Sr. Director Strategic Sales

Strategic Account Management

Leads and coordinates a diverse and high-performing team and key stakeholders on plan execution and drives accountability to deliver on account plans and grow the account. Leads efforts to share Microsoft and partner strategies across other segments of the customer's account and ensures customer success in the acquisition, implementation, and consumption of Microsoft's and partner's services. Conducts ongoing executive mapping exercises to ensure alignment across key internal and external groups. Provides thought leadership and strategic co-innovation ideas, and challenges customers when appropriate to think differently and offer alternative industry-specific points of view. Sets organizational tone for building and maintaining long-term strategic customer relationships and for driving larger impact for the customer. Leads the creation of long-term strategies aimed at building a level of loyalty that would be hard for competitors to overcome. Brings greater customer / partner ecosystem together with the customer to discuss how to enrich customer's value to their customers. Proactively explores and uncovers technologies and confirms customer interest, and has an understanding of where Microsoft may not be able to compete, and how key customer competitors compete. In addition, this role has people management responsibilities including driving employee growth and development, executing projects, and managing performance.

Responsibilities

Account Management

Leads efforts with key internal and external partners including vertical industry partners with business and technical decision makers in developing, sharing, and promoting mutually beneficial, long-term, customizable joint investment plans to grow sales and partner impact, leveraging deep relationships, broad influence, and in-depth industry expertise. Leads efforts to share Microsoft and partner strategies across other segments of the customer's account and ensure customer success in the acquisition, implementation, and consumption of Microsoft's and partner's services and solutions. Collaborates across organization and partners in discussions to impact the broader ecosystem (e.g., passing legislation). Orchestrates the execution of strategies for the assigned account to ensure engagements yield high-volume sales, drive plans to increase revenue potential, and open new opportunities for both Microsoft and the partners, aligned to goals, budgets, and forecasts. Leads, challenges, and inspires team to focus on top priorities and challenges to drive business case. Leverages deep industry expertise to anticipate industry direction, ecosystem, and transformation. Proactively solicits feedback on additional needs, products, and features to develop targeted strategies for customers. Demonstrates a strong understanding of the customer's business model to articulate growth opportunities, leveraging industry expertise to shape ecosystem. Influences relevant (internal and external) stakeholders and resources to drive change on behalf of the customer and to enhance team capabilities, improve Microsoft offerings, and adapt Microsoft's messaging to the assigned account. Leads the development and application of a mature / dynamic multi-year customer plan detailing critical insights and new business opportunities aligned to customer priorities. Leads and coordinates a diverse and high-performing team and key stakeholders (e.g., industry experts) on plan execution (e.g., prioritization, delegation) and drives accountability to deliver on account plans and grow the account. Anticipates future needs by incorporating the 3 Horizons Model into account planning and leverages resources equally across the 3 Horizons, as well as provides long-term strategic insight to customers as a trusted partner. Proactively expands strategic network of key internal and external partners and decision makers, including vertical industry partners to ensure execution of core tasks and account transactions and to provide a comprehensive account management experience. Leads regular meetings for strategic accounts with relevant partners. Influences transformation for partners to build innovative solutions and applies an ecosystem-wide perspective to better position partner growth at all levels.

Competitive Knowledge

Partners with internal industry experts to strengthen knowledge of the industry (e.g., emerging trends, forecasting long-term developments, influencers), competitors (e.g., Amazon Web Services [AWS], Salesforce) customer business priorities (e.g., challenges, competitive landscape) and leverages in-depth knowledge of Microsoft's offerings (e.g., product landscape, solutions, strategy to address customers needs) to provide thought leadership and mentor the account management team on ways to gain deeper industry knowledge that ultimately addresses customer needs. Proactively explores and uncovers technologies and confirms customer interest, and has an understanding of where Microsoft may not be able to compete, and how key customer competitors compete within their respective space.

