Sales Excellence Lead

Working in Microsoft Americas Enterprise sales organization, you will be an integral part of our journey to help our customers transform with Artificial Intelligence (AI).  The Software and Digital Platforms team support the largest Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and fastest growing Digital Native customers in the US.

As a Sales Excellence Lead focused on our consumption business, you will help ensure Azure sales teams execute with the highest quality, efficiency and drive positive outcomes for our business and our customers. You will coach and build relationships with sales leaders to assist with executing key priorities. You will help optimize sales processes, ensure accurate forecasting, pipeline management and efficient team orchestration.

You will drive sales growth through account and business planning. Identify opportunities to streamline and improve the rhythm of the connection (ROC) cadence. Identify opportunities to generate new business and accelerate the closing of existing opportunities. You will improve awareness and clarity of go-to-market programs among sales teams and managers.

You will use business analytics to develop insights which identify new opportunities, improve efficiency and uncover business trends. You will drive a predictable Rhythm of Business (ROB) with cross-functional teams to ensure quality four-quarter (4Q) rolling business outcomes. You will be the expert on our sales process, pipeline & forecast management methodologies as well as the tooling that supports these functions. You will work with the leadership team to assist in the management of the consumption lifecycle—from pipeline generation to win rate improvement to usage of the tools. You will partner with finance and sales leaders to ensure highly accurate sales forecasts.

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.

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• 4+ years experience in sales, sales operations/management, account management, program management, business development, marketing, consulting, or a related field
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of experience using data to drive business outcomes or inform business decisions.
• 3+ years of experience managing relationships with stakeholders, clients, and/or customers.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in a related field.
• 3+ years managing projects, including planning, managing timelines, and tracking progress, and/or change management experience.

Sales Excellence IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $103,800 - $200,300 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 $133,700 - $219,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

Microsoft will accept applications for the role until January 2, 2025

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.  We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. 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.

Driving Sales Process Discipline

• Instills sales process discipline, adherence to standards, excellence in execution, and pipeline health. Holds sales managers accountable for account plan quality and completeness. Helps ensure consistency and excellence in the sales process within the organization. Shares best practices with segment peers.

• Acts as a subject matter expert to advocate and support effective and rigorous usage of common and/or new processes and tools developed for the wider business to improve internal and external communications and engagements. Consolidates input from the supported area into the feedback loop. Communicates feedback to engineer/partner teams on tools.

• Develops business insights using analytics on key revenue drivers and business trends. Integrates findings from data analysis to improve business outcomes. Leverages reporting and analytical capabilities to generate data-based insights and enable visibility into revenue and forecast for sellers, sales managers and leaders, or partners.

Sales Coaching for Growth and Transformation

• Improves awareness and clarity of go-to-market (GTM) programs among sales teams and managers. Intakes and contributes to adopting plans to create new habits among sales teams or partners.

• Partners with Go-To-Market (GTM) Leads and Business and Sales Operations (BSO) to remove sales roadblocks, drive utilizations of investment, increase customer/partner-facing time, and enhance seller/partner capability and effectiveness. Provides input to sales teams to anticipate and mitigate risks. Captures and integrates feedback on sales challenges or blockers. Communicates feedback to relevant teams through the appropriate channel.

• Contributes to optimizing sales team processes and capabilities. Assesses customer/partner needs and applies methodologies and resources to transform seller capabilities, sales processes, and/or partner engagement processes.

• Coaches and builds relationships with sales team on executing key priorities. Engages sales team to become more effective coaches to their sellers. Helps sales team achieve increased individual and team capability, employee satisfaction, and collaborative selling efforts. May contribute to coaching on large deal pursuit.

Supporting Executive Capacity

• Supports RVP capacity as a senior leader. Advises on and contributes to various aspects of business management (e.g., employee engagement, resource allocation, change management, building high-performing teams) in collaboration with leadership and cross-functional teams. Represents the OU as an internal advocate and an extension of the leadership team.

Business Partnership and Support

• Aligns with Business and Sales Operations (BSO) on quota distribution strategy. Leverages local knowledge to provide input on judgment/adjustments prior to quota decisions. Participates in sales leader and manager briefings to share quotas and rationale where needed.

• Maintains and/or defines a predictable rhythm of the connection (RoC) in collaboration with peers and/or leadership. Contributes to RoC activities to enforce great discipline and ensure quality outcome delivery. Provides business insights and recommendations to effect positive changes. Identifies opportunities to streamline and improve the RoC cadence within the supported segment/region.

• As primary orchestrator of the Customer Planning rhythm, coaches managers and sellers on customer planning fundamentals, habits, and plan quality. Contributes to reinforcement and review of quality plans within the OU.

• Drives sales growth through account or business planning. Analyzes the outlook and leverages business insights to benchmark performance and make suggestions on current and future actions based on key drivers, opportunities, and/or risks. Supports the integration, alignment, and/or execution on the defined actions within the segment/region.

• Advises and contributes to sales teams on sales motions/strategies for opportunity management (e.g., up-sell, cross-sell, renewal, recapture). Contributes to operationalizing prioritized sales plays and industry solutions. Identifies opportunities to generate new business and accelerate the closing of existing opportunities.