Digital Account Executive – AI & Security Full-time

In Small, Medium, Corporate (SMC) and Digital Sales organization, we have set out to empower our customers through the unique value of the Microsoft cloud by building a globally led, digital-first scale organization aligned with partners. As part of local subsidiaries or Digital Sales centers around the world, you will support a dedicated set of customers in identifying and achieving their business objectives through best-in-class digital engagement and partner co-selling. You will also be able to work cross-collaboratively while living our shared SMC and Digital Sales Culture priorities: Diversity and Inclusivity, Well-being, Sustainability, and Learning. If you have been described as customer obsessed and have a passion for digital-first solutions, we invite you to learn more about the SMC and Digital Sales organization and the value we deliver to our customers, partners, and one another, every day.

The Digital Account Executive – AI & Security facilitates Microsoft to better serve our SMC-Corporate managed clients realize their potential and help them on their Digital Transformation journey. The Account Executive adds value by developing and maintaining customer relationships that include building relationships with executives at the Chief-level (CxO) as well as other Business and Technical Decision Makers within the customers’ organizations. The Digital Account Executive has to effectively leverage all the digital tools and processes available and orchestrate the other members of the team to address customer needs and requirements. Additionally, the Digital Account Executive engages with Partners to be able to find the best solution that will address the customer needs.

This opportunity will allow you to accelerate your career growth, honing your solution sales and collaboration skills, and deepening your cloud expertise.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities:

Customer Engagement

• Establishes and maintains customer engagements. Maximizes value of customer contact. Documents and synthesizes customer contacts for maximum effectiveness. Coaches others on customer relationships and engagement. Compiles and shares best practices proactively with others. Develops partnerships with customers. Reaches trusted advisor status. Maintains breadth and depth of customer relationships and increases level of customer contacts. Maintains contacts across lines of business. Implements tiered approach to cadence and depth of contacts. Shares best practices with others. Breaks through to new contacts in new accounts and creatively builds customer engagement and coaches others on successful strategies. Advocates for customers (voice of the customer) within the organization/ Microsoft. Serves as central point for all customer communications. Manages relationships on behalf of the customer. Introduces different resources based on customer contacts. Correctly aligns resources (e.g., partners, v-team). Reaches out to and engages with customers through digital channels (e.g., social selling, audio, video).
• Conducts background research on existing customers. Captures and shares key learnings about customers, history, and interest. Understands customer business and desired outcomes. Uses available digital tools and technology to conduct and compile research. Applies lessons learned to future research. Provides guidance on best practices to others. Coaches team on senior executive engagements and relevancy to board-level approvals. Leads industry conversations. Innovates in making solutions relevant for customer industries. Relates customer priorities to Microsoft priorities and strategy. Demonstrates knowledge across industry and takes relevant use cases to customers to drive outcomes. Creates constructive tension with customers to challenge thinking and develop deeper customer engagement. Coaches others on challenger approach. Creates strategy to take insights from relationships to influence decision makers. Manages relationships inclusive of customers, partners, and internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensures continuity of customer accounts and monitors customer satisfaction metrics (e.g., timeliness and quality of contact). Follows up and incorporates feedback from customers into future engagements. Ensures implementation matches intent and follows up as needed. Coaches others on customer satisfaction best practices. Manages primary contact appropriately to ensure feedback is gathered from the correct sources on an ongoing basis. Triages customer dissatisfaction and handles in timely manner (e.g., prioritization, escalation). Manages escalation process appropriately and leverages Microsoft executives to yield positive impact. Anticipates potential customer issues and matches requirements to solutions to maximize satisfaction and simplification. Encourages adoption on ongoing basis to improve satisfaction. Proactively establishes conditions of satisfaction with customers at outset of engagement. Customer-centric. Takes a challenger mentality to customer thinking or strategy regarding recommended solutions based on experience and depth of relationship, with particular customer and other customers like them. Defines, with top customers, conditions of satisfaction (COSs) to reflect joint understanding and alignment to customer priorities. Demonstrates COSs mentality across stakeholders.