Customer Engagement

Proactively develops a strong, comprehensive understanding of customer's business needs, priorities, and strategies and industry insights, competition, market competitive trends, and the customer's customers. Guides internal colleagues on ways to develop deeper customer knowledge. Anticipates customers' needs to deliver new insights on customers' business strategies. Articulates need to address customer's business needs (both internally and to the customer). Identifies and pursues opportunities to optimize offerings and delivers solutions into overall long-term business strategy. Regularly seeks out new information via annual reports, 10-Ks, reads LinkedIn articles, and engages in ongoing customer / partner conversations to learn more about customer issues. Anticipates new potential market opportunities for the customer, leveraging deep industry expertise. Proactively owns and elevates a transformative customer stakeholder engagement strategy to foster customer trust and brand growth and loyalty. Sets organizational tone for building and maintaining long-term strategic customer relationships and for driving larger impact for the customer. Proactively defines and executes governance model to ensure mapping across seniority levels.

People Management

Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring. Model : Live our culture. Embody our values. Practice our leadership principles. Coach : Define team objectives and outcomes. Enable success across boundaries. Help the team adapt and learn. Care : Attract and retain great people. Know each individual's capabilities and aspirations. Invest in the growth of others.

Sales Excellence

Creates and qualifies new opportunities by identifying highly strategic opportunities (e.g., very large, long-term, high-impact) within accounts and guiding the customer on how to best identify new opportunities, leveraging deep customer and industry relationships. Proactively directs team to create "Points of View" for customers, and reads emerging patterns across the industry to anticipate customer needs and concerns. Drives new business opportunities across the team by creating a partner ecosystem, and empowers team members to find new opportunities by acting as a role model and by setting a clear vision and energy for the team to drive towards. Uses business cases to develop and present compelling value proposition presentations and specialized business plans for customers that showcase Microsoft's products and solutions to connect decision makers in the account to the broader Microsoft solutions, provides thought leadership to guide others on tailoring presentations, and generate new opportunities. Advocates internally to promote the relevance of Microsoft's expertise for the customer. Earns and maintains status as a thought leader and trusted advisor to the assigned account's C-level business decision makers by bringing innovative ideas and narratives, leveraging deep industry expertise, establishing ongoing cadences, and bringing together the customer's customers. Navigates the stakeholder landscape and mobilizes and mentors the account management team and relevant stakeholders with deep industry expertise to expand the partnership with decision makers of the assigned account. Leverages best-in-class sales and communication strategies and tools to anticipate business needs and identify new opportunities. Challenges and holds customers accountable by creating an environment of joint accountability and speaks up when customer is pursuing an inefficient path. Owns the development of the business transformation and co-innovation strategy for the assigned account that is based on customer's expected outcomes and Microsoft's added innovative value, and opens doors to new opportunities grounded in deep understanding of industry trends, customer needs, competitor differentiators, and final consumer perspectives. Anticipates market changes to drive new industry-relevant cloud solutions to customers. Brings greater customer / partner ecosystem together with the customer to discuss how to enrich customer's value to their customers, and creates mutually agreed upon roadmaps on how to capture innovation / transformation within strategic accounts. Leads the creation of long-term strategies aimed at building a level of loyalty that would be hard for competitors to overcome. Anticipates issues / risks on customer satisfaction, determines the root cause of problems, removes blockers, and establishes recovery action plan to improve customer's overall experience. Implements customer-focused and mutual success criteria, such as executive steering committees, quarterly business reviews, and scorecards. Builds trust and loyalty with the customer by providing up-to-date insights, challenging the customer when necessary, and introducing innovative ideas relevant to the customer's business strategy. Enables customers to provide feedback directly to executives to help transform account space by establishing open communication channels for feedback, providing executive sponsorship, and providing direction to others to ensure customer feedback is addressed through the One Microsoft approach. Leverages understanding of customer business and ability to translate customers' business priorities to Microsoft solutions, and engages Microsoft decision makers to drive customer's strategy, goals, and optimization. Engages and influences decision makers of the account (e.g., C-level, high-impact customers) on Microsoft's vision, strategy, and value, and positions Microsoft to increase customer's budget allocated to Microsoft, tailor solutions that satisfy customers' key performance indicators (KPIs). Translates features into business outcomes that accelerate the customer's digital presence. Creates quantifiable business metrics that address business outcomes for the customer and holds others accountable to those metrics.

Strategic Thinking

Leverages Microsoft sales strategies to articulate Microsoft's and partners' point of view and creates deep connections with decision makers through multiple levels of the customers' organization to drive purchase decisions and increase interaction and participation,