Senior Solution Area Sales Specialists – Data & AI Full-time

As an Azure Data & AI Sales Specialist you will be a trusted advisor for one our German Automotive Clients and a subject matter expert in Analytics, Data & AI with core capability and expertise in Data Modernization, Analytics and AI. You will work with customers key stakeholders to leverage data helping them achieve their business priorities and guide customer’s journey through Analytics-led Azure Data transformation. You will help customers evaluate their applications and business requirements, recommend solutions that meet their requirements and demonstrate these solutions to win the technical decision. You will need to support customers to remove roadblocks to deployment and drive customer satisfaction. You will help our customers take advantage of our unique hybrid data platform and leading Analytics & AI solutions to realize the value of digital transformation.

This role brings impactful industry insights into customer engagements and closes deals with customers. Explores and assesses the needs of strategic/high-potential customers. Articulates business value and long-term implications for customer business. Develops strategies for driving and closing strategic and/or prioritized opportunities. Leads the planning and execution on opportunities with resources and partners to cross-sell and up-sell. Mentors others and develops strategies for best practice sharing across subsidiaries. Leverages and shares competitor knowledge across solution areas as a subject matter expert to inform decisions on pursuit or withdrawal. Coaches others on ensuring customer/partner satisfaction and decreasing dissatisfaction by establishing recovery action plans to improve clients’ overall experience. Manages the end-to-end business for strategic accounts across the organization. Leads forecasting for accounts and develops a portfolio and territory plan to drive intentional selling with on-strategy engagements in high-propensity accounts. Mentors junior team members.

This opportunity will allow you to accelerate your career growth, honing your solution sales and collaboration skills, and deepening your cloud expertise. This role is flexible in that you can work up to 50% from home if you arent traveling to your clients.

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.

“No one can make the boat go faster by himself” – Harry Parker, Olympic Rower

Responsibilities:

Sales Excellence

• Builds and transforms markets by leveraging technical and industry expertise, partners, and resources. Leads a virtual team to explore business and emerging opportunities to optimize the portfolio and facilitate customer innovation.
• Reviews feedback report and sets long-term strategies aimed at maintaining levels of client satisfaction. Coaches others on ensuring customer/partner satisfaction and decreasing dissatisfaction by establishing recovery action plans to improve clients’ overall experience. Manages and/or orchestrates sales and delivery success through the account team and pursuit team.
• Engages with internal and external stakeholders on business planning, Rhythm of Business (ROB) meetings to review and plan for strategic accounts across territories.
• Completes required training and obtains relevant product and role certifications aligned to the role and workload/industry. Proactively seeks training, including information that adds to the understanding of customers’ business, and shares it with team members.
• Collaborates with extended sales team, partners, and marketing to lead business analysis (e.g., whitespace analysis, identify industry trends) to pursue high-potential customers and develop a target list of potential business. Acts as a thought leader and clears opinions and perspectives from business analysis.
• Manages the end-to-end business for strategic accounts across the organization. Leads forecasting for accounts and develops a portfolio and territory plan to drive intentional selling with on-strategy engagements in high propensity accounts. Mentors less experienced team members.

Sales Execution

• Drives consumption and grow business with existing strategic customers by initiating conversations, guiding others on demos or quotes, and the collaboration with partners or internal teams (e.g., Technical Solution Sales Professionals, Global Black Belts). For licensing transactions and project engagements, ensures rapid and robust deployment plan at point of sale that is validated by services and partners. Drives advanced workloads and usage.
• Explores and assesses the needs of strategic/high-potential customers. Articulates business value and long-term implications for customer business. Collaborates with internal teams, partners, and services to lead the proposal or development of solutions that align with customer and Microsoft priorities. Analyzes market trends to identify opportunities for new solutions.
• Brings impactful industry insights into customer engagements and closes deals with customers. Acts as a thought leader across solution areas to advise customers across business functions on digital transformation. Leads virtual transformational shifts to drive deployment and create business value for customers. May lead partner integration into account/territory planning and customer engagements. Provides thought leadership.
• Develops strategies for driving and closing strategic and/or prioritized opportunities. Collaborates with account teams to ensure alignment with the account strategy and plan. Leads deal execution with the deal teams across the organization. Coaches others on the implementation of close plans (e.g., how to map timeline, engage the customer, get customer buy-in and commitment) to de-risk and drive predictable deal closure.
• Orchestrates with team members on conducting personal campaigns to discover new opportunities and generate new leads. Leads conversations with strategic/high-potential customers (e.g., high budget, global account, highly competitive) along with account teams or partners. Facilitates the account team unit (ATU) and/or Specialist Team Unit (STU) to build pipeline in collaboration with partners and services. Guides others on social selling. Applies Microsoft’s Customer Engagement Model (MCEM) to determine the quality of the opportunity and whether to proceed, and educate the customers on how to best address their needs.
• Proactively builds and governs external stakeholder network and leverages internal partners to engage external stakeholders. Acts as a thought leader and subject matter advisor to the executive-level business decision makers at the customer’s/partner’s business. Guides others on identifying and engaging decision makers and stakeholders to expand the relationship with customers/partners.

Scaling and Collaboration

• Leads the sales orchestration with internal stakeholders and partners (e.g., Enterprise Operating Unit). Applies a holistic approach to build network across territories. Positions opportunities to promote collaboration and participation.
• Leads the planning and execution on opportunities with resources and partners to cross-sell and up-sell. Identifies, leverages, and coordinates partners and resources across solution areas. Validates partner solution relevance for customers. Provides input and feedback to our Microsoft Partner Ecosystem on developing partner strategies and connects the partner ecosystems to scale business results.

Technical Expertise

• Leverages and shares competitor knowledge across solution areas as a subject matter expert to inform decisions on pursuit or withdrawal. Collaborates with the ‘compete’ global black belts (GBB) to proactively provide analysis of the competitive landscape in supported solution area. Leads the communication to provide feedback to other teams (e.g., sales, marketing, engineering) on future product trends or sales blocker.
• Leads conversations and sets up events within Microsoft. Mentors others and develops strategies for best practice sharing across subsidiaries. Contributes ideas that can be instituted across Microsoft.
• Posts information or speaks at external events, drives conversations with prospective customers/partners as a thought leader across solution areas.

Qualifications:

Required/minimum qualification

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or related field AND 6+ years technology-related sales or account management experience OR 7+ years technology-related sales or account management experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

6+ years solution or services sales experience.

Master’s Degree in Business Administration (i.e., MBA), Information Technology, or related field AND 5+ years technology-related sales or account management experience OR Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, or related field AND 8+ years technology-related sales or account management experience OR 9+ years technology-related sales or account management experience.

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.