I have the below formula which works correctly however I have duplicates in rows which I need it to deduct, any ideas what I can add to get it to do this without?

=SUM(COUNTIFS($A$28:$A$224,"Accepted",$C$28:$C$224 ,"Tier 1"))

So for example I have the below, the number I need to get to is 4 accepted tier 1 companies:

Accepted Mr Smith Tier 1 Company A
Accepted Mr Reynolds Tier 1 Company A
Accepted Miss Cole Tier 1 Company B
Accepted Mr x Tier 1 Company C
Accepted Mrs Y Tier 1 Company C
Accepted Mr Z Tier 1 Company D

Note I cannot just use the frequency count as I need it to look for specific things across a range of data.

Ive been racking my brains so anyone that can help with this would appreciate it!
Thanks :0)