Reapit appoints successor to Simon Whale – so will he wear it well?

Software supplier Reapit has appointed sales expert Steve Canning as chief revenue officer.

He succeeds Simon Whale, but his role will have a “significantly wider remit”, said a spokesperson yesterday.

Canning has over 25 years’ experience in sales leadership roles, including managing and building enterprise sales, growing customer bases, and developing strategic partner alliances for global technology brands.

Reapit, which has more than doubled its revenue in the last year, said his extensive experience is central to his new role of building solution-based relationships with customers.

Commenting on his appointment, Canning said: “What truly appealed to me about this opportunity at Reapit was not just the fact that they are the acknowledged market leader in the industry, but also that they have an impressive array of current customers and truly exciting growth plans.”

Canning said that the “company’s clear technology roadmap and ecosystem plans, as well as their particular focus on growth and transformation, will help Reapit customers drive growth regardless of economic and legislative challenges”.

Canning added: “Everyone has a product to sell, but Reapit goes one step further by building the relationship that fully releases the product potential within the customer’s business.”

Gary Barker, CEO of Reapit, said: “I’m very pleased to have Steve join our executive team.

“His extensive experience in global enterprise sales processes will help us deliver on our aggressive growth plans both locally in the UK and internationally over the next coming months.

“This is a step up for Reapit’s sales approach as we aim to grow our market share through exceptional customer services and innovative technology products.”

Former head of sales Simon Whale quit Reapit in July, without explanation and less than a year after a management buy-out in which he was a key figure.

Whale, one of the best known figures in estate agency, is known for his ultra-conservative style of dress and rarely misses an industry event or a golf match. He has also been instrumental in a number of charity-raising initiatives, including #DoItForDom

A year ago, Reapit was bought out by its management, then including Whale, in a £50m deal backed by American private equity firm Accel-KKR.

x

Email the story to a friend



19 Comments

  1. MichaelDay

    I imagine his expense account will be somewhat more limited!

    Report
    1. Whaley

      Mike that’s a bit rich , a good percentage of that was buying you drinks to stop you talking Groundhog Day style about Watford & Wishbone Ash …

      Report
      1. Retiredandrelaxed

        I bet that’s the first time Wishbone Ash have had a mention here.

        Although I do know Michael has a lot of time for them (as do I)!

        Report
  2. Cyberpunk35

    A wider remit? They don’t come much wider than Whaley. #Whale4PM #legend

    Report
    1. Whaley

      wider? Ok I know I’ve added on a few pounds but that always happens with professional sportsmen when they stop. Have you seen the size of Garth Crooks recently ? 

      Report
      1. Cyberpunk35

        You want to try my new diet plan. Put together by leading sports legends and nutritionists Georgey Best and Diego Maradona. I’ve lost three weeks already. 

        Report
  3. r29woolf

    I joined JET because of Simon & Suzanna. Now they’ve both left, along with others, I really hope they’re able to maintain the high service levels those two set.

    Hope this chap is good – big shoes to fill!!

    Report
    1. Breckland Agent

      They’ve both left?

      Report
      1. r29woolf

        unfortunately so

        Report
  4. Cyberpunk35

    Suzanna and Simon were Jet, were Reapit. Now not really sure what is left without them. Jet customers would understandably be concerned.

    Report
  5. Herb

    Suzanna never got back to me when I asked to join

    Report
    1. SuzannaMavity

      Hey sorry if I missed something here!  I’d never intentionally do so, feel free to give me a call and I will see how I can help – 07815 748713

      Report
  6. Georgethecrook95

    Successor to Whaley are you having a laugh???

    Never heard of this Canning fella, so looked him up on Google.

    Still no idea who he is but got an interesting urban dictionary definition for Canning…

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Canning&utm_source=search-action

    Report
  7. Breckland Agent

    How can anything be “significantly wider” than Whaley 😉

    Report
  8. AlexBell

    this does seem a little strange timing.

    As a supplier ourselves and any of the others in the industry will know the absurdity of this release.

    Reapit’s entire sales team has either left or resigned and been looking for an escape chute for the last few months, I know because we interviewed two. Don’t care what spin you turn on it there’s no positives.

    it appears the race to become ‘corporate’ has not gone down well with the people who wore their hearts on their sleeves. From our points of view whilst it wasn’t easy every getting integration with Reapit they were at least pleasant when saying no, but the glacial speed getting anything done is horrific these days. And so to hear that relationships matter from Mr Canning will cause wry smiles everywhere.

    I’m certain more will become clear over the coming months but I’m betting now it won’t be pretty.

    Report
    1. Robert May

      Perhaps it is how you are asking and what you are asking for?

      I walked back in to the office this morning after a weekend away to find a small  issue that could have been a  big problem  if not sorted. That was 5 am, by 6:30 I had emailed Gary, by 8, despite Gary being on holiday the problem was resolved, by 8:45 the mutual  customer was emailing me to say the data feed issue was resolved. That’s avalanche fast, not a glacial. That’s service few can match

      The industry has a problem that revolves around cooperation between suppliers. The industry needs a standard we can all work to rather than  the nonsense of various XML and BLM feeds.  An industry standard, all suppliers can code to that all suppliers including the portal adopt means agency will be properly served.

      Such a feed will allow agents, not the suppliers to control what of their data goes where and when it goes there. Whilst a real time feed might be good for some, it does not suit others. If real time feeds were real time across all agents the system would be fair,., as it is now some agents feed live, some do not.

       

       

       

      Report
  9. agenttothestars

    Are we now going to be hearing of #brandcanning or will he be dropping that hashtag created by the now global #brandwhale

    Report
  10. Breckland Agent

    #BrandWhale for PM

    Report
  11. Leeds Agent

    The headline is totally misleading.

    There is no such thing as a successor to The Whale. #legend #hairofgods #brandwhale

    Report
X

You must be logged in to report this comment!

Comments are closed.

Thank you for signing up to our newsletter, we have sent you an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Additionally if you would like to create a free EYE account which allows you to comment on news stories and manage your email subscriptions please enter a password below.