Susan Jensen Email & Phone Number

United States

Acquired by 1-800 Flowers April, 2024Card Isle is a disruptor in the Greeting Card Industry. Card Isle offers a turnkey solution to sell real paper personalized greeting cards through any ecommerce or grocery delivery or curbside pickup site. Card Isle is a simple and profitable solution to getting a greeting card BACK into a grocery pickup or delivery order, or into a ecommerce gift order. They use a proven turnkey and simple integration with little or no need for resources from your IT department. They work with industry leaders and innovators, like 1-800-Flowers. Their partners typically see 15-20% of orders adding a greeting card.Here's how it works:1. Your customer personalizes a card--or uploads a selfie--during the regular experience at your ecommerce shop, never leaving your site. (Card Isle takes care of building the integration)2. The card is printed on-demand at your distribution centers or in your curbside or delivery staging area, and included with the rest of the order.3. Card Isle has ~20K designs available and only takes up 2' x 2' of space, providing superior space productivity. Websitehttp://www.cardisle.com

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Corporate Officer responsible for operations, supply chain and sales for a global home fragrance start up. • Identified opportunity to move supply chain from Southern China to Vietnam, resulting in cost savings, quality improvements and reduction in production lead times.• Selected and negotiated 3PL warehouse contract that provides the opportunity to scale operations quickly without additional operational complexity.• Identified and hired 8 sales agencies to provide flexible sales force while maintaining variable cost selling model.• Developed and executed sales and launch strategy that delivered ~350 customers in the first 4 months of operations, including Bloomingdale’s, Clinton’s (UK) Papyrus, Anthroplogie, The Biltmore Estates, Bristol Farms and multiple luxury boutiques

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Leads the Customer Business Development (Sales) function of the company. • Responsible for delivering annual corporate revenue and profit objectives (Sales P&L). • Works collaboratively with company senior leaders and cross-functional partners to develop strategic annual and long-range revenue plans consistent with corporate and brand vision.o Leads annual planning with current customers for organic marketplace growtho Leads Identification of new customer opportunities. Along with the Sales Team, engages them, presents, closes the business and manages the ongoing relationshipo Manages Market Development Funds (MDF) to profitably grow the business• Leads the Customer Business Development organization (Sales, Sales Analytics, Sales Operations, Customer Service) to grow the business directing daily and longer-term activities.• Functions as a key member of the company’s senior leadership team.• Acts as the “voice of the marketplace” for all corporate meetings.www.pachasoap.com

Greater Chicago Area

Directed sales and contracts through a team of 8 direct reports and a total sales staff of 100 supporting 2 brands (Papyrus and Recycled Paper Greetings) servicing customers in the food, drug, mass, and specialty channels across the US and Canada.  Delivered consistent 3-year revenue increases along with significant profit contributions. Initiated process excellence projects improving Supply Chain’s ability to meet demands of new business growth  Served as executive sponsor of a major capital improvement project that created a digital platform for managing customer contracts. Used Agiloft software database and Microsoft Office. Led a yearlong Sales Transformation Project to prepare Sales team for future success impacting 90+% of employees without any business disruption. Created new Sales structure, top graded talent pipeline through training and strategic new hires. Rewrote annual reviews with metrics to clearly differentiate performance.  Restructured Sales organization from geographic territories to market segments. Utilized change management techniques when communicating new roles and responsibilities. Collaborated across subsidiaries and parent companies’ sales executive teams to develop category management and joint business plans for shared customers resulting in greater customer satisfaction and strategic alignment.

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Recruited to turnaround and transform relationship, strategic approach, and team supporting Walmart. Led sales, merchant and operations with a staff of 42. Corporate Officer reporting to SVP, Sales NA. Exceeded financial sales goals. Repaired relationship with Walmart which combined with strong sales and profit growth resulted in Walmart awarding 100% of new stores to American Greetings in 2011 and continuing to award American Greetings the majority to new store awards throughout my tenure.  Led a collaborative team inviting members to voice opinions / recommendations resulting in an actively supportive team to implement initiatives. Created an entry level sales role as a feeder to the organization through a “Broad Talent” initiative.

Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area

Led Dollar Channel sales team with 3 direct reports and business development for all sales in the US including drug, food, and mass channels. Delivered revenue increase across 4 national dollar channel retailers. Proactively developed product format introducing musical greeting cards to the Dollar Channel.

Delafield, Wi

Developed and managed the gift and specialty sales channel through 6 direct reports, a total staff of 30 and 12 manufacturing representative business partners. Achieved a 4% sales increase and reduced selling costs 10% during an economic downturn. Developed strategic sales alliances and facilitated the acquisition of key licenses. Chartered gift and specialty sales division through a transition from field sales only model to a hybrid model that leveraged strengths of both field sales and tele-sales. Implemented organizational change to achieve cost management goals and deliver sales and operational excellence. Top graded key leaders to maintain operational and sales excellence. Utilized change management techniques during cultural transformation, sales force transformation, and driving efficiency initiatives to reduce costs.

Greater Boston Area

Directed development and implementation of product, market and sales strategy for this multimillion North American Value and Dollar Channel through a team of 7 direct reports and a total staff of 20. Increased sales during a sales staff consolidation of 17%.  Reorganized job functions improving efficiency and reducing costs. Drove greeting card retail sales at the leading dollar store retailer through the development and introduction of an innovative format and established best practices in stores.  Developed a new product and sold innovative programs in wholesale club increasing sales. Partnered with customer, creative, and package engineering introducing product in 10 months. Increased overall holiday boxed card business. Partnered with customer and package engineers to develop private label solutions. Mentored, coached, and promoted 11 people to higher levels of responsibility.

Prior to 1997, I held the following positions at Hallmark:Sales Executive, Card Specialty, Half Moon Bay, CA and Spokane, WA (1993 to 1997)Sales Trainer, National Accounts (1990 to 1993) Account Rep, Drug, San Diego, CA (1988 to 1990)

Ba, Communications

Executive Certification, Digital Marketing

Executive Certification