Natalie M. Bennett

Experience

• 

  University Tees

  May 2009 - May 2012

  Campus Sales Manager

  A highly entrepreneurial position. Hired as a University Tees Campus Manager to create brand presence on the University of Denver's campus and generate sales revenue in the custom apparel industry. • Fully managed sales cycle (average cycle of 3-8 weeks)• Created own sales strategy every summer for the upcoming school year, identifying when organizations have key events that require custom apparel• Identified key organizations (sororities, fraternities, school athletic clubs) and prospected into accounts through cold calling, targeted email marketing, and references• Held in person sales meetings with prospective accounts to communicate the value-add of University Tees, provide samples, and understand customer needs in greater detail• Named Campus Manager of the month 2x• Achieved one of the highest single order sales figure in company through strategic upselling & solution selling - $20,000 in a single order• Achieved quota all 3 years of tenure, was one of the highest grossing reps on the west coast Show less

• 

  Brocade

  May 2012 - Aug 2014

  Responsible for managing Brocade's IP/LAN business in ME, NH, VT in all verticals (SLED, Healthcare, Enterprise, SMB, Higher Ed & K-12)• Fully manage existing and new customer base through Salesforce.com• Managed $250,000 quarterly revenue quota • Created strong relationships with VAR's in territory through bi-weekly VAR visits, trainings, and account prospecting - signed on 3 new VAR's to sell Brocade within 2 months of role• Fully managed complex sales cycles in all verticals, ranging between 2-12 weeks • Deep understanding of Brocade's IP/LAN portfolio in order to better serve customer needs• Weekly customer meetings to garner information on upcoming IP projects, and provide support on existing IP infrastructure • Achieved revenue growth of 50% in territory in FY14 Show less Position oriented at supporting 5 Territory Account Managers on the New England Brocade IP/LAN account team.• Fully managed customer database and sales cycle in Salesforce.com• Prospecting into net new IP accounts through cold calling, email marketing, inbound leads, event leads, references and VAR (value added reseller) education• Technical and solution selling of Brocade's IP/LAN portfolio• Responsible for full sales cycle and closing deals below $50k • Quota carrying position, based only on net new IP business. Existing customers did not count toward quota attainment • Support Territory Account Managers in closing larger deals by creating quotes, and following up with customers• Foster relationship with existing Brocade VAR's to encourage Brocade sales over other IP/LAN provides- portfolio education, joint customer meetings, sales cycle assistance • First member of Inside Sales team to be promoted to Territory Account Manager Show less Position oriented at supporting 5 Territory Account Managers on the New England Brocade IP/LAN account team.• Fully managed lead database in Salesforce.com• Prospecting into net new IP/LAN accounts for Brocade through cold calling, targeted email marketing, references, event leads, social selling (LinkedIn), warm inbound leads• Generated 60-80 outbound cold calls per day•Technical and solution selling to net new accounts base of Brocade's IP/LAN product offering: switching, routing, load balancing, wireless routers, Ethernet Fabric• Held introductory phone calls & presentations with potential new customers to understand customer needs, communicate Brocade value prop & pass warm lead to territory account team• Nurtured relationship with VAR's (value added reseller). Continuous education about Brocade's portfolio to assist the VAR's in selling Brocade to their customers Show less

