was not performing and I would need to end the relationship, I would completely tear into the account rep. Basically, I was venting my frustration for the poor campaign performance by making it the fault of the rep. Shortly afterward, I learned my first important breakup lesson.

Lesson #1: The interactive space is one where people jump around from company to company on a regular basis.

I was investigating new publishers that I wanted to work with and I left an email for someone to contact me. I waited a few days, and when nobody called back, I placed a call to the publisher. Low and behold, the person that picked up the phone was the same rep that I had ripped apart a couple of months earlier. He had seen my inquiry and needless to say, he wasn't willing to work with me on developing a program to fit my needs.

The key here is not to shoot yourself in the foot when it comes to account reps. There are many people that I work with right now who I've worked with at four or five of their previous companies. It's simply the nature of our industry.