What is Samsung Elite?

Samsung Elite is a learning app for Mobile Sales Representatives, as well as their leadership and management teams, that provides key Samsung device and sales enablement trainings (think Duo-Lingo-for-mobile-sales-reps). The goal? Equip reps with the knowledge they need to sell more Samsung devices and build Samsung brand affinity through our exclusive rewards and loyalty services program.

I helped create this pioneering role at Merkle out of my own inclination that the considerations of a content strategist closely mirrored the considerations I was already making as a strategic copywriter, but promised more room for growth on the trajectory toward more strategic conceptualizing — something I can say now is precisely what Elite needed.

It always starts with a plan (or 15)

I was tasked initially with creating an intelligent cadence of training that would allow us to build a story across the span of an entire year. This meant my planning funneled from an annual, monthly, weekly, and then a daily view of training.

This view of content then needed to consider that training also needed to reflect the devices and priorities of our 15+ different channels (e.g. while T-Mobile might feature Galaxy S21s in their store, Metro by T-Mobile might not).

This is where the real efforts of my planning would reveal themselves as either sufficiently thoughtful or wanting. The latter was never an option.

And then the plan evolves

Data. Analytics. Learning efficacy. Audits. These were the primary building blocks that followed the creation of my training plans. After all, any plan that does not leave room for iteration or response to learning can’t properly respond to key behaviors that Elite was built to inspire.