  • Territory Account Manager- ME, NH, VT

    Jan 2014 - Aug 2014

  • Inside Sales Account Manager

    Nov 2012 - Dec 2013

  • Lead Generation Representative

    May 2012 - Oct 2012
• 

  Lidl US

  Sept 2014 - Jun 2018

  One of five senior leadership positions within Lidl US operations, reporting directly to the vice president of the Fredericksburg, VA regional distribution center. • Directly responsible for overseeing two departments of HR & Administration, consisting of 12 team members. 4 managers as direct reports • Key strategic position in launching first Lidl US retail stores in 2017. Weekly collaboration with department heads in Logistics, Supply Chain, Facilities, and Sales Operations• Oversaw all topics relating to training, recruitment, and career development and pushed out concept to store & warehouse• Oversaw HR Generalist team responsible for payroll, HR record keeping. Developed in-depth knowledge of SAP HR Administration system • Oversaw Employee Relations manager responsible for benefits administration, disciplinary actions, investigations, FMLA, worker's comp• Oversaw analysis of store & warehouse inventories & provided regional VP with in-depth analysis of inventory difference, as well as providing recommendations• Oversaw all topics relating to cash management procedures in store• Oversaw daily price ticket printing procedure Biggest wins:• Creating & executing onboarding concept for 1,500+ employees across two regions and three states• Optimizing internal price ticket printing process which resulted in store operations spending 50% less time on ticket execution• Leading the task force responsible for reducing payroll issues which lead to a 95% reduction in issues over 12 months• Key stakeholder in development of HR systems and policies such as time record management, and disciplinary policy Show less Key operational role in preparing for the launch of Lidl US grocery retail stores in 2017. • Spent 2 years training & working abroad in Lidl Germany & Lidl UK grocery retail stores• 7 months spent learning business from ground up, working as a store associate, supervisor, assistant store manager, cumulating in becoming a store manager for 2 months, with full responsibility of running the grocery store • Remainder of tenure was spent training to become a sales operation manager & independently running my own territory of 4 retail locations for 9 months • Responsible for personnel management (hiring, disciplinary action) for all store staff and career development for store management team. Managed 4 stores, with up to 50 staff per team.• In depth knowledge of store operation procedures, weekly promotions, factors contributing to shift in sales patterns• Responsible for maintaining the highest standard in regards to freshness, product availability, customer service, and cleanliness. Performed daily audit functions in store to ensure these 4 concepts are upheld• Full responsibility for managing and driving KPI's. Key KPI's include productivity of store (total $ revenue/Labor hours used), reducing waste in all product categories, and improving the inventory figure • Managed re-launch of 4 Lidl stores in Germany and overnight re-merchandise in 4 stores in the UK. Re-launch includes project managing goods ordering, delivery schedule, workforce planning, timeline of hardware installations (IT, cash registers, office). Rewrote re-merchandise plan to optimize project in regionBiggest wins: • Coaching 1 assistant store manager and 1 store manager in training to passing their assessments to become full store managers. Accomplished through weekly coaching sessions, practicing role plays, analyzing KPI's, discussing store processes. • Driving KPI's in district to achieve weekly & monthly productivity and waste targets. 20% reduction in Produce and Bread waste. Show less

  • Regional Director - Administration

    Jan 2017 - Jun 2018

  • Sales Operations Manager

    Sept 2014 - Dec 2016
• 

  Amazon

  May 2019 - now

  Core responsibilities: • Oversee the team's yearly operational planning cycle to determine tech projects we want to focus on in the next year. Helping the team provide ROI on each project (hours saved, HC saved, additional units or revenue generated, increase in financial controllership etc.) • Drive automation and scalability in how Amazon communicates promotional opportunities to third party retailers who sell our devices• Work across multiple stakeholder groups (Account Management, Finance, Accounting, Logistics, Order Management, Go-to-market) to ensure tech projects encompass requirements from all parties• Create business requirement documents (BRDs), and work closely with our developers to review BRDs, implement the tech, create UAT plans, and launch our automation productsBiggest wins: • Launch of an automated promotion calendar, reducing the risk of erroneous promo communication due to manual effort by $5-$10MM annually. 2.7K of manual work hours eliminated. • Successfully negotiated change in promo strategy with the Echo/Alexa, FireTV, Tablet, and Kindle senior leadership team. Device promo strategy historically favored sales on Amazon.com vs. our 3rd party retailers, who mainly operate with brick & mortar locations & need longer lead times to execute promotions. Was able to align with leadership that promos are communicated to retailers with 60 days notice (vs. 27 days prior to strategy change). Impact: estimated 500k in additional unit sales, totaling in $20MM additional downstream economic value. Show less Core responsibilities of the senior launch program manager role for Amazon Fresh stores can be divided into two key components 1) Strategic end-to-end program ownership of AFS launches 2) Executional launch ownership in specific geos. • Responsible for defining the overall launch strategy of AFS physical sites, seeking continuous improvement within the deliverables across multiple stakeholder teams in order to launch more sites, more effectively & faster• Oversaw launch of 10 Amazon Fresh stores. Indirectly managed 20+ stakeholder teams (Construction, HR, Supply Chain, Tech etc.) to ensure every team was tracking to their deliverables in order to launch the store on time• Weekly presentation to Amazon Fresh senior executive team, to communicate on the status of launchesBiggest wins:• Created an internal playbook for the Central Launch team in order to scale our teams’ capability from launching 2 stores/quarter to 5 stores/quarter• Facilitated development of handover playbooks of two key stakeholder groups’, Construction and Tech Launch, which led to a 50% reduction in “misses” at handover from Construction to Tech, and minimized delays to the overall launch timeline• Created the Weekly Business Review (WBR) mechanism to give senior executives a comprehensive, weekly update on status of store launches Show less

  • Senior Product Manager, Amazon Devices, Offline Sales & Marketing

    May 2021 - now

  • Senior Program Manager, Amazon Fresh, Central Launch

    May 2019 - May 2021