Get to know Jarrod Bowren, National Sales Manager

Houston’s welcomed Jarrod Bowren (Bore-in) to the family as a Regional Manager on February 20th, 2006, to grow and cultivate current and new customers for the company. He is based out of Derby, Kansas and began working with a region that included 4 states, which eventually expanded to 8 states, and on up to 17 states at a single time.

Jarrod is now the National Sales Manager, which means working with Houston’s 6 Regional Managers and all other departments to continuously service our customers while striving to increase revenue and profits.

When asked what his favorite thing about working with Houston’s is he said, “Having fun with our teammates. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great teammates who have become great friends. I was lucky enough to have teammates help me evolve and improve as both a man and a sales rep, now I have the opportunity to carry on this tradition and help our current team grow as both people and Houston’s employees. And of course we have fun while we work and improve!!”

Outside of work, Jarrod enjoys spending time with his family, which includes playing dress up with their two daughters. He also loves hunting for whitetail deer with a bow and fishing for bass. “I love these activities because they are challenging, outdoors, and I can take a break from technology and get to teach our daughters.”

When asked for a random fact about himself, Jarrod said, “I played three sports in high school- Cross Country, basketball,

Jarrod Bowren, National Sales Manager, enjoy hunting and fishing in his off time

and baseball. I received a baseball scholarship my senior year and decided not to play basketball so the swim team asked me to dive. I ended up taking second in our city league in diving. There were only two divers. This was fun and very humbling experience. It was also the first and last time I wore a speedo.”

Other little facts about Jarrod “Born to sell” Bowren- his favorite book is Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, “This book represents combining knowledge and one’s gut feeling to assess situations quickly. I use this strategy daily and this book helped me realize how I was doing this without realizing it.” He also loves all genres of music, “it just depends on the environment.”
Next time you see Jarrod in the office or warehouse, be sure to say hello!

The post Getting to Know: Jarrod Bowren appeared first on Houston's Blog.

“The main focus is for Regional Managers to work with various departments and gain a better perspective of how everything works in the building as well as get to know the people in each department better,” says National Sales Manager Jarrod Bowren.  This is the first time that any of the current Regional Managers have had the opportunity to spend an extended period of time in any department learning the ins and outs of daily operations at Houston’s.  While the main goal was to help our outside sales staff to learn about routine procedures in the Wilsonville office, Jarrod also wanted to expose the Regional Managers to the upbeat and positive culture that has consumed Houston’s.  “There’s a huge difference,” said Jarrod, noting that employees are up and moving around, and interacting with other people in different departments.  “It’s refreshing.”

Regional Manager Pete Butorac tries out an iSi dispenser with the help of vendor rep Antoinette D’Ambrosio Photo Credit: Christina Graiff

In addition to shadowing the various departments, the Regional Managers also had a day of in-office vendor training in which they met with representatives from National Chemicals, Espresso Supply, Hospitality Glass, International Tableware, Inc (ITI), and iSi North America.  These hour-long sessions provided great insight into vendor product lines, product testing, and allowed time for question that our sales team regularly fields from their customers.

The week wrapped up discussing 2017 goals and how current procedures and processes could be improved upon with key departments such as Purchasing, Inside Sales, and Marketing—the goal being “help us help you” in building sales and revenue, and working toward the ultimate benefit to Houston’s. Communication was one of the largest topics of the day: communication within departments and between departments.  Jarrod wasn’t shy in displaying Outside Sales’ 2017 sales goal for all to see:  $62 million!  It’s a realistic goal, one easily attainable when all departments work together to better serve our customers.

The merchandising team arrived in the office in full force on Friday, ready to learn primarily about the technology that Houston’s has available to assist in offering our clientele supreme service.  Time was spent learning about Salesforce and how to utilize the program to help grow customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as how to navigate the extranet, our internal reporting and information resource.  They also were given the opportunity to get better acquainted with Robin Phillips, the newly promoted National Merchandising Manager.  Robin is excited for “the opportunity to expand my responsibilities…one of my long term goals is business development in other parts of the country…I believe it is an exciting time in our company and see great things for us ahead.”  In addition to Robin’s long term goals, he also looks forward to transitioning some of his day-to-day responsibilities to Jered Bokoskie, and to further working with Bob, Geoff, Lindsay, and everyone in the office.

What a great way to bring 2016 to a close and to begin focusing on how to make next year even better.

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