Five Verticals. No Shared Model.
Amazon's tentpole events Prime Day, Prime Big Deals Day, and Black Friday/Cyber Monday represented a $3.51B commercial program covering 35% of total LCS revenue. The infrastructure running that program was not a program at all. It was five separate vertical teams executing against the same calendar with incompatible processes, no shared readiness criteria, and no mechanism for leadership to see the full picture in time to act on it.
Pitch coverage sat at 32%. Teams were producing decks that never reached the right buyers. Escalations took an average of eight hours to resolve because there was no clear ownership model when issues crossed vertical lines. Wins were happening, but they were happening despite the system, not because of it.
The commercial opportunity was real. The infrastructure to capture it consistently was not.
Three Root Causes
Before designing anything, the work was to understand why a program this large was running without a shared operating model. Three structural issues emerged:
No phase-gated readiness standard
Each vertical defined "ready to pitch" differently. Some teams were presenting to cold accounts. Others had relationships in place but no structured ask. Without a shared definition of readiness, pitch quality was inconsistent and coverage data was meaningless.
Escalation ownership was implicit
When a deal crossed vertical lines or required a non-standard solution, there was no explicit owner. Deals sat in informal handoffs. Eight-hour resolution times were the result of a structural gap, not a people problem.
No unified signal for leadership
Because verticals tracked differently, program leadership had no consolidated view of pipeline health, pitch coverage, or risk. Decisions were being made on partial information during the windows that mattered most.
PEAK. Performance, Engagement, Accountability, KPIs
The solution was a four-pillar commercial operating system called PEAK. Designed to run consistently across all verticals while preserving the autonomy each team needed to execute against their specific accounts. Each pillar carried a named mechanism with measurable accountability.
Performance. Pitch Coverage Governance
Salesforce-based opportunity logging required across all verticals. Standardized pitch coverage expectations. Manager-led inspection at the account level. Coverage moved from 32% to 80%+ in one cycle.
Engagement. SME Pillar Org Structure
Six SME pillars (Lead, Narrative, Operations, Communications, Retail Synergy, Non-Endemic) staffed at 2 to 4 hours per week. Bi-weekly cadence, dedicated workstream ownership, monthly cadence with leadership.
Accountability. Salesforce + MOD Coverage
Manager on Duty schedule for tentpole windows. Tentpole Troubleshooting Checklist for AM self-check before submitting tickets. Known Issues Log with troubleshooting and external context.
KPIs. Pitch, Close Rate, Lead Out Capture
Defined goals tied to pitch activity, revenue, and execution. Standardized reporting criteria and cadence. Lead Out emerged as the hero phase, hitting $357M in PD'24 (+28% YoY, +1700bps vs the historical 11% LO growth average).
Phase Timeline. Lead Up to Event Week to Lead Out
PEAK structured execution across three phases with named AM and Manager actions per phase. Lead Out became the hero phase in 2024, contradicting historical patterns.
Pitch Coverage Transformation. 32% to 80%+ in one cycle
Coverage and close rate moved together. The Salesforce-based pitch governance was the mechanism behind both.
Cross-Functional Partner Map. PEAK as the central hub
15+ partner organizations aligned under one operating model. Influence without authority across the entire commercial program.
Escalation Transformation. 8 hours to under 3 hours
Designed in partnership with PSS. Tentpole Troubleshooting Checklist, Known Issues Log, MOD coverage, +1 logging system.
Before. PD'24 Lead Up
- 8+ hour SLA to action
- 30+ tickets during PBDD
- No triage. Duplicate tickets common.
- Escalations stalled at L8 Director level
- SBV deal badging escalated to Marinn Jackson
After. PBDD to BFCM 2024
- Under 3 hours SLA
- Fewer than 5 tickets by BFCM
- AM self-check via Troubleshooting Checklist
- +1 system on existing SIMs to reduce duplicates
- Permanent infrastructure for 2025
Resources Developed in 2024. 15+ tools shipped
Cross-functional collaboration produced a library of resources that became permanent infrastructure for tentpole execution.
2024 Post Mortem and 2025 Strategy Document Authorship
Beyond running PEAK, I authored the 30+ page Prime Day 2024 Post Mortem and the 2025 Strategy v7 document for the entire $3.51B program. The strategy doc defined operational improvements (simplified reporting, AM-owned escalation process, organizational integration), narrative enhancements (display strategy, NCC recommendations), and global EU expansion. I personally owned 6+ named action items including LCS account list compilation, SI requests for PD/PBDD/BFCM, Smart Packages improvements, and the Deals Dashboard enhancement workstream. Monthly cadence with the Senior Manager and EU Director coordination set the operating direction for the year.
This is Director-level program direction setting under a Manager title.
Two Cycles to Prove It
The framework was designed to run through two full tentpole cycles before drawing conclusions. The first cycle was proof of concept, getting the verticals onto the shared model and establishing baseline data. The second was the operational test, running the system at full scale and measuring the delta.
Adoption required navigating five teams with different norms, different tooling, and different views on what "good" looked like. The operating model was introduced as infrastructure, not mandate. Teams adopted it because it made their own execution easier, not because they were required to.
The escalation architecture was the fastest win. Within the first six weeks of the first cycle, resolution time had dropped from eight hours to three. That number became a reference point that made every subsequent conversation about the system easier.
What the System Produced in 2024
$269M closed-won (+46% YoY). 1,777 pitches, 48% close rate (+1900bps).
PD $1.123B, PBDD $938M (+15.8%), BFCM $1.485B (+22.9%). 35% of total LCS revenue.
Doubled in one cycle. The Salesforce-based governance held across both cycles.
30+ tickets reduced to under 5 by BFCM. Permanent infrastructure for 2025.
The Pattern Behind the Result
The 23% YoY total program growth, 46% YoY closed-won AM revenue growth, and the coverage jump from 32% to 80% are the outcomes. The more durable signal is what the work required to produce them. Diagnosing structural root causes instead of patching surface symptoms. Designing a system that 15+ partner organizations would voluntarily adopt. Creating the reporting layer that made program-level decisions possible during the periods when they mattered most. Authoring the strategy document that set the direction for the following year.
This is the operating pattern. Fragmentation to structure to visibility to governance to scale. The industry and the program size change. The approach does not.