Sales Manager

Karen Baelum

Gurnee, IL *******@*****.***

847-***-**** http://www.linkedin.com/in/kbaelum

Customer driven Marketing Professional with >10 years marketing &

analytical experience. Significant experience developing and executing

strategic marketing and integrated marketing communication plans.

Excellent leadership, problem solving, and written & verbal communication

skills. Areas of expertise include:

Strategic & Tactical Marketing Planning Integrated Marketing

Communications

Project Management Process Improvement

Event Planning & Execution Facilitation

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

W. W. Grainger, Inc., Lake Forest, IL

2001 - 2009

Segment Strategy Associate Manager (2009)

Developed a customer-focused strategic business plan to grow sales within a

targeted customer segment. Created a holistic go-to-market offer and

value proposition that included; integrated marketing communication plans,

product line expansion and gap fill, pricing & promotion offers, sales

coverage models, channel recommendations and new services development.

Steps included:

. Identified and validated a $3.2B market opportunity through research

and competitive benchmarking.

. Built a strategy to capitalize on the opportunity.

. Created an integrated go-to-market strategic plan and made

recommendations for experiments and pilots

Associate Marketing Manager, Sustainability & Productivity (2008-2009)

Defined, designed and deployed go-to-market plans based on the analysis of

market trends, customer needs, competitive landscape and product

requirements. Developed and managed external Webinar series. Managed and

led the design and implementation of a Service Solutions Trade Show Booth.

Key accomplishments:

. Implementation of Sustainability & Productivity business plans and go-

to-market offers that generated > $680M in revenue.

o Created relevant & compelling offers for Productivity & Green

solutions around; energy management, water conservation, waste

management, green cleaning, indoor/environmental air quality,

LEAN, 5S and Continuous Improvement.

o Developed a merchandising strategy for product expansion and

product information management.

o Copywriting for online, direct mail, e-newsletters, retail

merchandising signage and printed catalogs.

o Co-led the development of Intranet and Internet sites to

increase brand/product/service awareness

o Developed sales collateral, training presentations and customer

facing presentations

o Managed event and trade show participation, focusing on

strategy, targeting, messaging, graphics sponsorships, speaking

engagements & premiums through internal and external agency

partners.

Karen Baelum Page 2

*******@*****.*** 847-***-****

Associate Marketing Manager, Sustainability & Productivity Continued

. Developed and managed customer Webinar series that generated >$500k in

incremental sales and customer satisfaction ratings of >96%.

. Participated in national sales training market forums that generated

>$30 million incremental revenue and resulted in stronger

Sales/Customer Service team alignments.

. Planned, developed, executed and managed budget for largest booth at

2009 National Sales and Services Trade Show attended by > 3,000

customers and sales leaders.

Associate Marketing Manager, Integrated Marketing Planning (2005-2008)

Facilitated the strategic and tactical planning processes for Corporate

Strategic Marketing, impacting a customer base of >1.5M across 14 industry

sub-segments. Key accomplishments:

. Designed, developed and facilitated activities, seminars and events to

develop Marketing strategies across corporate functions in order to

evaluate synergies, conflicts and effectiveness.

. Managed $50M Advertising and $30M Professional Services Marketing

Budgets and prioritized opportunities to ensure proper resource

allocation for successful implementation.

. Planned and facilitated multiple integration events to ensure that

customer focused strategies were properly incorporated with corporate

strategies.

. Led Continuous Improvement Project for Marketing Planning Process

which led to a 25% increase in productivity.

. Facilitated Quarterly Tactical Review events for internal stakeholders

and suppliers to ensure integration activities.

. Received Grainger's High Five Marketing Award recognizing my

achievements in cross-functional leadership and willingness to go

above and beyond to get the job done.

Market Analyst, Market Expansion (2004-2005)

Analyzed market specific data and customer information in order to

identify behavioral trends and patterns and translated those findings

into actionable strategies to drive market penetration.

Incentive Program Supervisor & Incentive Program Analyst (2001-2004)

. Developed, deployed and administrated sales, branch and management

incentive plans for entire U.S. based team (over 3,500 participants).

Technology consultant, incentive program design, project managed

multiple business teams in development of incentive plan governance.

Managed and coached 2 direct reports.

Walgreen's, Deerfield, IL

2000-2001

Category Planning Analyst

Performed business analysis for the Stationary/Toy division and provided

feedback reporting on key performance measures including tracking

division's performance against business plan and evaluating promotional

planning efforts.

Topco Associates, Skokie, IL

1990-2000

Category Analyst (1997-2000)

Provided analytical support to the Category Development/Brand Management

team through syndicated data analysis, research, information management and

the production of analytical reports and category reviews.

EDCUATION

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Marketing, DePaul University, Chicago IL

Excellence in Marketing Certificate, University of Wisconsin, Madison,

WI

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