In-house, before 30Plays. From the London trading floor in 2007 to Head of Global Sales: new-customer conversion from around 30% to over 50%, and a retention desk built from scratch.
City Index is a spread betting, CFD and FX brokerage serving private and institutional clients, then a firm of around 500 people. It was later acquired by GAIN Capital, and subsequently by StoneX.
I joined in 2007 as a Sales Executive on the London trading floor, as the global financial crisis was beginning. Over the next eight years I moved from Sales Executive to Team Leader and then to Head of Global Sales.
The commercial value of an account opening depended on turning it into an active customer and then keeping that customer. My first role was exactly that: helping private clients who had opened accounts start using them, in volatile markets with nervous customers.
I became the top salesperson on the floor, which led to promotion and to the mandate to build a customer retention function. I built a dedicated desk focused on keeping and developing existing customers, where none had existed.
As my remit grew to cover both activation and retention, I introduced clearer KPIs, segmented team responsibilities, improved training, and changed incentives so that what salespeople were paid for matched what the business needed.
The role grew into institutional business development, working with partners including Barclays, Halifax and TD Waterhouse, alongside hedge funds and high net worth individuals.
As Head of Global Sales I led more than 70 sales staff across seven countries, including the UK, Australia, Singapore, China, Poland, the UAE and the US, replicating the UK model in each market.
New-customer conversion rose from around 30% of account openings to over 50%, which changed the economics of every customer the business paid to acquire. The retention desk became a permanent part of the commercial structure.
What it shows: conversion and retention are where acquisition spend is won or wasted. Under pressure, the gains came from structure, incentives and coaching rather than from more leads.