It all adds up for accountants
ACCOUNTANTS have traditionally been known as number crunchers but Darren Eagle is out to change that view.
As head of sales and marketing for small business advisory and accountancy firm RightWay, it’s Eagle’s role to teach its 18 regional partners/accountants how to be salespeople.
‘‘The whole business is designed around helping small businesses earn more and stress less through sound business, mentoring and tax advice.’’
It’s up to Eagle to transform the RightWay team through one-on-one sessions and workshops.
‘‘It’s about rewiring their brains. Accountants often get bogged down in analysing numbers and statistics, so rather than just looking at the numbers and data that’s in front of them, it’s about looking at things on a more human level.
‘‘By nature they see themselves, as do others, as number crunchers but it’s actually their personality outside of business life that is going to bring them more success than the numbers side of it and I have to get them to realise that.
‘‘It takes time, it’s only natural for people to revert back to their default setting from time to time, but generally our people have taken to this way of working really well.’’
It’s a growing business. In the past year year the firm has gone from six regional partners to 18 throughout New Zealand and Sydney while staff numbers have gone from four to 52 in four years.
‘‘I’m very blessed, we have some very smart people who have come on board, who have good commercial acumen, great personalities, and a willingness to do things differently and challenge traditional accounting.’’
While Eagle’s mandate is to coach accountants to become salespeople, he says the secret to success lies more in building relationships.
‘‘The first thing I tell them is not to become actual salespeople – it’s less about selling and more about building relationships, rapport and trust, and becoming a confidante.’’
Having started his job with RightWay 16 months ago, Eagle is on the road every second week visiting regional partners (RPs) to practice what he preaches.
‘‘It’s my job to ensure they don’t get stuck back at their desk. I’ve got to make them feel good about what they’re doing and give them confidence to get back out and in front of people.’’
When he’s not on the road, he’s looking after the company’s marketing arm, managing digital campaigns and marketing strategies. He’s always in daily contact with his RPs, organises weekly sales trainings, reports to the board and attends executive meetings.
The most rewarding part for Eagle is seeing his RPs hit their targets.
‘‘An RP might ring up to say they’ve just won a client, or a client has just sent them a letter saying they appreciate their help and that they’ve changed their business for the better.
‘‘When the RP is happy, relaxed and enjoying their job, and they’ve got happy clients, that’s awesome.’’
He speaks of one RP concerned about a lack of sales experience.
‘‘I told him to be himself, that the more leads he can make, the more successful he’ll be, and he’s gone on to be one of the most successful RPs we’ve got.
‘‘He’s had a lot of referrals from clients who say ‘speak to this guy, he’s amazing, he’s changed my business’.’’
Eagle reckons he has learned just as much from his RPs as they have from him, if not more.
‘‘It’s been an eye-opening experience for me – I’ve learnt more in the last 14 months than I’ve learnt in the previous 10-15 years.
‘‘There’s different personalities, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, and it’s how you identify those and work on them to their advantage.
‘‘If someone’s not getting new leads, they’re possibly not confident about picking up a phone and ringing people, but it can take months to work someone out and figure out where they’re struggling.
‘‘They’ve got to learn to trust me too, and not everyone’s going to be forthcoming. Like today, two of our three new recruits told me sales was totally foreign to them, they’ve never had to do this before and they were terrified of it.
‘‘As a sales coach it’s not about what you know, it’s about what you want to know about other people and tapping into ways to helping them to achieve.’’
Sometimes staff struggle, to the extent that they throw in the towel.
‘‘To look someone in the eye and see tears welling up because they weren’t comfortable or enjoying what they were doing despite me believing in them, that was tough.
‘‘It does have an effect on you, you go home and reflect and wonder what you could have done differently.’’
Having grown up on a 3035-hectare sheep and beef farm in the Wairarapa, he left school keen to become a farmer.
However, he canned his farm cadetship part-way through, realising it wasn’t for him.
He wound up working as a tradie for a concrete firm in Upper Hutt, followed by a stint in retail for Hallensteins.
‘‘Rugby was a core focus back in the day. I didn’t have a lot of confidence and I didn’t know what I was capable of doing, except for rugby, that was the one thing I knew how to do and I just wanted to play.’’
Though he played for Wellington Maori and premier rugby for his beloved Poneke club on weekends, he knew he needed a ‘‘real’’ job.
Ironically, it was through the physiotherapist he often saw for his numerous rugby injuries thatset him on his current career path.
‘‘He told me the Wellington Firebirds [cricket team] needed a masseuse, so he took me along to a training and I got stuck into Richard Petrie’s calves.
‘‘I ended up being their masseuse for four years, travelling around the country with well-known cricketers – that was a lot of fun.’’
Eventually, Petrie helped him into a job as a photocopier sales rep for Bluestar and a year later he became sales manager.
‘‘Richard thought I’d make a great sales rep, and I enjoyed the job – I didn’t know a lot about sales then and that’s probably when I was the most successful – the more I learnt how to sell the less successful I became,’’ he laughs.
Hungry to learn more, Eagle moved to Auckland to gain experience and that’s where he met another big influence, Andrew Nalder.
Nalder, managing director of Wellington print company DPod, offered Eagle a role in Wellington as general manager.
‘‘What I learned most in my eight years there was that the more I started to understand our clients’ businesses and the people I was talking to, the more successful I was.
‘‘I discovered the secret to being a good sales rep isn’t about selling as such, it’s about building a rapport with people quickly and understanding the outcomes or desires of the client.’’
Eagle put his learning into practice during a short tenure at Western Mailing before starting his own sales coaching business called Commercial Fitness to spread the word on his new-found philosophy.
And that led him to successfully apply for his current role at RightWay.
‘‘I’m now working for another CEO that is motivating, inspirational and a bloody good guy – I’ve been very lucky that certain people have given me opportunities that have brought me to where I am today.
‘‘In my early days I was my own worst enemy at times so I’m grateful for the people who have empowered me to achieve things I never thought possible.’’