Commercial Sales Executive

Overview

If you are passionate about helping State and Local Governments (SLG) achieve their goals, embrace this era of digital transformation and AI, then you might be interested in joining the US State & Local Government Customer Success team at Microsoft. We are looking to hire a Commercial Sales Executive to join our team.

As a member of this team, you will work with some of Microsoft’s largest and most influential customers in the public sector, helping them leverage Microsoft technology to improve their services, empower their employees, and engage their constituents. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse and talented team of experts, learn from the best practices and insights of the industry, and make a positive impact on the communities you serve. 

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

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. 

Qualifications

Required/minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing, Finance, Communication, Education (or equivalent) or related field AND 5+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work or internship experience
• OR 7+ years sales and negotiation experience
• OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Master's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing (or equivalent) AND 6+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work
• OR Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Information Technology, Law, Marketing, Finance, Communication, Education (or equivalent) or related field AND 7+ years sales and negotiation experience or related work or internship experience
• OR 9+ years sales and negotiation experience OR equivalent experience.

Commercial Sales IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $106,100 - $185,400 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 $144,000 - $203,500 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 September 5, 2024.

Responsibilities

Deal Making

Lead internal and external sales and management teams through commercial construct optimizing for the right level of investment and customization. Optimize deal customization leveraging price and non-price concessions. Identify business opportunities which vary based on deal lifecycle and artificial intelligence (AI). Take relevant steps to make sure deal execution is successful.

Negotiation

Define, negotiate complex commercial terms and lead the strategy for the negotiation approach by engaging with stakeholders.

Collaboration

Develop trusted relationships with key customer stakeholders, partners, Account Team in order to help our customers deliver their business goals and achieve Microsoft revenue targets. 

Key Experiences:

• Seasoned sales and negotiation professional, unafraid of conflict.
• Positive attitude and a passion for working with customers and partners.
• Comfortable speaking at all organizational levels, from the CxO to the procurement / purchasing teams.
• Able to make the best choices for the customer based on their commercial strategic needs.
• Strategic, long-term thinker able to analyze data to identify trends, risks and opportunities.
• Team player and collaborative - high performing individualists will not be successful.
• In-depth and strategic understanding of Microsoft licensing programs and contracting will be essential but not required at hiring.

Deep Proactive Engagement

• Collaborates with various sellers and business stakeholders in order to achieve revenue targets. Leverages critical resources (e.g., business desk, sales support, partners, finance) to drive business outcomes. Orchestrates high levels of strategic conversations internally or externally. Proactively engages with others to align commercial strategy to customer needs. Serves as trusted business partner and advisor to partners to ensure that solutions are aligned to customer commercial strategic needs. Acts as a trusted advisor to determine how commercial licensing and contracting should be changed to best meet customer needs. Drives accountability in resolving cross-functional issues to successful conclusion. Engages in feedback loop to corporate to improve/simplify contractual commercial to meet business needs or market opportunities. Contribute to overall success by driving team collaboration, cross segment and cross group collaboration. Contributes to teams by sharing knowledge, supporting the onboarding of others in the same role and proactively seeking help.
• Leads internal sales and management teams through sales process optimizing for the right level of investment and customization. Accomplishes tasks across stakeholders with appropriate breadth and depth. Crafts deals that will process, including any standard or custom amendments and documentation. Leverages internal resources to assist with customer queries regarding contract terms. Finalizes legal amendments reflecting operational and other requirements. Granted in specific customer situations. Handles objections and may negotiate contractual amendments within empowerment. Contributes to 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 understanding of sales science (e.g., pipeline metrics, closed rates, competitive selling) to establish a strategic sales execution cadence. Analyzes multiple data inputs quickly and develops strategic decision making to ensure the best sales and revenue production and velocity through management team where appropriate. Develops an outlook on upcoming business opportunities for their territory.

Mastering Key Skill

• 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 upcoming renewals as appropriate.
• Ensures 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. Works with high-risk deal desk (HRDD) where applicable, 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 advise on potential non-compliance issues and redirect appropriately. Trusted advisor on compliance (e.g., General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR]). Takes active interest in corporate governance and compliance, stays up to date on compliance issues and shares knowledge with others. 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.