Microsoft Solution Area Specialist - Azure Infra 

Japan, Chiyoda 

955013519

As an Azure Infrastructure Specialist mainly covering our strategic accounts in, you are a solution sales leader with deep business expertise and technical knowledge within our enterprise sales organization, working with our most important customers. You will lead a virtual team of sales, technical, and services resources to help customers realize the digital transformation through cloud computing. A core competency of the role is to advance the engagement process to achieve/exceed quarterly Azure Infrastructure consumption targets for related workloads in your assigned accounts. You will be a trusted advisor and infrastructure subject matter expert with core capability and expertise in datacenter migration and modernization, security, etc., with Cloud economics.

You will work with customers to help them achieve their business priorities and help guide customer journey through infrastructure modernization. You will help customers evaluate their applications and business requirements, recommend solutions that meet their requirements and demonstrate these solutions to win the technical decision. You will need to support customers to remove roadblocks to deployment and drive customer satisfaction. You will help our customers take advantage of our unique platform and lead infrastructure solutions to realize the value of digital transformation.

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Proven 5-7+ years technology-related sales or account management experience in IT infrastructure.
  o OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, or related field AND 4+ years technology-related sales or account management experience.
• Engages in conversations with customers to introduce how our workloads could enable digital transformation areas that is aligned with the customer's industry. Initiates conversations with customers on digital transformation in a solution area, in collaboration with partners and services. Shares learning on digital transformation through seminars, workshops, webinars, and direct engagement.
• Collaborates with team members to discover new opportunities. Drives incremental revenue growth through personal campaigns (e.g., portfolio analysis) or internal sources (e.g., Marketing). Collaborates with account teams, architects, partners, or services to track and qualify new opportunities. Collaborates with other teams (e.g., account teams) and services to build pipeline. Interfaces with customers and builds relationships via social selling. Applies Microsoft's sales process (MSP) to determine the quality of the opportunity and whether to proceed.
• Identifies opportunities to drive consumption and grow business with existing customers by initiating conversations, providing demos or quotes, and collaborating with partners or internal teams (e.g., Technical Sales Professionals, Global Black Belts). For licensing transactions and project engagements, ensures rapid and robust deployment plan at point of sale that is validated by services and partners.
• Identifies customer business needs and technical readiness. Collaborates with internal teams, partners, and services to propose prioritized solutions that align with customers' needs. Leverages the value propositions to communicate business impact of proposed solutions. Listens to customers to understand business outcomes.
• Develops an understanding of external stakeholders' mapping, including who the decision makers and influencers are. Participates with account teams (e.g., Account Executives) in communication with business or subject matter decision makers at the customer's/partner's business.
• Implements strategies to help accelerate the closing of deals in collaboration with other team members. Implements close plans (e.g., how to map timeline, engage the customer, get customer buy-in and commitment) to de-risk and drive predictable deal closure.
• Effective territory/account management: planning, opportunity qualification and creation, analysis, value engineering, services/partner engagement, opportunity management, pipeline management and deal negotiation.
• Problem Solver. Ability to solve customer problems through cloud technologies.
• Business Value. Ability to utilize tools such as the Azure Pricing Calculator, Azure ROI Tool, and Azure TCO Tool to generate consumption project cost estimates and demonstrate Cloud economics value to customers, is preferable.
• Collaborative. Orchestrate and influence virtual teams to pursue sales opportunities and lead v-teams through influence.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Azure Infrastructure and Security Services. Understanding of Microsoft Azure Cloud platform with emphasis on Microsoft Infra services, hybrid cloud technologies, developer tools and services and/or complementing solutions.
• Consumption Project Management. Experience leveraging cloud adoption methodologies and frameworks to structure application migration projects.
• Prior work experience in a consulting or solutions sales position working with Infra solutions ranging from IaaS, VMware, SAP, Hybrid Cloud and Security solutions.
• Technical Frameworks. Ability to leverage technical frameworks such as the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure to guide customers and partners through the cloudadoption journey.
• Leadership. Experience in leading large cloud engagements, especially those involving Data migration and application modernization projects.
• Competitive Landscape. Knowledge of enterprise software solutions and cloud and datacenter infrastructure competitor landscape including AWS and GCP, among others.
• Partners. Understanding of partner ecosystems and the ability to leverage partner solutions to solve customer needs.
• Certifications. Azure Administrator Associate certified or equivalent knowledge.
  

