Matthew Meredith marks 15 incredible years with OGL!

We caught up with Matt to find out more about his time at OGL so far:

"I started life at OGL within the Technical Division. I had some experience in telesales, so joined initially making prospecting calls for technical support to arrange new business appointments. This experience was crucial for me, learning the business and kick starting my career in sales. I then moved over to the software company when we launched SalesVision. We were approaching companies to implement SalesVision, however this quickly evolved when Rich Meredith and I were tasked to grow our business within the UBT community. Being family helped with this project, as it strengthened our position as a family business, I also learned a lot from Rich during this time. I then started as a Software Account Manager in 2014. I did this role until around 2022 and absolutely loved it. It was a big change for me, however I saw the opportunity, and was determined to learn as much as I could. From there I moved into Management, which has been another huge learning curve. Managing customers, and managing people is a very different role. As much as I loved the Account Manager role, I now thrive on helping our team grow and seeing people learn their craft in sales as I did.

The achievement I am most proud of is becoming Head of Customer Success and joining the SLT Team. This is a demanding role, with lots of responsibilities. I love learning, and taking on a new challenge, and this has been exactly that! I try to keep an open mind, and most of all keep learning and growing my career.  

The story that stands out most to me is when I was in a meeting at Rugbi Supplies in South Wales. We were having a normal meeting, when John Hartson walked in! He was there to make a charitable donation, however he was happy to have a chat and even take a picture. More recently I was with a customer who asked me to remind them they needed to call Citizens Advice about their son’s car. I noticed the time, and thought that I had better remind them, although this was just at the time when they said ‘I ran a report from prof.ITplus yesterday and it didn’t work’ to which I replied, ‘You need to call Citizens Advice’. Thankfully the team found this hilarious!

I'd also like to give a couple of special mentions. I would like to thank Debbie, Sharon and Gary as part of their support from the Exec Team. The SLT team for their continued support. All the members of the CSM Team, who constantly challenge, surprise and show me their dedication. Finally, a huge thank you to Claire Jones (also part of the Exec Team), who gave me a chance as a Software Account Manager all those years ago and has continued to mentor me, and help grow my career to what it is today."

Matt's manager, Claire Jones, commented: “Matt joined OGL as part of our Sales Academy program in what was our IT Services Sales Division (now Wavenet) under the watchful eye of Sally Watton, booking appointments for new business consultants to approach for IT service contracts and soon progressed to become part of a mini team selling SalesVision to new customers, his first venture into the Software Division. Matt quickly progressed into booking new business appointments for his own cousin (for those of you who may not know!) Rich Meredith, to sell prof.ITplus software solutions.

At the time, our New Business and Account Management teams were in one large open plan office and although Matt wasn’t the loudest, he was confident on the phone and on a number of occasions I listened inadvertently to his approach which was both professional, friendly and led the conversation towards the end result of confirming commitment from the prospects.  Ultimately when an unexpected vacancy appeared within account management, my first choice was Matt, and he sailed through the interview process to join the team in 2014.

Matt then had many years' success looking after our existing prof.ITplus customers alongside James Shelley and eventually Carl Hillier, and his sales training really paid off in structuring, researching, and preparing for his meetings. Not only that but Matt’s friendly outgoing character meant customers really took to him and his knowledge of the software, after years of self-learning really paid off.  I think Matt would agree that he really gravitated towards any products and services that were web related and quickly became a font of knowledge working closely with Web Services in finding eShop solutions that would get that all important target!

I’ve personally worked with Matt for 11 of the 15 years and to see how far he has come is not only incredibly rewarding but a testament to his determination to succeed, putting himself forward for promotion to team leader, then managing (a brand-new team!) and earning his seat on the Senior Leadership Team.

Matt is a true pleasure to work with. He demonstrates a strong work ethic and unwavering commitment to his customers, his role, meeting targets, and supporting his colleagues. It’s clear he takes great pride in helping his team grow and succeed leading by example, and I couldn’t be prouder.

In the time we’ve spent together and sometimes those days in the car have been long, the meetings have been tough and the decisions tougher, a Starbucks trip has made the day seem brighter and put everything back in perspective as we’ve de-briefed and decompressed, and when you see someone develop from ‘What do I do with this?’ to confidently saying ‘It’s fine, I’ve sorted it’ and every step in between, is incredibly rewarding and I know he takes great pride from coaching and mentoring his own team to develop in the same way.

Matt, what an incredible achievement and milestone and on behalf of the Board, Senior Leadership team and all your team members, thank you for your invaluable contributions to the success of OGL Software, your loyalty, dedication, and enthusiasm is truly valued and we look forward to celebrating many more years of success and collaboration!

Congratulations! (and please don’t use your reward to buy a hoover!!!)”‍

Debbie Barton added: “Congratulations Matt on your 15^th OGL work anniversary, it is amazing to see how you have progressed over the years culminating in your well deserved place in the Senior Leadership Team! You are developing into a great manager, and you are great example to others that have the desire to succeed – thank you and well done!”

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