We are thrilled to kick off our two-part interview series celebrating women in business by introducing you to the inspiring women of Amerge. In this first part, we sit down with a group of talented female team members from various departments. They share their unique journeys, valuable insights, and practical advice on how to succeed in the Amazon industry. We hope that their stories will encourage and motivate our readers to strive for greater gender diversity and representation in the workplace. Stay tuned for the second part of our interview, coming next week.
Can you tell us about your experience working in the Amazon industry, and how you became interested in this field?
Stephanie Koval, Senior Account Manager: “When I first joined Amazon, I joined out of necessity to pay for my bills and school, so I didn’t really understand what I was going for. I mainly thought Amazon sold stuff online and as part of the company – I will be providing customer support, which was the role I was initially hired for.
However, as I understood more and more about the company and how big they really were, it sparked an interest in where it could possibly take me. Throughout my Amazon journey I was part of several teams, which gave me the opportunity to grow professionally by introducing me to people in leadership positions, which was a great mentoring process, but it also allowed me to create networking relationships locally but across the globe.
At the time I was studying advertising, and I wasn’t really aware that Amazon worked in this field until a pilot was open and I was able to apply to an Account Managing position for the Canadian market.
8 years later Amazon not only taught me valuable skills in the professional field but it also presented different opportunities that led me into combining a passion of mine with a focused career path in the advertising field.”
How have you developed and maintained strong relationships with your clients and customers?
Ellie Lathrope, Category Lead: “Every brand and company have unique goals, objectives and challenges. By understanding these and having insight into what the priorities are, means we can build the right bespoke & tailored strategy for all our brands. There is no one size fits all, we want to build relationships and trust by our agency being part of the integral activation plan to enhance brand growth and tackle any business challenges.
Regular communication such as QBRs, insight deep dives and trend analysing, means we can understand performance, who our engaged audience is and how we can impact the consumer journey, to therefore benefit our growth and advertising plans. Having an open and transparent dialogue enforces a powerful partnership, it allows us to not always be focused on the positives but also understand the weaknesses and how we can improve to resolve, therefore to better our overall performance.”
What qualities do you think are important for a successful Category Lead, and how do you embody these qualities?
Miriam Sodergren, Category Lead: “The ability to listen and read through what the client is saying to understand the core challenge, which occasionally is unbeknownst to themselves. In addition, a Category Lead should be able to lead the account team to achieve the overall strategic client goals through the use of strong communication skills, use the strategies and the learnings of each client and build an overall approach for the specific category.”
Can you describe a time when you had to adapt to a challenging situation in your role, and how you approached it?
Marilyne Delgado, Strategic Account & Project Manager: “Challenging situations are an inevitable part of any role, especially when faced with a sudden change in responsibilities or unexpected circumstances that require quick adaptation or applying unfamiliar skills. When faced with these situations, it’s important to remain calm and step back to assess the situation. This may involve breaking down the task into smaller, manageable pieces and creating a plan of action or even working on effective communication with colleagues, superiors, or other relevant parties to ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal.
Remaining flexible and open-minded when adapting to new situations is vital, as it may require learning new skills or taking on unfamiliar responsibilities, but taking on this challenge can also present opportunities for growth and development. Despite any setbacks or obstacles that may arise, it’s important to remain positive and focused on the end goal to maintain motivation and keep meeting our role expectations.”
How do you prioritise and manage your workload to ensure that you meet your goals and deadlines?
Stephannie Barrientos, Search Account Associate: “As someone who values productivity and efficiency, I find it helpful to create a checklist at the start of each day. This checklist serves as a guide to ensure that I complete all of my necessary tasks and stay on track with my goals. I begin by reviewing my previous day’s checklist to see if there are any incomplete items that need to be carried over to today’s list.
Once I have a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished, I organise my tasks in order of priority, placing the most critical items at the top of the list. This way, I can focus my attention on the most pressing matters and optimise my time accordingly.
One of my primary focuses is on the setup and optimization of campaigns, as I understand the importance of effective marketing strategies in achieving business success. By prioritising these tasks, I ensure that my efforts are focused where they matter most.”
What advice would you give to young women starting their careers in the business world, particularly in fields that are traditionally male-dominated?
Dominika Langerova, Search Account Associate: “I would like to encourage all women not to be afraid of entering male-dominated fields, because I am of the opinion that success is gender-neutral. Don’t underestimate yourselves and have faith in your capabilities. Focus on your strengths and keep improving your knowledge and skills in your domain. If you are diligent, no one will question your position among your colleagues, whether you are a woman or a man.”
How do you approach difficult conversations with clients, and what strategies do you use to ensure positive outcomes?
Chloe Field, Client Relationship Associate: “It’s important to have built an open and transparent dialogue with your clients throughout the relationship so that we have a strong foundation for them to bring things to my attention willingly. To ensure positive outcomes, it is important to quickly arrange a call as this is always best as things can get miscommunicated on email, and we need to start by understanding with the client what the route cause is and work backwards to understand what has caused this problem, is it me, is it technical?
Once we have got to the issues/root cause it is important to remain calm and then have frequent follow up calls of which we ensure we have the right expertise and specialists on the call where we can dive in to the data to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible – it helps the client understand that I am addressing their comments and concerns and that resolving this is my top priority.”
For more insights and inspiration, read the continuation of our interview next week. 😊
