Commercial Executive

In our Small, Medium, Corporate (SMC) and Digital Sales organization, we have set out with the purpose 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 have an opportunity to work cross-collaboratively while living our shared SMC and Digital Sales Culture priorities: Diversity and Inclusivity, Wellbeing, 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.

As a Commercial Executive (CE) in the SMC (Small and Medium Corporate) space; this opportunity will allow you to establish Microsoft as a leader in the commercial space by being able to articulate the Commercial Transformation Framework vision and craft deals that support the customer maturity framework/path for customers to take to enable their digital transformation based on their stage and objectives/capabilities they want to achieve.

These roles are intended to be in one of our sales centers (Toronto) with flexibility to work from home, as necessary.

The Commercial Executive is a Trusted Advisor who leads the design and execution of the customer's commercial strategy and negotiation, selling the right solution at the right time and ensuring every deal is compliant and profitable for Microsoft.

The Commercial Executive (CE), is a sales professional that will negotiate contracting and pricing, serve as a lead point for escalations/negotiations, develop/model options, drive creative/transformative deal strategies, evaluate your book of business and continually seek out revenue growth opportunities through up-selling and cross selling.

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.

Deep Proactive Engagement

• Leads internal sales and management teams through sales process optimizing for the right level of investment and customization. Crafts deals that will process, including any standard or custom amendments and documentation independently. Finalizes legal amendments reflecting operational and other requirements granted in specific customer situations. Handles objections and negotiates contractual amendments within empowerment as needed. Actively participates in the development of deal strategies to present offers to clients. Engages with stakeholders to ensure that efforts are executed effectively and that milestones are being reached. Ensures that the appropriate value has been sold and that the deployment plan has been considered. Leverages advanced understanding of sales science and operational acumen (e.g., pipeline metrics, closed rates, competitive selling) to establish a strategic sales execution cadence. Develops an outlook on upcoming business opportunities for their territory.

• Proactively identifies business opportunities which vary based on deal lifecycle and artificial intelligence (AI) (e.g., upsell/cross-sell, expanding footprint, transformational). Uses knowledge of both customer and Microsoft commercial strategies to seize new opportunities that grow the Microsoft annuity footprint. Proactively consults internal partners (e.g., account team unit [ATU], specialist team unit [STU]), to maximize pipeline conversion and to identify growth opportunities and solutions. Creates and utilizes multiple equivalent offers (MEOs) that advances internal alignment and maximize business outcomes. Develops and demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of industry and industry trends. Develops customer-centric offers independently by engaging with and aligning account teams around the deal(s) that they are casting.

• Leverages advanced knowledge of customer business needs and desired outcomes to achieve revenue goals using ethical selling methods. Acts as a trusted advisor both internally and with customers in the sales process. Ensures appropriate monetization of commercial solutions. Leads early engagement, planning and ideation process. Coordinates and collaborates with peers and stakeholders to influence account territory planning. Crafts and executes close plan strategies. Aligns language of renewal or negotiation to customer's understanding.

• Leads collaborations with various sellers and business stakeholders in order to achieve revenue targets independently. Leverages critical resources (e.g., deal desk, sales support, partners, finance) to drive business outcomes. Contributes to high levels of strategic conversations internally or externally. Participates in the planning and execution of strategies with partners to ensure that solutions are aligned to customer commercial strategic needs. Applies deep knowledge of solution assessment and expected outcomes to determine how commercial licensing and contracting should be changed to best meet customer needs. Fosters overall success by driving strong team collaboration, cross segment and cross group collaboration. Leads teams by sharing knowledge, supporting the onboarding of others in the same role, and proactively responding to feedback.

• Ensures that customer/partner support/account teams deliver value during lifecycle management planning and that they are aligned with teams on customer/partner priorities, strategies, and budget to better structure deals that drive annuity and cloud growth. Initiates and develops challenger relationships with customers/partner to understand their priorities and strategies, and structures deals that drive value and contribute to Microsoft growth through attainment of revenue-based, share-based, and/or consumption-based quota with minimal guidance. Proactively identifies and balances customer/partner and Microsoft needs when crafting value-based solutions. Represents customer and partner requirements in proposals. Simplifies commercial strategies for customers and partners with minimal guidance. Orchestrates the right resources to solve partner issues in deals. Engages with partners (e.g., licensing solution partner [LSP], cloud solution provider [CSP]) in effective ways to establish customer solutions for the benefit of all parties independently.

• Leverages knowledge of best practices and strategies to accomplish goals. Understands product strategy per solution area. Analyzes competitive positioning and use cases independently. Provides feedback to align pricing and offers commercial strategies to meet customer needs. Demonstrates agility in aligning business strategies within region. Actively pursues learning opportunities and reinforces understanding of local subsidiary strategy.

Mastering Key Skills

• Analyzes deals for risks related to contract growth, partner channel risk, profitability (supported by deal desk as needed), legal issues, and contracting. Assesses and escalates risk as needed. Coaches others on assessment and escalation of risk as needed. Leverages both corporate and local resources. Keeps up to date with current tools. Judges when to take risks (e.g., market making deal).

• Drives adherence to commercial solutions policy for commercial deal execution, inclusive of regulatory laws and principles in local markets, company policies, and guidance for consistent deal making. Coaches sales team to ensure compliance. Maintains and ensures others' sales and negotiation strategies adhere to established guidelines, policies, and legal standards. Partners with high-risk deal desk (HRDD) where applicable and audit teams. Leverages relevant tools including business conduct and integrity, appropriately and confidentially. Actively and promptly raises compliance issues as needed directly to the appropriate compliance organization. Supports less experienced team members in addressing compliance investigations. Pre-empt and advises on potential non-compliance issues and redirect appropriately. Serves as a trusted advisor on compliance (e.g., General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR]). Drives a culture of compliance through the sales deal execution related parts of Microsoft policy (e.g., anti-corruption policy). Ensures that win/win-compliant deal making occurs while commercial solutions.

• Creates and manages commercial plan/contributes to account plan for strategic accounts by mapping out how to maximize qualified medium in size/scope or complex commercial opportunity for the account. Analyzes customer commercial opportunity history, inclusive of discounts, concessions, and consumptions for territory. Anticipates and verifies upcoming renewals as appropriate.

• Partners with leaders when negotiating complex commercial terms in collaboration with the account team and deal manager. Understands stakeholders (priority). Leverages formal negotiation strategies and identifies important factors for successfully negotiating (e.g., anticipates potential vulnerabilities, understands customer measurement of value in order to craft solutions to meet those needs defines walk-away positions). Consults with leaders on rhythm of negotiation team planning and reporting to stakeholders. Utilizes the strategy for the negotiation approach by engaging with senior stakeholders internally and externally. Drives accountability for negotiation outcome(s).