Services Account Executive

Overview

The Services Account Executive contributes fundamental insights to the Account Team by leading the Services Sales account strategy. Determines planning prioritization for multiple assigned accounts based on multiple factors. Owns and maintains in agreement with the core account team customer and partner relationships, influences key decision makers, and leads effective ROCs with stakeholders.

Proactively seeks customer feedback and insights on business priorities and/or experience. Understands how to plan stakeholder connections, in alignment with the core account team, building and strengthening relationships with various Microsoft teams and groups. Proactively builds and maintains up-to-date knowledge of multiple topics to meet customer needs and drive customer satisfaction.

Leverages Microsoft Services Sales go-to-market scenarios to drive intentional customer conversations. Identifies, qualifies, leads, manages, and closes strategic industry cloud opportunities on prioritized accounts. Engages customers to co-develop on-time renewal plans and mitigate risks for non-renewal, taking part in renewal preparation calls, drafting proposals for Unified extensions, and coordinating any discount approvals.

Orchestrates the consulting-sales relationship with the core account team, working closely with Enterprise colleagues to ensure successful creation, maintenance, and execution of the Services Sales account plan. Confirms BANT information to determine progression or lack thereof of a lead to become a Services Sales opportunity.

Responsibilities

Accelerate Growth

Identifies, qualifies, leads, manages, and closes strategic industry cloud opportunities on prioritized accounts aligned to documented customer business value and outcomes. Accelerates Microsoft Cloud differentiation (e.g., security, AI) against competitors and win more market share. Increases customer business value with advanced technology (e.g., AI) and drive consumption. Drives Unified contract renewals and multi-year agreements with rigorous T-minus planning (e.g., T-90 days).

Engages customers well in advance of Unified contract expiration to co-develop on-time renewal plans and mitigate risks for non-renewal, taking part in renewal preparation calls, drafting proposals for Unified extensions, and coordinating any discount approvals. Aligns with customer success account managers (CSAMs) on verifying value delivered and identifying expansion opportunities for support contracts through enhanced solutions. Up-sells existing Unified customers to multi-year and higher-tier support options. Secures new Unified contracts with customers.

Leverages Microsoft Services Sales go-to-market scenarios to drive intentional customer conversations about Microsoft Cloud adoption, new AI and cloud solution offerings, renewing and growing Unified support agreements, and attaching enhanced solutions to product sales. Educates decision makers of assigned account(s) (e.g., business-functional area leads) on Microsoft value propositions that bundle Unified and Consulting offerings, aligned to the customer’s priorities and maturity, appropriately differentiating competitor solutions.

Proactively builds and maintains up-to-date knowledge of customer's business priorities, risks and challenges, internal landscape (e.g., organization structure, stakeholders, business performance), industry/sector challenges, regulations, trends, and futures (e.g., impact of AI, sustainability) to meet customer needs and drive customer satisfaction.

Account Team Orchestration

Orchestrates the consulting-sales relationship with the core account team, working closely with Enterprise colleagues to ensure successful creation, maintenance, and execution of the Services Sales account plan, and a positive One Microsoft customer experience.

Orchestrates and coordinates across the account team and customer success team effectively influencing and collaborating with account-aligned and solutions-aligned, pursuit and delivery colleagues including partners to bring the top resources to ensure customer success and satisfaction, successfully closing deals. Follows and champions the One Microsoft methodology (e.g., the common sales and delivery methodology for Microsoft).

Deal Excellence

Drives discussions of terms and conditions (e.g., scope, milestones, price) in collaboration with the entire account team and customer through multiple iterations to ensure agreement. Maintains productive working relationships with those involved in negotiation, persuading others without using manipulation, and driving a positive atmosphere during difficult objections and discussions. Partners with internal custom consulting experts and/or Deal & Contract Assist team for help with structuring deals and generating quotes for big and/or complex deals.

Ensures all applicable leads and qualified opportunities are linked to customer priorities in the account plan. Maintains accurate sales stage, forecast recommendation, and due dates in required systems of record (e.g., Microsoft Sales Experience [MSX]) in alignment with close plan. Partners with relevant deal support and architects to ensure coding of all enhanced solutions and ISD packages within contracts and deals are aligned to customer needs and planned services. Uses required tooling to report out the state of the business.

Maintains relationship with the customer to secure formal signing of contract and oversees the processing of that, including financial purchased orders. Drives smooth transition of sales-led accountabilities to delivery-led accountabilities through sales-to-delivery handoff, ensuring customer expectations are set and the delivery stakeholders have background information on the customer context.

Supports win/loss reviews with sales and pursuit management, owns lessons learned activities to support improvements and efficiency for customers and peers. Identifies repeatable intellectual property that could be replicated and sold to other customers, increasing the sales team's ability to scale the solution and grow market share.

Participates in customer success delivery reviews with customer success account managers (CSAMs), checking on project outcomes and support usage in order to identify new sales opportunities or issues. Owns the customer experience from sales, through delivery and support, and back to sales in a circular way according to the Microsoft Customer Engagement Methodology (MCEM).

