Meet Team PKF SCS: Sage 200 Sales Manager

Support, Sales, Consultancy, Marketing and Development. These are more than just departments at PKF Smith Cooper Systems they are teams of people that have brought the company to where it is today.

Many of you may not have interacted with any of these departments or you may have interacted with them all! Either way, this series is intended to introduce you to the people behind the titles and give you insight into the people who make up Team PKF SCS.

Following on from our previous articles in this series, we are talking to Richard Torr. Richard is our Sage 200 Sales Manager and someone who many of you may know very well.

Keep reading to find out more about Rich and how his PKF SCS journey began.

We have also featured a range of other team members, so to catch up on our past articles click here.

How did your journey with PKF SCS start?

My Sage career actually started with a newly formed business partner back in 1998. Which is actually 100 yards down the road from where the PKF Smith Cooper Derby office is situated now. Talk about full circle.

After spending a few years with that company, I left and joined another business partner in Birmingham with an opportunity to perform a management buy-out shortly afterwards and was a joint owner for 14 years. The daily commute from Derby to Birmingham meant that I had little time with my family and missed my two boys when getting home late in the evenings.

I had known Chris Smith (PKF SCS Managing Director) for a number of years before so I reached out and it was perfect timing. Chris and I have the same ethos and after travelling to Chicago for a Sage event (before starting at Smith Cooper) we got on really well and I knew at that point that PKF Smith Cooper Systems was for me.

What does the Sage 200 Sales Manager role entail?

My role is centred around meeting new clients and getting to know their business. I really enjoy this aspect of my job and the diverse range of businesses and people I interact with is exciting and really fascinating. Understanding a client’s business process and the reasons behind them is key as it lets me see how Sage 200, along with the many complimentary add-ons, can transform their business.

I get to work with a great team of people including our Sage Account Managers. Helping them to get the most out of their role and having happy customers is what it’s all about… and sometimes the odd “problem solving”.

How has your job and your customer interactions changed over the last year?

Fortunately, I completely gutted my home office a few weeks before lockdown, so my home environment has been very good, but I have missed visiting clients (existing and prospective). Microsoft Teams has been invaluable as it has made the whole interaction process so easy. The restrictions have meant that I have also saved so much time by not travelling around, however, I am excited to start on-site visits again!

I also made sure I contacted many people in our team regularly to check if they were ok and to be a friendly face. It is amazing how everyone has pulled together and got on with it.

Did you always want to work in Sales, specifically Sage world?

After completing my A levels in Economics and Computer Studies, I went into Banking and worked for NatWest for over 9 years and loved interacting with customers. I was always asked to be at the customer-facing side of things and got good feedback by just being honest to people. I realised that Banks don’t pay that well and as they started to become more sales target driven I thought that I might as well go out into the ‘real world’. I saw an advert for financial software sales with a preference for Finance and IT knowledge and understanding – it had my name all over it and I got the job (just around the corner from Smith Cooper’s Derby office)! The rest is history.

I can’t say that I dreamed of Sage software sales, but now that I’m doing it, I think it’s my calling.

That is all for this time around, thank you very much for reading and a huge thank you to Richard for sparing the time to answer our questions!