CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PRIMEDIA WORKPLACE LEARNING

Title: Director of Sales Operations, Industrial Services Group
Accomplishment:  Sales Force Merger and Reorganization

Background: Primedia had just purchased the NUS Training product line and sales force, which offered training in plant operations, maintenance, and safety to manufacturing plants, utilities, and processing plants, delivered on CD-ROM or videocassette.  This product was a competitor to the company’s existing Tel-A-Train product line, represented by an existing sales force. The goal was to merge these product lines and their sales forces into one Technical Training Division.

Achievements: Lead the merger from initial plan to organizational development to the new marketing strategy. Restructure included: organizing former competitors into teams; consolidating resources; developing a new group name, logo, marketing angle and printed materials; merging web sites; developing new territories, team compensation plans and team quotas; and working with the four existing sales managers to develop their new roles. The new group hit their $15,000,000 sales goal. Awarded the annual Vice President’s Award.

References: Mike Stacy, VP Sales, and Mike Kroll, Regional Manager, NUS Sales

CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PRIMEDIA WORKPLACE LEARNING

Title: Director of Fulfillment Operations
Accomplishment: Fulfillment Operations Center Creation and Management

Background: Prior to its acquisition by Primedia, Westcott Communications was in a rapid expansion mode, launching and acquiring video-based training product lines at a rapid pace. One of the first acquisitions was a company with limited video duplication and distribution capabilities in Saint Louis. This facility was not a long-term interest, and had already been stretched to capacity, and additional startups and acquisitions would soon increase production needs considerably.

Achievements: Wrote business plan to create an in-house video duplication and distribution center, including the transfer of St Louis operations to a higher-capacity, Dallas-based video duplication and distribution house as a short-term goal. Managed the transfer of work from St Louis to the duplication house, managed all vendor relationships, converted an empty warehouse to a distribution center, hired, trained and managed a work force, moved all work from the duplication house to the new center, started up lending library services for each product division, managed the installation of a bar-code reading checkout system, Pitney Bowes equipment, video labeling machines, shelving, and production line tables. Worked with software team to develop proprietary software. Hired, trained and managed by a staff of 17 fulltime employees including a duplication engineer, production scheduler, line supervisor, and service manager. Transferred 100% of all fulfillment operations in house, on schedule. Built the department to a volume of 40,000 videocassettes per month in 18,000 separate shipments, with an inventory of over 1,000 video titles with accompanying courseware.

References: Karen Smith, Mgr for duplication house and later Director of Customer Service for Primedia, and Ashley Wood, Fulfillment Operations Service Manager

CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PRIMEDIA WORKPLACE LEARNING

Title: Director of Sales, Workplace Training Network
Accomplishment: Product Launch and Sales Force Management

Background:  New CEO decided to create a new product to blend the training programs of five separate product lines with three delivery methods, satellite transmission, lending library services, and interactive programs supported by both satellite and web technologies. The product would be called the Workplace Training Network and would serve the industrial marketplace with training in management development, safety, plant operations, plant maintenance, plant security, and emergency planning/disaster management.

Acheivements:  Worked with Accounting, Distribution, Customer Service, Satellite Communications and other departments to develop process for entering, tracking, fulfilling and supporting the new type of service and its customer. Designed and wrote all copy for marketing materials and website, developed trade show booth, promotions and schedules, assembled prospect database. Developed methods for prospecting, cold calling, qualifying and making effective sales presentations. Designed PowerPoint presentations for group presentations. Adapted CRM software to support the new business model. Hired and staff of 8 sales reps and one administrative assistant, set individual quotas, created territories, wrote job descriptions, determined performance metrics. Conducted extensive initial training on ongoing weekly training with sales staff. Assisted in closing sales. Made face-to-face presentations for Fortune 500 companies. Met first-year goal of building customer base of 100 subscription-based customers and first-year revenue goal of $1,000,000 in new business.

Reference: Mike Stacy, VP of Sales

CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PRIMEDIA WORKPLACE LEARNING

Title: Corporate Director: Sales Operations
Accomplishment:  E-Commerce System Development

Background:  Industrial Division General Manager had committed company to having a working E-Commerce website at SafetySpecials.com. No work had yet been on the project other than purchasing the domain name and selecting a product line. Due to a mix-up, print ads marketing the new site were already scheduled to appear in upcoming issues of several magazines. The IS department had a tool for creating an E-Commerce site, but the company had never launched an E-Commerce web site, so no department was prepared for entering, supporting or fulfilling web-based orders.

Acheivements: With 34 days to go, selected to manage the project from design to testing and implementation. Wrote all copy and designed navigation structure. Supervised creation of website. Worked around non-integrated e-commerce and SAP (enterprise software) systems by working with Customer Care Department to re-enter web-based orders into SAP. Worked with CFO and support service department heads to identify, trouble-shoot, and address all unique requirements for web-generated orders. Created new process and policies including: order acknowledgement, order tracking, returns policy, customer service plan, invoicing, and tracking the e-commerce confirmation number on all bills, shipping manifests and other correspondence. Project was completed on time and all systems fully functional within 34 days.

