Tony Troth has joined the ADvendio team as a Strategic Account Manager, covering both pre-sales and sales roles within the APAC region. We are delighted to welcome Tony to the team. His extensive experience working as a systems analyst and a developer before moving into sales will be a massive asset to ADvendio, and we look forward to utilizing his expertise to further ADvendio’s expansion.
We caught up with Tony to learn more about his background, experience, and what he is looking forward to in his new role
1. Tell us about your background.
I was born in the UK and qualified from Sheffield University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Information Technology. In my formative years, I started my career on the opposite side of sales, working as a systems analyst and a developer. I had one eye on being a footballer (soccer player), but a torn cruciate ligament put paid to any hope I had of being a lower division footballer in the UK (thankfully!!!).
I moved into a pre-sales role fairly early on in my career and then spent the last 12 or 13 years working at CloudSense in a hybrid pre-sales/sales role across media and telco opportunities. CloudSense gave me the opportunity to move to Australia in 2015, which I’m very grateful for… although I miss home, of course.
During that time, I have learned a huge amount from both perspectives. My technical background has certainly helped, and I’m sure it will continue to help me build strong relationships with our customers, which will hopefully lead to success in APAC.
2. What’s your job title, and what are the regions you’re focused on?
My job title is Strategic Account Manager, but as I mentioned, I will be covering both pre-sales and sales roles within the APAC region. I’m based in Sydney, so a large part of my focus will be ANZ, but I believe that SE Asia can also provide us with lots of growth opportunities, which is very exciting.
3. What led you to a career in sales, and what do you enjoy most about working in sales?
I always felt that my technical background and ability to build strong relationships with my clients made me a good fit for pre-sales, and I think that will continue at ADvendio. Sales became an extension of that, and I think I can bring the trusted advisor status that pre-sales folks enjoy into the sales domain to build credibility and trust with my customers.
I enjoy solving customer problems and love showing them how we can add value to their business. I love those lightbulb moments when customers just ‘get it,’ and I love seeing customers be successful for a long time after we have won their business.
4. How has your previous experience prepared you for your role with ADvendio?
The last deal we did at CloudSense was with Warner Bros Discovery, which I led. In the region, we also managed to secure the business of News Corp, Foxtel Media, South China Morning Post, and others. I have worked across many media organisations in many different countries across APAC (and previously EMEA), and I was delighted to feel very comfortable with the ADvendio solution when I got access to my first trial org.
This experience will stand me in good stead and hopefully accelerate my time to value for ADvendio.
5. What expectations do you have for this new role in ADvendio?
Although working fairly autonomously here in Oz, I am confident of nurturing strong relationships with my colleagues across the globe. I’ve already met many people, and everyone has been so amazing.
I’m also very impressed with the solution. I believe that the market in APAC is crying out for a strong regional presence, good support, and a best-of-breed solution that can meet our customers’ goals.
With strong people and a great product, I have nothing but high expectations in terms of growing our ACV here in APAC in line with our own growth objectives, and I am super excited about getting stuck in.
6. Is there anything else you would like to add?
I’m excited to be a part of the ADvendio team, and if you ever visit ‘Down Under’, I’d love to meet up so we can throw a shrimp on the barbie and enjoy a cold one 🙂 Failing that, I can’t wait to get to know the ADvendio family and hope to meet most of them in person at some point in the future.
