Meet Leanne Penza – Key Accounts Manager, SYD

What do you do at CreditorWatch and why do you love it?

I’ve recently started at CreditorWatch as the Key Accounts Manager.

I accidentally fell into Account Management many years ago and ended up absolutely loving it. I love it because I enjoy getting to know our customers and more importantly the people within those companies. I love building strong relationships and working in partnership with our customers to help them get the maximum benefit and value from our products.

What does your average workday look like?

Every day is different because there are different challenges and different customers each with their own needs. My focus is on time with our customers – that could be done over the phone, but my preference is face to face so ideally an average ideal workday would be getting out of the office and meeting with customers.

It could be training on our products, conducting account reviews or showing them other products or ways CreditorWatch can help them.

Your role probably exists at other companies. What makes CreditorWatch special?

Coming in with a fresh set of eyes, it definitely would be the culture. I couldn’t be happier with the work environment I am in, I’ve met some really great people already and even on a personal level, CreditorWatch’s values heavily align with mine.

On top of that, it would be the customers. From Day 1, I could see that CreditorWatch really value their customers and that is super important to me.

What’s the biggest career lesson you’ve learnt so far?

I’ve learnt so much from observing others over the past few years and it’s helped me refine my approach in dealing with people which led me to success.

Here’s a few key things:

• Customer service goes a long way and so does a genuine interest in wanting to learn about a business’ needs and challenges.
• When your customers trust you, good things happen.
• The long-term game is more important than a short term win.

What’s been your biggest achievement in your role?

Too soon to say, ask me again in 12 months 🙂

If you could do another job for just one day, what would you do?

Bungy Jump Operator over in Queenstown!

Bungy jumping is a passion of mine and unfortunately I don’t get the chance to do it enough – although 13 jumps is probably more than most people.

I’d love to be able to go over The Ditch and witness people experience something amazing and help them get over their fears and fit in as many crazy custom style jumps as I can 🙂

Who or what is your biggest inspiration?

Life has taught me a few important lessons and especially at this stage, it would definitely be my family and my partner Anthony.

We’ve been brought even closer together over the past few months and everything I do and want to work hard for is for them. They are my biggest supporters and inspire me to be the best person I can be in all aspects of my life.

What’s something you’ve always wanted to try but never have?

If I want to try something, I always just go for it. #1 for this year was getting into martial arts so I’ve just started Kung Fu and am going for my first sash next month, so stay tuned!

What was your first ever job?

I was a Maccas girl. I started there as soon as I was allowed to start working! 🍟

I think it was a great first job because it taught me a lot about having a good work ethic, teamwork, being customer facing, being reliable and working under intense pressure. All qualities I have taken with me into the corporate world.

What do your parents think you do?

I would absolutely love them to answer this – I would be confident that they would just say “she works in an office”.

I’ve tried to explain the concept of account management over the years… I think they are starting to understand which is progress considering they thought it meant accounting when I first started off as an account manager 8 years ago!