Reference: David Heimer, VP of IS 

CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PRIMEDIA WORKPLACE LEARNING

Title: Corporate Director: Sales Operations
Accomplishment: Sales Force Centralization / Organizational Development

Background:  Each of the 10 major product lines at Primedia had its own General Manager. Each sales manager reported to his or her own General Manager. Over the years, this autotomy had reflected all aspects of sales operations. There was no inter-departmental coordination of training, career paths, pay plans, job descriptions, performance measurement, sales reports, business retention models, etc. Even job titles for like positions varied considerably from one product line to another. In 1999, a centralized structure was created. Promoted to Corporate Director of Sales Operations for department of 150 sales personnel.

Achievements:  Restructured the previously decentralized sales groups into a single, integrated sales department organized into three new business divisions (Government, Industrial and Healthcare). Formed a Business Retention team responsible for implementing and renewing subscription-based customers. Created an Order Entry department (orders previously entered by sales reps and accountants). Created a “Rapid-Response” team to support all sales teams with lead generation, special promotion campaigns, database enhancement and marketing support. Re-wrote job titles, job descriptions, minimum performance standards, productivity goals, and performance-based compensation plans for all 150 personnel. Created performance benchmarking reports and developed an employee development program consisting of a department-wide sales training program including best practices forums, monthly sales recognition plans, and clear career development paths. Developed sales training manuals. Eliminated redundancies and non-productive use of resources and personnel to achieve a 25% decrease in expenses. Department succeeded in reaching $70 million revenue goal (approximately $40 million in subscription retention and $30 million in new business), representing a 15% increase over the previous year’s business volume.

Reference: Mike Stacy, VP Sales

CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PRIMEDIA WORKPLACE LEARNING

Title: National Sales Manager, Professional Security Television Network (PSTN)
Accomplishment: Sales Force Management and Industry Leadership

Background:  PSTN offers training materials for the security departments of large corporations, as well as for contract security firms such as Pinkerton, Burns, and Wells Fargo. The product it was most known for was its Basic Security Officer Training Series, a series of 12 video-based training lessons with workbooks, tests, instructor notes, etc. It sold for $2,100 dollars per set, and had provided many corporate security departments and contract security companies the cutting edge they were looking for. Six years after its creation, the product had achieved exceptionally high market penetration and was now at the tail end of its life cycle. It was determined that the release of an all-new replacement series with a nationally recognized endorsement and a compelling new reason to buy could bring new life to the network. The goal was to revive declining sales while planning the creation of the new series, though series production would need to budgeted for the following year.

Achievements:  Managed the sales department. Conducted sales training twice a week, including extensive role-playing. Developed a new subscription model, offering a premium subscription service that combined the monthly training service and lending library service with a loan of the basic series for the life of a subscription. The resulting increase in average revenue per new subscription and retention percentages, in addition to revenue generated from upgrading existing subscriptions to the new service allowed the department to achieve its revenue goals for the year. During the same year, also joined the National Association of Security and Investigative Regulators (NASIR) and worked closely with the state regulators of the security industry as well as executives with the nation’s leading security firms. Used those contacts to enter into new business agreements with Wackenhut and Allied Security. Chaired the Subcommittee for Reciprocity, and developed a NASIR-approved national training standard for security officers. This served as a reference point for states to enter into training requirement reciprocity agreements (I’ll allow your licensed officers to work in my state if you’ll allow mine to work in yours). More importantly, the new training gave PSTN the opportunity to produce and release the first security training series based on the new standard, and to do so using a number of programs that had already been produced as part of the monthly video subscription package, saving thousands of dollars in production costs. Met annual sales goal of $1.8 million and was promoted to Director of Sales for Workplace Training Network

CAREER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PRIMEDIA WORKPLACE LEARNING

Title: National Sales Manager, Government Services Television Network (GSTN)
Accomplishment: Sales Force Management and Business Innovation

Background:  GSTN offers training and professional development for City Managers, County Administrators, and local government department heads in a subscription model priced at $1,860 per year. The division was formed as a partnership with the National League of Cities, National Association of Counties, and the International City/County Management Association.

Achievements:  Managed the sales department. Conducted sales training twice a week, including extensive role-playing. Developed a new subscription model and wrote business plan to convert all customers to the new model. After successfully implementing the new subscription model, created a customer retention team and implementation program. The combined result of these efforts was a 50% improvement in customer retention. Met annual sales goal of $1.6 million and was given promoted to manage the Professional Security Television Network sales department while continuing to manage GSTN sales.