This enterprise project focused on the Oticon sub-brand focused solely on hearing aids and accessories sold strictly through otolaryngologist doctors while offering end-user patient support on their website. The executive team engaged VMLY&R to integrate Salesforce Marketing Cloud with their existing Sales Cloud and legacy B2B and B2C platforms to create personalized, data-driven customer experiences. The client team was located across the US and lacked collaboration, strong leadership, and a solid working knowledge of marketing automation, best practices, privacy and compliance laws, and data management. 

The implementation was in progress but off-track when we were engaged to assist, which added additional time and scope to stop, evaluate, and adjust the project sprints. 

As the lead Account Director, I was responsible for leading internal and client teams to make the program successful. This required partnering with the Senior Director of Marketing who was overloaded, frequently changed expectations, gave inconsistent direction to internal teams, and was causing friction within the organization. With no scope for engaging a PM, I assumed the responsibility and rolled up my sleeves to complete the project plan, manage timelines and budgets, and personally complete tactical work while providing strategy, training, IT requirements, and process improvements.

Goal(s): Create the project on time and within budget, gain the trust of the client team, certify designated client team members in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and deliver a solutions playbook for replicating the model across additional brands and channels .

• Advocated for and was granted the leeway to personally manage the client teams while providing weekly updates to the Sr. Director via 1:1 conversations and reports. 

• Formed a core team of SMEs from critical functional areas, including Marketing (strategy and execution), IT, Operations, Client Services, Communication, Learning and development, Creative Design, Finance, and Data Analytics.

• Led the core team to conduct an in-depth review of their Salesforce instance, process gaps, and pain points, and created a visual of their existing technology stack. 

• Set regular cadence of touchpoints for the implementation team and hosted working sessions to create user journeys, reporting requirements, and data mapping.

• Personally trained client teams in areas such as marketing best practices, compliance laws, data privacy, preference centers, automation, personalization, data hygiene, and creative routing/approval.

• Documented processes for data entry points, current data points, data sharing, end-to-end steps for marketing campaign strategy and execution, customer (B2B and B2C) segmentation, user journeys, existing campaigns, and metrics.

• Guided the strategy for creating user journeys while training their internal teams on best practices. 

• Created a dynamic Salesforce Marketing Cloud Certification practice quiz to prepare seven client team members for the exam. 

• Established a governance process for IT, data analytics, creative/content, and learning content.

Results:

1.  By personally leading the client's internal teams, I received feedback that the team's morale immediately improved. Everyone was aligned towards common goals and clear on expectations within two weeks.

2. New ways of working were adopted across the client organization, including using Salesforce to automate several of their internal process steps (ex: creative asset approval workflows).

3.  The first marketing campaign was launched via Salesforce on time and within budget.

4.  The client was able to mitigate impending legal violations (such as PII, HIPAA, CPNI, and Data Privacy), avoiding potential fines.

5.  Delivered a comprehensive, documented, repeatable process used to scale the B2C channel and its sub-brands.

6.  100% of the designated team passed the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist Certification on the first attempt. 

7. The client requested my feedback in selecting a Salesforce Product owner; I provided solid, concrete information and examples for my recommendation, which the Senior Director acted upon immediately by promoting this individual.