This episode - Darren Glanville

Darren was one of the very first people to start selling saas accounting software to clients. Since then he’s influenced a generation of tech-focused accounting and bookkeeping firms, countless account managers and has led successful sales teams in a number of roles.

Darren’s advice will be invaluable to saas account mangers, sales leaders - but also to accounting firms who engage with account managers. His advice will help set the bar for what should be expected from an account manager.

We cover:

🔸 Changes in over a decade of saas implementation

🔸 How to be a great account manager

🔸 Lessons that firms can learn

🔸 Selling beyond goods and services

As Head of Sales at Xero UK, Ian Phillips has direct and indirect access to thousands of accounting and bookkeeping firms, so he knows a thing or two about tech adoption. 

Ian is an incredibly thoughtful and observant guy, who absorbs data, combines it with his own anecdotal experience and grounded common sense - and churns out incredible insights.

So who better to sit down and discuss the hard data on UK accounting tech adoption.

We discuss:

🔸 Xero’s 2023 accounting and bookkeeping industry insights report

🔸 How mid and large firms are out-performing small and micro firms on adoption

🔸 Insights that challenge our understanding of tech adoption - built on a combined 20+ years experience in accounting tech

🔸 The experience that new entrants to the accounting profession are (sometimes) getting

Find Ian here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-phillips-303288b/

https://twitter.com/Ipips101

Find the report here:

https://www.xero.com/content/dam/xero/pdfs/accounting-and-bookkeeping-industry-performance-report-2023.pdf

This episode - Phil Hobden.Phil is highly regarded in the accounting tech space - having held influential roles at a number of companies - including Futrli, Capitalise and Wolters Kluwer.He's also a regular speaker at industry events, a podcaster and co-founder of a vendor community.We talk how firms challenges to adopt tech sometimes lie outside of the firms walls. We cover:🔸 Being honest about what vendors are really after🔸 What accountants and bookkeepers should look for in a vendor🔸 Solving problems not symptoms🔸 3 pillars of great partnership

This episode - Heather Elkington

Strong, effective leadership is pivotal to effective change, so we discussed some of the fundamental tactics to:

🔸 Jolt the business out of inaction

🔸 Get the team to step up take initiative

🔸 Getting out of your own way

And lots more.

Heather is quickly emerging as a go-to expert on leadership in the accounting tech space - so this episode is packed full of actionable insights to help you get your team and business moving in the direction you want it to go.

How to find Heather:

⁠inthemakingleadership.substack.com⁠

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-elkington/⁠

⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@leadershipheather⁠

⁠https://www.instagram.com/leadershipheather/

This episode - Rishi Ruparelia.

Rishi Ruparelia - possibly the UK's most loved account manager - discusses his view on these things in the return of Counting on Change - plus:
🔸 Lifting the curtain on vendors' priorities
🔸 Lessons learn from successful firms
🔸 Just offer the blue pill? Or blue, green, pink and... earthy green.

This episode - Ket Patel.

Ket Patel is a change manager with a vast amount of experience.

We talk about the change management lessons that accountants can learn, to make their digital transformation efforts run more smoothly.

We look at:

This episode - Tony Stevenson

"We wanted a Tech Stack, but we ended up with a Tech Splat"

Tony Stevenson FCA is a man who knows his way around the sharp end of tech adoption in accounting firms...

Having worked with over 1,000 firms, Tony has a *boatload* of experience, lessons and more than one or two funny stories to share.

It was great to catch up with him to learn:

This episode - Emily Deakin

The Cloud Champion is a critical role in Digital Transformation, but the question is "What Makes a Great Cloud Champion?"

Emily also shared some great advice for Cloud Champions OR Practice leaders looking to hire for a #CloudChampion role.