This year, we’ve kicked off a Women in Technology blog series focusing on some fantastic women in leadership roles here at the Sage Intacct office of Sage. These women come from all walks of life, and are mentors, moms, bosses, and even beekeepers. Their stories and wisdom inspired me, and I trust you’ll find the same.
This profile is with Susan Vincent, Vice President of Partner Enablement, at Sage Intacct.
Brittany Benson: Could you tell me about your current role here at Sage Intacct?
Susan Vincent: Of course! I’ve been at Sage Intacct for five years. The Partner Enablement team is made up of two parts: partner enablement and partner services. The partner enablement side is lead by Chris Carter, and they’re responsible for the sales and marketing enablement of our channel partners.
The partner services side is lead by Vicky Keeshan and Meg Deering, responsible for services and technical services enablement which includes teaching services and implementation concepts, processes, and providing templates. Within partner services, there’s a support element that will answer partner questions when it relates to implementation and configuration.
My currently role at Sage Intacct is as the Vice President of Partner Enablement. From the time we recruit a new VAR partner, we put them through an SIAP or VAR enablement process where a team of people that do sales enablement, marketing, services, and support enablement, ensure that a new partner is successful.
We ensure that they learn the product, understand how we sell to the market, and implement the Sage Intacct solution. Within that team, we support the partners in solutioning, sales activity, scoping, and implementation of best practices.
The team that teaches how to use the Sage Intacct solutions have an average tenure of eight years working at Sage Intacct and span anywhere from solution architects, CPA’s, to extremely experienced accountants. This team has a fantastic cross section of coverage for the Sage Intacct solution. We have a super strong team!
Brittany: What was your path in getting to where you are in Sage Intacct?
Susan: I worked for several years in software development and accounting roles. Within one role, I implemented an accounting solution for a large insurance company. After that project I was hired by the same software company into their professional services team. After working for the accounting vendor, I joined a small group to start a VAR partner in Atlanta. In this position I was able to sell and implement different accounting solutions. Being exposed to how accounting vendors and partners operate helped me have a good understanding of what our partners need to be successful. A long-time friend, Melody Williams, highly recommended Intacct and recommended me for an open position. The rest is history!
Brittany: Can you tell me about a woman who inspired you?
Susan: One of the women who influenced me the most was Kay Yow, former head coach for NC State University. She was continually helping others reach their potential and encouraged me in various interactions to push nonstop. Whether it was for mission work or coaching for the women’s Olympic team, she always worked hard to find the best in everyone. She was heavily involved in passing Title Nine, which created equality of women’s scholarships in colleges. She taught her teams a lot about building trust, pushing hard, and developing strong bonds.
Brittany: What advice would you give your younger self?
Susan: Listen more! Not just listen to others but learn to listen. About 20 years ago, I started listening to audio books which turns out to be a great way to learn to listen. Don’t wait until you’re 50 to learn that lesson – being a good listener will help you be a better colleague, friend, and overall person.
Brittany: What advice would you have for a younger woman maybe earlier on in her career?
Susan: One of the best things I did when I was in college was to take computer science classes in database design, development, and logic. These were outside my accounting major and have been super helpful in my career.
If you’re going to succeed in the technology industry, you must have a baseline for how the product life cycle occurs. I believe you need to understand at some level how solutions are designed, developed, and delivered.
Brittany: What would you say is the best part of your job?
Susan: The best part is seeing our partners and customers satisfied. We have a phenomenal product that we offer but sometimes, it’s difficult to get through some of the sale cycles and implementations. Seeing a partner start to understand our sales methodology, seeing our on-boarding strategies start to work, and see them be independent and executing on these deliverables without assistance is very rewarding.
Since we also run the Net Promoter program for the channel, I get to see the full life cycle firsthand of that partner – from the time they join the channel to seeing the happy end customer. That is the best part of the job.
Brittany: Do you have a vision for the future?
Susan: My short-term vision would be to see Sage Intacct roll out in every international location on the roadmap and see us effectively growing in those locations.
Past that, I see myself fishing a lot and spending time with my family; they’re my number one passion.
To check out the other blogs in Sage’s Women in Tech blog series, view:
Women in Technology — Carmen Cooper
Women in Technology — Stefanie Maragna
Women in Technology — Amy Platt
Women in Technology — Aravinda Gollapudi
Women in Technology — Meg Deering
Women in Technology – Wanda Pansky
Women in Technology — Nancy Sperry
Women in Technology — Kathy Lord
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