Roundtable: Charming Is an Expensive Mistake: What Accounting Firms Need to Get Right When Hiring Sales Professionals

This conversation will cover the following themes:

• Hiring Strategy: How to build a successful hiring strategy around budget, target markets, role expectations, performance measures, and firm culture.
• Interviewing Strategy: How to use a disciplined interviewing process that looks beyond chemistry and “gut feel” to assess sales skills, fit, and performance.
• Performance Expectations: How to define ramp-up time, revenue goals, and the support a firm must provide for a new sales professional to succeed.

The panel will also explore how these approaches should adapt based on firm size and growth goals, with time for participants to bring their own questions and challenges.

Roundtable Participants

Angel Morgan, Chief Business Development Officer at Cherry Bekaert / Angel’s LinkedIn Profile

Angel is an inspiring, solutions focused sales leader with a people first, anything is possible mindset. Angel has over 20 years of innovating within the professional services and public accounting organizations. As the Chief Business Development Officer for Cherry Bekaert, she is providing year over year explosive growth in surpassing team revenue by over 100%. Cherry Bekaert is a thriving, rapidly growing private equity backed top 25 accounting and consulting firm that is committed to making a difference for our people, clients, and our community.

At Cherry Bekaert, Angel is focused on reimagining new ways to drive growth in a competitive environment with specific goals towards building a scalable motivated sales function that results in high performing teams.

Jeff Tillman, Managing Director, National Business Development at Crowe / Jeff’s LinkedIn Profile

Jeff Tillman is a business development and sales transformation leader with deep experience helping professional services organizations grow through stronger client relationships, scalable sales infrastructure, and high-performing teams. As National Business Development Managing Director at Crowe, one of the largest public accounting and consulting firms in the United States, Jeff leads national growth initiatives and works closely with partners, sales professionals, and client-facing teams to strengthen go-to-market execution across industries and service lines.

Jeff has played a key leadership role in Crowe’s sales transformation efforts, including the development of a firmwide sales methodology, implementation of a CRM system, and adoption of AI-enabled sales technology. His work focuses on aligning people, process, and technology to improve sales effectiveness, deepen client engagement, and support long-term strategic growth.

Known for his collaborative leadership style, Jeff is passionate about mentoring and coaching business development professionals, building future leaders, and creating practical training programs that help teams perform with greater confidence and consistency. His career also includes leadership roles in consulting and professional services with Tatum and Robert Half, as well as board and community leadership through Casa Pacifica and the Association for Corporate Growth 101 Corridor.

Jeff holds an MBA in Finance from Loyola Marymount University and a BS in International Business and Finance from California State University, Northridge.

Amy Franko, CEO of Amy Franko Associates / Amy’s LinkedIn Profile

Amy Franko is a leading voice for growth in professional services. She works with mid-market professional services firms to significantly improve growth through her sales strategy and BD skill development programs.

Her book, The Modern Seller, is an Amazon best seller. She is also recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Sales Voice.

Amy has been an active member of AAM since 2019, sponsoring the major firms programs, speaking at Summit, and participating in the Business Development Advisory Group and Environmental Scanning Council.