Rowan International
Turning a reactive sales business into a proactive one.
2021 - 2025
Building a Customer Visibility System That Improved Conversion, Retention and Speed
At Rowan, I moved from National Account Manager to Digital Sales Manager, then into a full digital product role.
Because I came from the customer side first, I approached product work with a clear commercial lens: understand the customer, connect systems, and remove manual work that slowed the team down.
The Problem
Rowan could not easily see its own customers.
Customer knowledge lived in the heads of individual salespeople. When someone left or moved accounts, the next person often had to start again with very little history.
The ERP system did not connect with other tools. There was no CRM. The team had to check information manually, which meant the business often reacted to problems too late.
The biggest issue was customer drop-off. When a customer slowly stopped buying, no one noticed early enough to act.
My Role
Led the move from manual, siloed working to a more connected, proactive customer system.
Owned product discovery, ran customer research, identified the real pain points, selected the right tools, and brought sales and marketing around one shared customer view.
The goal was simple: help the business see the full customer story quickly, then act at the right time.
What I Delivered
1. Connected customer data
I wrote the requirements, assessed several providers, and selected the CRM. I used HubSpot to connect customer data with the ERP, giving the team a clearer view of what each customer bought, how often they bought, and at what price.
I also grouped customers by buying frequency, creating clearer customer types for the team to use in follow-up, retention and sales activity.
This improved lead conversion and customer retention by 20%.
2. Automated follow-up and event sign-ups
I set up automated outreach so the team could follow up at the right moment instead of relying on memory or manual tracking.
I also automated event sign-ups, replacing the manual collection of customer details and helping the team manage new interest more efficiently.
3. A clearer website for buyers and suppliers
The old website was difficult to use and did not clearly explain what Rowan offered.
I redesigned it so two key audiences could understand the business quickly: customers who wanted to buy surplus stock, and suppliers who wanted to sell theirs.
The new website increased engagement by 35% and improved customer quality by 28%.
4. One sign-up form with two journeys
I built a single sign-up form that routed people into different journeys based on their answers.
Customers who fit Rowan’s target profile followed one path. Those who did not were routed differently. This helped the team qualify new sign-ups faster without slowing down the customer experience.
98% of sign-ups were routed automatically.
5. Faster customer checks
New customers previously waited weeks for checks and often had to chase for updates.
I worked with the compliance and due diligence teams to speed up the process and automate parts of it, reducing the time between sign-up and a clear response.
Customer approval became 65% faster.
How I Led the Change
This was not just a systems project. It required leadership, adoption and trust.
I worked closely with the Managing Director to secure support and budget. I coached the sales team one-to-one so they could use the CRM properly rather than work around it.
I also helped sales and marketing work from the same customer data, so the business could attract, convert and retain customers as one team.
The Managing Director and wider Rowan team trusted the vision, challenged the work where needed, and helped make the change real.
