Six chapters, from fax enquiries to recurring revenue

Mandate

Make marketing accountable for customers won and kept rather than leads, build the brand beyond payroll offices and support growth in the United Kingdom.

Outcomes

• Replaced lead quotas with a jointly defined qualified opportunity; win rates rose from 19 to 27 per cent and acquisition-cost payback fell from 31 to 22 months.
• Led customer communication after the May 2023 credential-stuffing attack; gross revenue retention fell to 92.6 per cent in FY2024 and recovered to 95.4 per cent by FY2026.
• Moved partners from referral fees to a three-year revenue share; partner share of new recurring revenue rose from 22 to 34 per cent.
• Repriced to per-employee bundles with 120 days' notice; price-related cancellations were 1.4 per cent of recurring revenue against 3.5 per cent modelled.
• Shifted programme spend from 78:22 to 60:40 performance to brand; unaided awareness among Australian payroll decision-makers rose from 11 to 24 per cent.

Decisions in context

I joined Yarrowby in March 2021 after four years in London. The company had grown revenue to A$109 million in FY2021 on the strength of a respected payroll product, but marketing was measured on leads and the brand was barely known outside payroll offices. My mandate from the chief executive was to make marketing accountable for customers rather than activity. The first two years went on measurement and the partner programme. The third was shaped by the May 2023 credential-stuffing attack, when I led what we told customers alongside our security, legal and executive colleagues, and the fourth by the pricing change that took effect in July 2025. I lead 64 people through seven direct reports and present to the board every quarter. By FY2026 revenue was A$198 million, net revenue retention 108 per cent and gross revenue retention 95.4 per cent.

Reason for the move

Current role. Not seeking an executive move; considering one non-executive directorship with the Yarrowby board's consent.

Mandate

Grow subscriptions through accounting practices and prepare the business and its partners for Making Tax Digital for VAT.

Outcomes

• Grew the accounting-practice partner base from 1,100 to 2,900 practices.
• Raised the share of new subscriptions arriving through practices from 31 to 52 per cent.
• Ran the Making Tax Digital for VAT programme, which added 41,000 subscriptions in the twelve months to March 2020.
• Designed a three-month payment deferral for small-business customers in spring 2020, holding monthly churn below 1.6 per cent.

Decisions in context

I moved to London in July 2017 to learn how software is sold when someone else's professional reputation stands behind the recommendation. Fenmore sold cloud accounting to small businesses, and most of its growth came through accounting practices that chose software for their clients. I reported to the chief commercial officer, led a team of 23 and presented to the private-equity board twice a year. The Making Tax Digital rules for VAT gave the business its largest growth moment and its largest risk, because thousands of reluctant clients would move at once. We built the programme around practices rather than advertising: training, migration tools and a support line reserved for accountants. Partner practices grew from 1,100 to 2,900. In spring 2020 I designed the payment deferral that kept many small customers with us through the first months of the pandemic, and I left in early 2021 to come home.

Reason for the move

Returned to Australia to be nearer family, and to lead marketing for a listed company as its CMO.

Mandate

Build demand for multi-year managed-services contracts once founders' referrals no longer sustained growth.

Outcomes

• Built the first marketing programme for three-to-five-year managed-services contracts, from events for IT managers to a security-assessment offer.
• Reconciled a reported A$90m marketing-sourced pipeline with signed contracts and rebuilt reporting around contract value won.
• Launched the managed security-operations service, which reached A$17m of annual contract value by FY2017.
• Raised the share of new contract value from marketing-originated opportunities from 9 to 30 per cent.

Decisions in context

Brennock Networks hired me in February 2013 to build marketing for a managed-services business that had grown on its founders' relationships. Its contracts ran for three to five years and were bought by IT managers and finance directors who rarely read advertising. We built events, a security-assessment offer and a reading programme for those buyers, and within two years the board was shown a marketing-sourced pipeline of A$90 million. When I reconciled it with signed contracts, A$28 million had converted. I took that analysis to the chief executive unprompted, and we rebuilt our reporting around contract value won. After the 2015 private-equity investment I became marketing director, reporting to the chief executive, and launched the company's managed security-operations service. Selling security to cautious buyers taught me how little a claim is worth without evidence the customer can inspect.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work for a software company whose customers chose products on an adviser's recommendation, and to work outside Australia.

Mandate

Turn vendor-funded marketing into implementation work for the firm's consultants.

Outcomes

• Managed about A$600,000 a year of market development funds across three software vendors.
• Built a seminar programme for finance managers that produced a third of new implementation projects by FY2012.
• Helped the payroll implementation practice grow from 6 to 22 consultants.
• Introduced quarterly reports to vendors showing which funded activities had led to signed projects.

Decisions in context

I joined Halbridge Business Systems in Brisbane in May 2008, months before the financial crisis made every finance manager in Queensland wary of new systems. The firm resold and implemented mid-market finance and payroll software and earned most of its margin from consultants' time. My job was to spend the market development funds our vendors gave us in ways that filled those consultants' diaries. I learnt that a reseller promotes whatever keeps its people busy, whatever a vendor's brand plan says. I began reporting to vendors each quarter on which funded activities had led to signed work, which made us unusual and, with two of our three vendors, better funded. The payroll practice grew from six consultants to 22, and payroll implementation became the work I understood best. I completed my graduate certificate part-time during these years.

Reason for the move

Wanted to lead demand generation for a services company that sold long contracts directly to its customers.

Mandate

Manage campaigns for technology and professional-services clients from brief to results.

Outcomes

• Ran six technology and professional-services accounts, two of them software vendors.
• Introduced closed-loop reporting with two clients, matching campaign responses to their sales records.
• Promoted to account director in 2006.

Decisions in context

I came to Sydney in March 2003 to join Pellow & Strang, an independent agency that made advertising and direct marketing for companies selling to other companies. I started as an account manager and became an account director in 2006, running teams of three to six people across six client accounts, two of them software vendors. The work taught me to write a brief a creative team could act on and to defend an idea in front of a doubtful client. It also showed me the agency's blind spot. We reported response rates, and clients rarely told us which responses became customers. With two clients I persuaded the marketing managers to share their sales records so that we could match the two, and the results changed what we made for them. I left in 2008 because I wanted that connection to be part of my job rather than a favour.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work inside a company where the effect of marketing on sales was visible.

Mandate

Run the dealership's direct mail, regional expos and enquiry handling.

Outcomes

• Tracked every enquiry through to lease or service contract for two years, the dealership's first such record.
• Moved most of the direct-mail budget to existing service customers after the tracking showed they produced most upgrades.
• Ran the dealership's stands at regional business expos.

Decisions in context

My first job after graduating was as the only marketing person at Tuckwell Office Systems, a family-owned dealer that sold, leased and serviced copiers and printers to businesses across Newcastle and the Hunter. I reported to the sales manager and spent about A$180,000 a year on direct mail, local newspaper advertising and regional expos. The sales team considered most of my enquiries worthless, so I began tracking each one to see what became of it. Over two years the record showed that enquiries from new businesses mostly went nowhere, while existing service customers produced most upgrades and new leases. We moved the mailing budget towards them, and the sales manager stopped calling my leads rubbish. I left in early 2003 because I wanted to learn how campaigns were made by people who did nothing else.

Reason for the move

Moved to Sydney to learn campaign craft at a specialist business-to-business agency.