Welcome to The Ledger, the podcast dedicated to invoice finance and lending technology, from Dancerace.  This week, we're ‘meeting the team’. Our meet the team segments give listeners a window into what it's like to work at Dancerace and introduces the experts that our lenders work with every day. 

This episode, meet Phil Cannon, customer success manager at Dancerace. Phil joined us in July, following a fourteen year career in the invoice finance. 

Georgiana Campbell: Today I'm here with Phil, who's a new hire into our customer success team. Hi Phil. How's it going?  

Phil Cannon: Yeah, really good, thanks. 

GC: That's good. Tell us about your experience before Dancerace  

PC: I've been in the invoice finance industry for about fourteen years now. Prior to that, I got a marketing degree and did a bit of work in procurement. I've worked at RBS Invoice Finance and Close Brothers. I've pretty much done all the roles up from system relationship manager or client executive, to client manager, up to a senior manager, where I dabbled a little bit in underwriting. I've done a lot of system training and I've done a bit in operations as well. 

GC: Amazing. And can you tell me how you ended up in the industry? 

PC: Yes, I graduated in 2009 and nobody wanted a graduate at the time due to the financial crash. I was walking down Dean's Gate in Manchester, and I saw an amazing glass building, which was Spinningfields. I thought, I want to work in there and not in the industrial state I was currently working in. 

I applied for every single job that RBS had, whether it was C-E-O or C-F-O.  I got one response - it was for invoice finance. I had absolutely no idea what invoice finance was. Fourteen years later, I'm still involved in the industry. 

GC: I guess it's quite an inclusive industry in the sense that you can start from zero knowledge and work your way up to where you are now. 

PC: Absolutely. You have to start somewhere. It's not every little boy or girl's dream to be in invoice finance, but it is a great industry filled with amazing people. Brilliant clients and fantastic systems, it really can be a great career if that's the path that you choose to go down.  

GC: Can you tell us some insights you've picked up in the industry: how you think it's developing and the state of the industry? 

PC:  It's a pretty subjective answer, in that I would have thought everybody has a different view, and all lenders will have a different view. For me personally, it’s a really exciting time in the industry. Off the back of COVID, we've had the likes of CBILS and RLS as lending options, but I think where we need to move forward in the industry is innovation. We've seen the launch of things like AI a lot more now, I think there's a lot of opportunity there. That's partially what really appealed to me about Dancerace. The innovation, the constant strive to improve the industry that we're in.

 GC: You've moved from the lender side to the technology side. What are the greatest differences you've noticed so far?  

 PC: The language is hugely different. In invoice finance, we're used to getting a query in and only having so many ways you can resolve that query, whether it be a risk issue, a financial issue, a retention issue etc. We're used to ‘getting things done’. You have a client at the end of it that you want to retain, and ensure that they're satisfied with their journey with you as lender. 

At Dancerace, we're not an invoice finance company. If an issue comes up with some software, it is not as simple as just clicking your fingers. You need to find out what that issue is. Can it be fixed? If so, how do you fix it? How long might that take? What resource might that need? How do you deploy it? Is it an issue that will affect multiple lenders, or just one? Are there other upgrades that we can do within that one change? There's so much more to it. It's important not to confuse the two industries. Invoice finance and the software side are two very separate businesses.  

GC: It sounds like you're learning very quickly. 

PC: I am learning very quickly. At the same time, there is a lot more to learn.  

GC: What attracted you to Dancerace?  

PC: Sounds a bit cheesy, but the suite of products. I've worked with similar products previously. I worked in operations towards the end of my time at Close Brothers and seeing how the systems work and what we would do to work around certain issues was a real eye opener.

I enjoyed the operations side of the job. When I saw the opportunity at Dancerace, it really appealed to me. I thought that the opportunity to work with not just onboarding risk or general invoice finance software, but to work in a completely different industry was hugely appealing.

GC: Can you tell us more about your role at Dancerace and what you've been doing? 

PC: As a customer success manager, its pretty much problem solving. We’re working with our lenders, trying to understand what’s in their roadmap, what changes and improvements they want, what issues do they have, and how can we get the system to work with them. 

At the minute, I'm trying to get my feet under the table to understand the businesses that we work with. There’s a huge range of lenders and there's multiple products to understand. The next step is to really get in with the lenders and see how we can help them more. 

GC: Coming from lenders side, you have a little bit of an edge there. You know how they think and what they want.

PC: I hope so. Every lender is different.  They've all got different risk criteria. There are different types of clients they want to appeal to, but ultimately, they’re in it for similar reasons.

They want to keep the client satisfied, they want to grow their book, but they also want to make money. The Dancerace software needs to help them do so. That will be part of my job: to help them retain their clients, improve the services that they have, and help them make a bit of money. 

GC: Now, something a bit lighter to end off with. What are three things you'd pack for a desert island and why?  

PC: As you know, I had a long drive today; it took me about four hours to get down from Manchester to Bath.  And this question has really bugged me.

I have a 20 month old son, and I was really conflicted whether I could include him as a thing I would pack. I decided that I probably shouldn't view him as a ‘thing’ and instead I'll think of more material things. 

First and foremost, I'm a huge running fan. I do a lot of running to keep me sane. I’d pack some running shoes with me. 

Secondly, I was trying to work out how I could bring something like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Succession or Alan Partridge with me.  But it would all need charging. I’m a big sportsman, so maybe a football, but that might get a bit boring. One thing that never gets boring is darts, so I would bring a dartboard with me. 

Thirdly, I tried to think of what can't I do and what would I love to do? If I'm on a desert island, I'm assuming there is going to be some kind of beach, and that will have some kind of waves.  I can't surf, but I’d bring a surfboard with me try and learn a new skill.

GC: Very well thought out on your four-hour journey. It sounds like you're definitely not going to be bored! And I guess your son isn't a thing, but very sweet of you to include him.  

PC: If I could bring him, I would, but maybe it would be good for him to have a bit of a distance from his nagging dad. 

GC: Great. Thank you so much, Phil. 

PC: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.