Leverages customer connections and the account team's insights to confirm budget, authority, need and timeline (BANT) information to determine progression or lack thereof of a lead to become a Services Sales opportunity. Secures pre-sales investment to secure appropriate consulting resources needed to shape and scope the opportunity into a compelling customer proposition.

Focuses on opportunities that are in alignment with organizational strategy, prioritizing opportunities based on highest potential for impact/consumption. Consistently drives deal velocity as a result of executing high-quality lead qualification and close planning.

Builds quality, structured close plans (following internal customer engagement methodologies) for all qualified opportunities, initially (at qualified stage) comprising the core Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline (BANT) information and commercial strategy for the deal, and progressing to include detailed customer procurement process, risks, and issues.

Updates the close plan as deal progresses through each sales stage, securing Microsoft virtual Services Sales account team and customer stakeholder buy in to schedule of activities for successful closure of the deal.

Leads the consulting of the entire account team to execute the close plan, effectively influencing and collaborating with account-aligned and solutions-aligned, pursuit and delivery colleagues to perform agreed activities to successfully close the deal. Works with internal key stakeholder and approvers to ensure margin targets, consumption plans, and other key metrics are considered/met.

Relationship Management

Proactively seeks customer feedback and insights on business priorities and/or experience. Identifies how the services in the catalog would meet customer maturity and/or ability to receive services in partnership with pre-sales resources and customer success account managers (CSAMs). 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. Understands how and when to escalate issues to ensure resolution.

Understands how to plan stakeholder connections, in alignment with the core account team, building and strengthening relationships with the Microsoft overall account teams, solution teams, and other partner groups, through regular rhythm of connections where appropriate. Brings experience, insights, and perspectives from customer engagement to Microsoft business to drive deeper customer engagement.

Aligns teams across the Account Team Unit (ATU), Specialist Team Unit (STU), Strategic Services (e.g., Strategic Consulting Team [SCT], Global Black Belts [GBB], Partner), and Customer Success Unit (CSU) for holistic execution of Services to drive cloud adoption, AI initiatives, and measurable customer outcomes. Supports the Microsoft overall account teams, solution teams, and other partner groups.

Owns and maintains in agreement with the core account team customer and partner relationships, influences key decision makers, and leads effective rhythms of connection with customer and partner stakeholders. Understands the customer environment and evaluates which services in the catalog would be the right fit for the customer.

Proactively sets expectations with customer on delivery of services to ensure aligned expectations to drive renewals and customer satisfaction. Prioritizes appropriately for multiple assigned accounts by T-minus rhythm (e.g., T-minus 90 days) for Unified contracts against sales motions for new Unified contracts, Unified add-ons, and new consulting projects.

Contributes to creating and managing connections and driving agreement between necessary stakeholders within Microsoft and customers.

Strategy and Planning

Contributes fundamental insights to the thinking of the Account Team by leading the Services Sales account strategy addressing immediate priorities for meeting customer needs to deliver, support and secure Microsoft products and objectives.

Leverages appropriate tools, frameworks, and methodologies to develop a deliberate approach to position potential modernization, digital and artificial intelligence (AI) transformation, security, and support outcomes aligned with customer's priorities, with minimal oversight.

• Understands the weaknesses and strengths of competitor solutions and footprints and leverage this knowledge in strategy and planning to align Services Sales with Microsoft Field Revenue Accountability (FRA) and cloud objectives.
• Determines planning prioritization for multiple assigned accounts based on customer needs, Microsoft Field Revenue Accountability (FRA) and revenue importance, growth opportunities, and account risks.

Proactively looks ahead and identifies actions required to develop Services Sales catalog and support renewal/up-sell opportunities that are aligned with the account strategy, Microsoft's strategy, and Services Sales catalog go-to-market solution plays. Positions AI business solutions, cloud and AI platforms, and security solutions to enable a point-of-view and roadmap for deploying and supporting customer AI-first transformation.

• Leads the virtual Services Sales team input to account team planning sessions, follows the common sales and delivery methodology for Microsoft, and provides updates per required account team governance and rhythms.
• Maps which customer and/or partner accounts need Unified contract renewals within the quarter, where there are upsell opportunities, and which accounts have gaps in Services coverage based on existing or future customer positioning and FRA spend.

Engages with internal and external stakeholders on business planning to review and plan for accounts, structures and leads Services Sales account planning rhythm to set priorities, and aligns solution 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.

Required/minimum qualifications

Bachelor's Degree AND 4+ years consultative sales experience in the commercial or public sector (e.g. finance, local government) or related work OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Business, Information Technology (IT), or related field AND 8+ years consultative sales experience in the commercial or public sector (e.g. finance, local government) or related work OR equivalent experience.

Pay and benefits

Services Account Management IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $107,600 - $187,500 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $145,600 - $205,600 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.