Strategic Sales and Partnerships Leader, Financial Services

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Drives strategic discussions with executive stakeholders and key decision makers for high-value customers to identify, qualify, prioritize, and accelerate sales opportunities. Directs strategic partnerships for leveraging whitespace analysis and utilizes subject matter expertise to identify and capitalize on business opportunities to bridge market gaps within the assigned market domain, utilizing AI-driven market intelligence tools to assess trends and insights. Provides guidance across teams on solution areas and broader market trends to craft cutting-edge sales strategies that anticipate and meet complex customer priorities and outcomes, incorporating AI-driven predictive analytics to forecast future market needs. Drives partnerships with others cross-organizationally and strategically directs and oversees the creation of cutting-edge solutions that drive AI- and cloud-driven transformations, ensuring alignment with regional and global initiatives, emphasizing the integration of cutting-edge AI technologies and cloud services. Drives sales pipeline reviews with internal executive stakeholders to ensure forecasting accuracy and meeting of sales targets, ensuring the use of AI-powered analytics and forecasting tools to enhance precision. Directs and implements sales strategy tailored to each customer's security priorities, showcasing our dedication to secure, AI-powered transformation and addressing their specific needs within the customer success plan, fostering long-term partnerships through AI-driven insights.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Information Security, or related field AND 8+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management OR equivalent experience.

Additional or preferred qualifications

• Master's Degree in Business Administration (i.e., MBA), Information Technology, or related field AND 12+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Information Security, or related field AND 15+ years experience in technology-related sales or account management OR equivalent experience.
• 10+ years services sales or account management experience.

Required Upon Hire and Critical/Important

Communicating with Impact:

• Effectively communicating the value of solutions to both internal and external business stakeholders, ensuring that mutual objectives and priorities are clearly presented and understood, thereby driving successful outcomes in sales engagements

Conflict Resolution:

• The ability to manage conflict, disharmony, and strife among people and situations, while recognizing and addressing sensitivities.

English Language Proficiency:

• The ability to speak and understand English when giving instructions and directions, and when talking with colleagues, managers, and others for work matters.

Oral Communication:

• The ability to make a verbal message understood and to receive/understand messages during in-person or remote (e.g., telephone) interactions.
• Must Speak fluent Japanese.

Presentations:

• The ability to create and deliver formal presentations to others. This includes sharing information on a range of topics in a clear, concise, engaging and convincing manner; commanding the audienceÂ’s attention; developing effective presentation materials (e.g., handouts, visual aids); and handling questions or argumentative positions from the audience.

Technical Communication:

• The ability to adapt communications around different technologies, products, and services to the audience's level of understanding.

Written Communication:

• The ability to prepare clear, accurate, and understandable written text, and follow the basic rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. This may include memos, emails, proposals, reports, and professional or general correspondence.

Strong Financial services background:

• Requires strong financial services expertise to interpret industry regulations, understand market trends, identify customer needs, and communicate complex financial solutions effectively to clients and stakeholders.

Cultivating Strategic Partnerships:

• Orchestrating and maintaining strong business relationships and partnerships, while nurturing executive relationships to establish credibility as an active listener and trusted advisor. Managing relationships and projecting executive presence to cultivate effective collaborative partnerships with customers, partners, and stakeholders, driving business growth.

Selling Solutions:

• Selling solutions by demonstrating value, persuasively negotiating mutually beneficial agreements, and consulting with stakeholders to challenge conventional thinking. Creatively navigating the sales process and using storytelling to envision transformation with the customer, effectively connecting anecdotes, data insights, and technical value to maximize and accelerate customer business impact.

Customer Engagement:

• Assesses and qualifies sales opportunities following sales frameworks and guidelines, ensuring alignment with AI-enhanced sales methodologies and best practices.
• Directs strategy development for driving and closing strategic, high-value opportunities. Leads partnerships across organizations (e.g., Account Team Unit [ATU], CSU, ISD, GPS) to ensure deal orchestration and seamless handoffs throughout the deal lifecycle.
• Establishes best practices to gain customer trust, secure deals, and proactively mitigate risks to enhance sales activities across the territory.
• Directs and implements sales strategy tailored to each customer's security priorities, showcasing our dedication to secure, AI-powered transformation and addressing their specific needs within the customer success plan, fostering long-term partnerships through AI-driven insights.
• Champions partner team interaction, expertly navigates resources and fosters lasting relationships that activate co-selling strategies that drive partner attach to each opportunity through every stage in the sales lifecycle.
• Champions partner organization connections (i.e. GPS) that foster enduring relationships, shared gains, partner health and alignment with execution plans to accelerate customer value realization at scale.

Sales Strategy:

• Oversees strategic partnerships and directs innovative AI and cloud solutions to align with regional and global priorities. Develops strategies that position Microsoft as a market leader, builds strong customer relationships, and acts as a trusted advisor to advance digital transformation.
• Leverages subject matter expertise and AI-driven market intelligence tools to identify new business opportunities and close market gaps. Synthesizes market trends to guide strategy and champions proactive market analysis.
• Advises teams on solutions and market trends to create future-oriented sales strategies using predictive analytics. Leads cross-functional teams to deliver innovative, customer-focused solutions and bridge identified market gaps.
• Drives executive-level discussions to prioritize and accelerate key sales opportunities, fosters internal and external partnerships to enhance customer success, aligns AI transformation visions with business goals, and mentors others on integrating security principles for trust and compliance.

Relationship Management:

• Collaborates with Account Executives to manage and strengthen customer relationships through regular engagement and feedback sessions. Utilises insights from the consulting team to monitor project status, address issues proactively, and implement recovery plans to enhance customer satisfaction. Facilitates connections between CXO-level customers and Microsoft executives to build strong partnerships and encourage direct feedback.
• Works closely with core account, software, and customer success teams to coordinate efforts and foster productive relationships across Microsoft partner groups. Shares customer insights to drive deeper engagement and supports Microsoft’s account and solution teams in delivering value.

Deep Proactive Engagement:

• Facilitates strategic internal and external conversations to align solutions with customer needs, collaborating across teams and serving as a trusted business partner and advisor.
• Builds deep relationships with strategic customers, understanding their priorities to structure complex deals that deliver value for both customers and Microsoft.
• Represents customer needs in proposals, manages procurement and legal aspects, resolves issues, and shares industry knowledge to influence business practices.
• Identifies and acts on strategic opportunities using data and knowledge of Microsoft and customer strategies, driving deal growth and upsells while ensuring profitability and simplifying renewals.
• Handles objections, negotiates complex contracts, and leads deal design and documentation across stakeholders.
• Applies industry knowledge and competitive analysis to shape solutions, leverages investment options, and aligns negotiations with customer outcomes, demonstrating advanced understanding of market needs and Microsoft's competitive advantage.