Account Management

• Attends to and proactively addresses renewals. Creatively addresses renewal options with internal partners and customers to maximize business outcomes and likelihood of renewal. Includes nuanced understanding of renewals process and application of solutions knowledge to navigating renewals with customers. Supports others in the renewal process. Sought out by others for expertise. Ensures renewals are prioritized and motioned appropriately. Supports others in their portfolio management efforts and is sought out for expertise. Adheres to process for forecasting and timing renewals appropriately to drive consumption (e.g., T-180). Provides differentiation and contractual options to drive upsell. Engages with appropriate parties on renewals to drive upsell and cross-sell (e.g., CEs). Educates customers on available licensing platforms. Presents licensing fundamentals in conversations with customers. Identifies opportunities to consolidate SKUs and / or cross- and upsells in accordance with customer priorities and outcomes. Takes lead in driving modern workplace conversations with customers and appropriately delegates to v-team specialists as needed to drive cross-sell/upsell. Collaborates proactively with partners to scale and maximize resources effectively. Leverages multiple equal offers (MEO) and empowerment strategically. Leverages renewals to maximize customer adds. Creates and implements action plans for T-180.
• Determines priority and depth for each account in portfolio. Marshals resources to develop plan to execute against prioritization. Determines plan to meet or exceed quota based on customer analysis and available resources. Develops internal resources to support current and future customer engagements. Coaches others on territory management best practices and techniques. Ensures cohesive plan across consumption, ads, upsell, and renewal. Innovates in new ways to go to market. Demonstrates thought leadership in industry and solutions. Holds self and others accountable for agreed upon time frames. Creatively leverages programs to scale across customers. Identifies partners to drive new business and pipeline creation. Makes recommendations or influences sales plays. Takes on additional responsibilities to close territory gaps or new-to-role territories. Mentors and coaches others to find and address gaps in territory strategy.
• Conducts analyses into what customers are using versus needs. Identifies resources (e.g., v-team orchestration) and partner solutions to help customers derive value from existing Microsoft investments.
• Collaborates with others, both internally and externally to Microsoft in order to achieve revenue targets. Manages key stakeholders to meet critical deadlines. Orchestrates strategic conversations internally or externally to match teams and resources to customer needs and to streamline customer experience. Cultivates resources for ongoing collaboration and future engagements. Mentors others in orchestration and serves as escalation point to resolve collaboration needs. Ensures v-team is positioned for the right opportunities at the right times. Provides insights across the organization. Identifies and solicits resources needed for success. Leverages relationships and resources across solution areas to drive account outcomes. Builds and maintains broad network within and across partner community for specific skill sets and industries as well as within Microsoft. Facilitates customer introductions.
• Identifies and qualifies opportunities and pursues through lifecycle. Drives adoption through to cross-sell/upsell to new opportunities. Drives movement of customers to cloud solutions and to healthy cloud mix in customer accounts where appropriate. Drives customer adds and existing customers to new solutions. Demonstrates value of cloud solutions to customers. Supports internal teams in maximizing likelihood of moving customers to new solutions. Coaches others on techniques to drive success. Understands and accelerates customer cloud strategy. Assists customers in building roadmap to achieve desired outcomes. Presents range of options and Microsoft cloud strategy to customer in large and complex deals to achieve desired outcomes that address multiple strategic factors. Drives conversations with C-Suite executives around budgets, availability of budgets, and prioritization. Demonstrates challenger mindset in customer engagements.

Maintain Product and Solution Expertise

• Consolidates and shares best practices with others. Uses knowledge to engage with customers and with internal teams. Completes required training and certifications in a timely manner. Develops and implements personal development plan. Develops and maintains industry solution expertise.

Other

• Embody our culture and values

Qualifications:

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• 8+ years of sales and negotiation experience with year-over-year growth
  • OR Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Marketing (or equivalent) or related field AND 6+ years of sales and negotiation experience or related work or internship experience with year-over-year growth
  • OR Master’s Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Marketing (or equivalent) AND 5+ years of sales and negotiation experience or related work.
• Business level understanding of artificial intelligence and security solutions and the outcomes they can have on various industries and verticals.
• Business level fluency to read, write and speak English.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of software industry sales and negotiation experience with year-over-year growth
• OR Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Marketing (or equivalent) or related field AND 8+ years of sales and negotiation experience or related work or internship experience with year-over-year growth
• OR Master’s Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Marketing (or equivalent) AND 7+ years of sales and negotiation experience or related work.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form .

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.