Michael Lawson Email & Phone Number

Detroit, Mi, Us

Managed sales/marketing functions of consumer direct fulfillment/drop ship business for Walmart, Amazon, Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic, Barnes & Noble College and NBC Universal. Onboarded first time customers Urban Outfitters & Hot Topic for both in-store and consumer direct fulfillment/drop ship business.Served as the sales lead for the launch of Audio-Technica turntables and accessories.Lead launch of Rare Bird audiobooks on vinyl coupled with the companion hardcover artist autobiographies

New York City Metropolitan Area

Universal Music Group is the world's leading publicly traded (Euronext, UMG.AS) $8.4BN+ music-based entertainment company, engaged in recorded music production, music publishing, distribution, merchandising and audiovisual content businesses.As Enterprise Sales Director (2016-present), I head the strategic sales cycle planning & creation of account maximization initiatives (i.e.., customized/exclusive product offerings, brand partner cross-promotion opportunities, artist entertainment) to propel the resurgence in Vinyl-based sales in Retail/Wholesale account portfolio. Most recently, I've bolstered Physical Vinyl/CD Account portfolio revenue 45% in FY2021 to over $110M+, despite ongoing COVID environment and complex manufacturing/shipping challenges with leading enterprise accounts including: Walmart/Walmart.com, Target.com, Alliance Entertainment, Ingram Entertainment, Cracker Barrel, Urban Outfitters/Urbanoutfitters.com and Big Lots. I lead product program pricing structure & account negotiations, mapping our mutually beneficial financial strategy & agreement negotiations (initial cost, discounts, rebates, sales programs) to drive commercial priority investment for my clients. Notably, amidst the COVID-environment & ongoing manufacturing/shipping issues, I've proactively functioned as a Sales Operations leader, and designed an optimized account sales planning framework & SOP best practices around account forecasting, reporting & order/pre-order capping distribution & allocation. These enhanced processes have resulted in improved vendor communications, product distribution optimization & account sales maximization.

Bentonville, Arkansas, United States

Throughout my career at UMG, I have served as Walmart's Commercial Partnership Executive Account Leader, spearheading cross-promotion brand partnerships; annual Black-Friday annual promotions; $5/$7 value programs; 18K+ attendee Shareholder’s Meeting artist event entertainment; Quarterly Business reviews; exclusive products with artists including Katy Perry's “Prism” album; and co-creating Katy Perry's Prism commercial advertising campaign (2013).One of my proudest career accomplishments has been through my role as a Cross-Promotional Brand Partnership Program Architect, achieving buy-in from Walmart’s Senior Leaders & Music/Beverage Executive team to launch brand partner campaigns aligning Universal artist/product with CPG & Beverage/Spirits industry leaders Proctor & Gamble/Glade, Cover Girl, Dove, Dr. Pepper, Kellogg, Vita Coca, Corona & Jack Daniels.

Bentonville, Arkansas, United States

My 7+ year tenure as Vice President of National Sales & Commercial Partnerships was defined by rapid adaptation and transformational leadership of our 20+ member national sales team, driving the physical product to digital/streaming revolutionary growth strategy for Universal's national account portfolio. Under my direction, I am proud to share that our national sales team was a first-mover in capturing the music industry shift to the modernized music marketplace's streaming/digital partner platform. In this capacity, I directed strategies and programs (digital content/artist) to steer & maximize Streaming/Digital commerce strategy transformation & consumption shift (2014-2016) to 75% of portfolio that fueled a $340M+, 3-year cumulative growth in the overall national portfolio to over half a billion dollars by FY2015. Specifically, I drove Universal Music Group’s business model commerce evolution expanding 12 top enterprise accounts including Spotify, YouTube, VEVO and prospecting, onboarding & launching new partner SoundCloud (FY2015). During this period I also simultaneously headed our Retail/Wholesale Commercial growth strategy through partnership maximization initiatives, new product concepts & revenue activities driving optimized sales cycle across forecasting, initial ship, sell through, Black Friday/seasonal circular advertising, and in-store product placement for our vast portfolio including: Walmart/walmart.com, Target/Target.com,, Best Buy/bestbuy.com, Sam’s Club, Anderson Merchandisers, Alliance Entertainment, Walgreens, CVS, Family Dollar, Hastings, Urban Outfitters, Cracker Barrel, Guitar Center, HSN, QVC, Toys R Us, and 200+ independent record stores across the US.

Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

In my role as Regional Director of Sales & Marketing, I directed Universal Music Group's revenue strategy for Midwest (IL, MI, KY, OH, PA, IN, IL, WI, MO) regional accounts & was appointed to lead the additional critical Los Angeles region based account portfolio (CA, AZ, NV, OR, WA, CO and UT), comprised of Retailer/Wholesaler accounts. In this capacity, I also mobilized & developed regional marketing & artist development team of 11, steering optimization of sales cycle, product market penetration and artist fan events for major retail accounts.

Detroit, Michigan, United States

As Lead Account Executive managing the major Handleman Wholesaler account, I bolstered growth to $350M+ (FY2006) via maximization of sales & marketing initiatives across 1K+ Walmart, 1K Kmart, 140+ Best Buy, 600+ Circuit City, 140 Shopko & 175+ Pamida store locations.