Sales Execution

• Engages in conversations with customers aligned to their industry to introduce how other workloads could enable digital transformation areas that is aligned with the customer's industry and turns opportunities into deals. Initiates conversations with customers on digital transformation in one or more solution areas, in collaboration with partners and services. Creates guiding examples of digital transformation through seminars, workshops, webinars, and direct engagement.
• Collaborates with team members to discover new opportunities. Drives incremental revenue growth through personal campaigns (e.g., portfolio analysis) or internal sources (e.g., Marketing). Collaborates with account teams, partners, or services to track and qualify new opportunities. Collaborates with other teams (e.g., account teams) and services to build pipeline. Interfaces with customers and builds relationships via social selling. Applies Microsoft's sales process (MSP) to determine the quality of the opportunity and whether to proceed.
• Identifies opportunities to drive consumption and grow business with existing customers by initiating conversations, providing demos or quotes, and collaborating with partners or internal teams (e.g., Technical Sales Professionals, Global Black Belts. For licensing transactions and project engagements, ensures rapid and robust deployment plan at point of sale that is validated by services and partners.
• Identifies customer business needs and technology readiness. Contributes to the development of solutions in collaboration with internal teams, partners, and services. Proposes prioritized solutions that align with customers' needs. Articulates the business value of proposed solutions.
• Proactively builds external stakeholders' mapping. Collaborates with account teams (e.g., Account Executives) to identify and engage senior business subject matter decision makers at the customer's/partner's business.
• Implements strategies to accelerate the closing of deals. Contributes input on strategies to drive and close prioritized opportunities. Coaches less experienced team members in deal plan execution. Implements close plans (e.g., how to map timeline, engage the customer, get customer buy-in and commitment) to de-risk and drive predictable deal closure.

Scaling and Collaboration

• Collaborates with One Commercial Partner (OCP) and with a network of partners to cross-sell and up-sell. Identifies new partners by researching and discussing with partners on customer scenarios. Develops joint proposal with partners. Contributes to developing partner strategies to address gaps in partner capabilities.
• Applies the orchestration model to leverage and expand relationships with internal stakeholders and partners (e.g., Enterprise Operating Unit). Navigates the MSFT organization to bring the best impact to the customer.

Technical Expertise

• Leads conversations and sets up events within Microsoft. Mentors others and develops strategies for best practice sharing across subsidiaries. Contributes ideas that can be instituted across Microsoft.
• Initiates conversations with prospective customers/partners at events to expand external network. Acts as a subject matter expert in one or more solution area(s).*
  • Collaborates with the 'compete' global black belts (GBB) to analyze competitor products, solutions, and/or services and implements strategies to position Microsoft against competitors in customer communication. Proactively provides analysis of the competitive landscape in supported solution area. Evaluates opportunities and makes recommendations on pursuit or withdrawal. Holistic value of MSFT platform versus single-point solution that positions MSFT favorably against competitors.

Sales Excellence

• Collaborates with partners and resources and leverages customer insights or industry knowledge. Contributes to exploring business and emerging opportunities to optimize the portfolio and support customer innovation.
• Reviews feedback report and coaches others on ensuring customer/partner satisfaction and decreasing dissatisfaction by establishing recovery action plans to improve clients' overall experience. Manages and/or orchestrates sales and delivery success through the account team and pursuit team.
• Engages with internal and external stakeholders on business planning, Rhythm of Business (ROB) meetings to review and plan for accounts in the assigned territory.
• Collaborates with extended sales team, partners, and marketing to conduct business analysis (e.g., whitespace analysis, identify industry trends) to pursue high-potential customers and develop a target list of potential business.
• Manages the end-to-end business of the assigned territory. Conducts forecasting for accounts and develops a portfolio and territory plan to drive intentional selling aligned with strategic priorities.
• Completes required training and obtains relevant product and role certifications aligned to the role and workload/industry.

Other

• Embody our and