Customer Engagement

• Builds and maintains relationship with executives and business and technical decision makers at high levels of the customer's organization through consultative engagement to establish trust and credibility in future interactions. Continues to build reputation with customers during interactions by being customer-focused, consistently honoring commitments, explaining technical concepts relevant to the customer, and connecting the customer to Microsoft executives. Leverages selling methods (e.g., digital) to network and create a pipeline, consume account-based marketing outputs, and reflect the engagement strategy in our customer plan.
• Develops a strong understanding of the customer's business and technology needs and the needs of each assigned account. Identifies opportunities to drive optimizations and new business and technology solutions/ideas based on their needs and strategies. Works on behalf of the customer. If industry aligned, also develops an understanding of the customer's industry.
• Understands customer drivers of business transformation and contributes to technology/transformation with the customer. Initiates conversations with customers on digital transformation for assigned accounts. Mitigates competitive risk. Ensures line-of-business wins are captured (e.g., testimonials) for referencing through insightful listening.

Account Management

•  • Manages and executes plans utilizing common sales and delivery methodology for the Microsoft sales organization for multiple accounts to ensure Microsoft targets and customer business needs are met. Coordinates with extended virtual teams and holds self and the team accountable for executing on plans and meeting customer needs. Outlines revenue targets to deliver on account plans. Orchestrates extended team and embraces partners to scale business. Ensures achievement of revenue and consumption targets and drives integrated joint account governance through customer plan on regular frequency. Identifies initial stakeholders, customer needs, and customer priorities. Proposes initial Solutions/Sales Plays.
•  • Engages with internal and external stakeholders on account planning for assigned accounts and sets strategic priorities and plan to achieve outcomes. Structures and leads account planning rhythm to set priorities, aligns Solutions/Sales Plays and opportunities, partners, focus, and resources to regularly update the plan, ensuring that the extended virtual team (inclusive of partners) and other stakeholders are working toward common goals. Ensures teams are documenting in the Account Plan.
•  • Plans ahead to determine order of priority for action on accounts based on customer needs, sales-generating importance, growth opportunity and assessment of risks. Holds self accountable and collaborates with the account management team to act on potential adjustments and maintain commitments.
•  • Builds and maintains a network of internal (e.g., Industry Solutions [IS]) and external partners to drive opportunities and influence impact for multiple assigned accounts. Leverages relationship with partners to develop and share customer business and technology transformation plans that support mutual needs. Where applicable, shares opportunities outbound with partners, and reviews/accepts opportunities shared inbound. Proactively engages and works with partners’ sellers directly to drive non-qualified opportunity momentum and deal closure inclusive of partners.

Sales Excellence

•  • Seeks customer feedback (both formal and informal) of assigned accounts to identify and understand the drivers of satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction. Leverages internal resources to support customer needs. Orchestrates others (e.g., Customer Success Account Management [CSAM]) to anticipate issues/risks on customer satisfaction, determine the root cause of problems, remove blockers, and establish recovery action plans as need to improve customers' overall experience. Proactively establishes agreement on success measures and manages execution on success measures to prevent need for recovery plans.
•  • Orchestrates extended virtual teams and key stakeholders (e.g., customers' sponsors) to engage decision makers of assigned accounts by leveraging best-in-class sales and communication strategies and tools to meet customer needs. Document and creates stakeholder map in the account plan of the key decision makers, influencers, sentiment, etc.
•  • Articulates Microsoft's value proposition aligned to customer's business objectives. Creates a mutually-beneficial industry business value proposition and executes relevant solutions. Develops plans to offer solutions that satisfy customers' key performance indicators (KPIs).
•  • Develops value-proposition presentations (e.g., with the use of business cases) and specialized business plans for customers that drive business outcomes to generate business and upsells. Presents business plans to customers to generate new non-qualified opportunities.
•  • Implements strategies to engage relevant stakeholders of assigned accounts and create and/or identify upselling/cross-selling non-qualified opportunities and drive consumption of Microsoft solutions while utilizing common sales and delivery methodology for the Microsoft sales organization.

Industry Knowledge

Builds and maintains knowledge of Microsoft offerings, as well as of customer business priorities and basic industry trends to positively articulate the value of Microsoft's offerings in addressing the needs of the assigned accounts and evaluating their business. Coordinates with internal industry experts (e.g., industry teams) to gather industry data of assigned accounts and improve planning.