Paul’s experiences in tax, accountancy and law will be integral to his role in supporting and building relationships with accountants.
What is your current role and responsibilities?
I’ve joined as sales manager. I’ll be working very closely with sales director Louise Walpole, looking to build long-lasting relationships with our current clients to help them grow while working hard to widen our reach - bringing new faces into the Advancetrack world across the UK and Australia.
What is your background?
I started out in marketing and advertising many years ago, then moved into business development and sales with LexisNexis, covering the tax and accountancy sectors. I really enjoyed my six years there – working with professional people that are great to deal with, making it a nice environment to operate within. They have lots of change in their world, elements of which I was trying to help them navigate, which meant it was always interesting.
I then spent nearly 16 years at the University of Law in various roles around business development – another fascinating professional services sector.
How did you get the role, and how have your first few weeks gone?
I’ve known Advancetrack MD Vipul for around 20 years. His organisation at the time was a client when I served at LexisNexis. We formed a great working relationship, and I’ve admired from afar how hard he’s worked developing Advancetrack from its infancy into an amazing company, employing hundreds of talented people globally as it does today.
We always kept in touch, even while I was at the University of Law, and when he offered me the chance to join the team here, the opportunity of an exciting new challenge was too good to pass up.
The first few weeks here have gone very quickly! I’ve been unloading a brain full of legal jargon and getting my head back around the language of accountancy and tax. There have been lots of meetings, both internal and external, shadowing the team to understand how things run and to get up to speed as quickly as possible.
It’s been great to see how Advancetrack’s people are laser-focused on understanding customers’ businesses and making a real difference in helping them deliver success to their clients.
It’s been eye-opening to see how much Advancetrack is an extension of their clients’ firm. There’s been a lot of long-term relationship-building here; and the meetings have demonstrated how close those ties are. There’s a mutual interest to help each other succeed and grow.
What does success in your role, and for Advancetrack, look like?
Initially, it’s about quickly getting to grips with the great services we provide and forming strong partnerships with existing clients.
More broadly, I sense there’s possibly still some education around outsourcing and offshoring to be done in the market. In my last role at the University of Law, I helped introduce solicitor apprenticeships into the sector from their inception. At the start, there was a great deal of scepticism – but it has gone on to be a hugely successful and highly sought-after route into the profession, and I feel there are some parallels in the accountancy market with some still holding misconceptions.
My impression is that the understanding of outsourcing and offshoring can be improved upon by showing how properly executed and professionally run outsourcing can really work, and that’s something Advancetrack can lead on.
