Sales Management

CHERI L. DILLARD

*** ******* ****** 479-***-****

Lowell, AR 72745 *****@*****.***

SUMMARY

Innovative sales and marketing professional with over 6 years of experience with developing relationships

and delivering results for W almart. Passionate and dedicated thought leader who strives for continual

improvement to create win-win solutions that drive sustainable growth. Excel at cross-functional leadership

to launch new products, implement marketing plans and manage profit & loss for multiple categories.

Core competencies include:

Account Management Category Management

Strategic Planning Marketing and Merchandising

Fact-Based Selling Project Management

Forecasting & Budgeting POS Data Analysis

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

GENIUS PRODUCTS, LLC – Santa Monica, CA 2008 – PRESENT

Full service entertainment distribution company with brand marketing, retail strategy, sales, marketing

services and operations/supply chain capabilities for movies, video games, music and consumer products

with $600 million net revenue in 2008.

National Account Manager, Bentonville, AR

Manage business activities for Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco and BJ’s that drive over $150M in gross

revenue. Build strong customer partnerships by identifying and understanding customer strategies and

implementing strategic account plans to meet sales and profit targets. Collaborate with internal film and

music brand teams to create incremental sales promotions and develop new products to increase retail

brand penetration.

Conducted detailed sales and inventory analysis by brand to develop a product flow strategy to maximize

margin potential on the modular reset, which resulted in a 23% increase in titles and 10% in margin.

Presented a brand overview and continuity program that resulted in a customer introducing a new brand

into their assortment that achieved over $468K in top line revenue.

Secured a Classic Christmas branded corrugate display by presenting a gap analysis identifying market

opportunities that generated $660K in incremental revenue and grew customer market share by 2%.

HANDLEMAN COMPANY – Troy, MI 2001 – 2008

A leading provider of music and other entertainment software in North America and Europe, supplying

complete category management services to major retail partner with $1 billion annual sales.

Account Manager – Walmart Customer Team, Bentonville, AR (2005 – 2008)

Led the customer relationship with Walmart as well as managing internal customer team relationships with

pricing team, product management and logistics department and external vendor partners. Directed a four

person team that was responsible for vendor managed pricing functions and item creation set-up for over

16,000 SKUs as well as managing the Pricing Analyst & Coordinator positions.

Forecasted sales, margin and inventory for Walmart’s $1B music category and discussed performance

and third party business opportunities with W almart Buyers on a weekly basis.

Created merchandising and promotional plans by identifying title opportunities and industry trends to

grow music finelines, with direct responsibility for the Seasonal, Budget and Latin finelines, which

reported double digit growth in a market that was flat.

Managed the “Back in Black” sales task force to create incremental promotions to meet Walmart sales,

inventory management and margin targets. Identified strategic market opportunities and created a

regional business plan, which added over $3M of incremental sales per quarter.

CHERI L. DILLARD

815 Crystal Street 479-***-****

Lowell, AR 72745 *****@*****.***

HANDLEMAN COMPANY (Continued)

Project/Communications Manager – Walmart Team, Bentonville, AR (2003 – 2005)

Established business priorities for W almart store service and created all weekly Field Sales communications

to ensure store level execution. Served as the main point of contact for all Walmart store issues received

from internal and external partners and managed the Walmart Team Coordinator position.

Managed around 500 new/relocation/remodel/expansion store projects a year by working with Walmart

Store Planners, fixture companies and internal teams to ensure fixtures, signing and product was in

place prior to project completion, which generates an average of $12.5M in incremental sales a year.

Researched store issues by working with Electronics Merchandising and Fixture Buyers, Store

Management and District Managers to deliver a solution by the sundown rule.

Produced selling guides and communication tools for 300 sales representatives to build strategic

partnerships with store management to secure action alley positioning for corrugate displays, which

deliver a 75% average increase in sales per promotion.

Mentored and coordinated all projects for the Walmart Team rotation of the Management Associate

Training Program and developed a summer intern program with the University of Arkansas.

College Recruitment Coordinator, Troy, MI (2002 – 2003)

Recruited, trained and managed ten employees in the Management Associate Training Program from five

college campuses and reported to the Senior Vice President of Human Resources.

Created recruiting brochures, giveaways, and presentation materials within budget.

Established performance expectations and conducted regular reviews with Trainees to provide rotational

scores and feedback from management using coach approach leadership.

Developed a new interview and evaluation process for management to use when reviewing candidate

qualifications and worked with Senior Management to prepare presentations for new hire orientation.

Management Associate, Troy, MI (2001 – 2002)

Completed a 12 month training program with project based learning rotations in the Marketing, New

Business, Customer Teams, Field Sales, Merchandise Planning, Music Purchasing, Human Resource,

Operations and Finance Departments to learn key business functions.

Analyzed departmental processes and made recommendations to streamline procedures.

Shadowed key personnel and worked on projects that related to daily departmental functions.

Researched and presented program enhancement to Senior Management regarding the Corporate

Office rotations and Field Sales experience.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Business Administration, Ohio University, Athens, OH Graduated Cum Laude

Major: Marketing Minor: Interpersonal Communication, Sales Certificate

TRAINING

Technical: Personal and Professional Development:

Microsoft W ord, PowerPoint, Excel, Access Lead First: Level 1 Certification

PageMaker, Publisher and Illustrator CLEAR Customer Communications

Retail Link (Walmart proprietary system) Situational Leadership

Data Warehouse Problem Solving and Decision Making

Finance for Non-Financial Managers

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