Solution Specialist

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.

A Solution Area Specialist for Azure discovers and qualifies new Application Transformation and/or Modernization projects and opportunities for Azure consumption; drives value from usage of Azure with existing customers by including the use of Advanced Workloads. Identifies market and customer needs and collaborates with internal teams to propose solutions to meet those needs. Orchestrates projects across multiple stakeholder groups including partners. Collects and communicates feedback internally to address partner gaps and make joint proposals. Positions Microsoft solutions in competitive landscape through research and collaboration. Supports business planning for territory.

**Responsibilities**:
Sales Execution
- Brings impactful industry insights into customer engagements and closes deals with customers. Acts as a thought leader across solution areas to advise customers across business functions on digital transformation with a challenger mindset that accounts for customers' business needs and priorities. Leads virtual transformational shifts to drive deployment and create business value for customers. May lead partner integration into account/territory planning and customer engagements.
- Orchestrates with team members on conducting personal campaigns to discover new opportunities and generate new leads. Leads conversations with strategic/high-potential customers (e.g., high-budget, global-account, highly competitive) along with account teams or partners. Facilitates the account team unit (ATU) to build pipeline in collaboration with partners and services. Guides others on social selling. Applies Microsoft's sales process (MSP) to determine the quality of the opportunity and whether to proceed, and educate the customers on how to best address their needs.
- Drives consumption and grow business with existing strategic customers by initiating conversations, guiding others on demos or quotes, and the collaboration with partners or internal teams (e.g., Technical Sales Professionals, global black belts [GBBs]). For licensing transactions and project engagements, ensures rapid and robust deployment plan at point of sale that is validated by services and partners. Identifies, articulates, and facilitates the removal of blockers to consumption by partnering with internal and external stakeholders.
- Explores and assesses the needs of strategic/high-potential customers. Articulates business value and long-term implications for customer business.

Collaborates with internal teams, partners, and services to lead the proposal or development of solutions that align with customer and Microsoft priorities. Analyzes market trends to identify opportunities for new solutions.
- Develops strategies for driving and closing strategic and/or prioritized opportunities. Collaborates with account teams to ensure alignment with the account strategy and plan. Leads deal execution with the deal teams across the organization. Coaches others on the implementation of 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. Engages in conversations with customers to introduce how other workloads could enable digital transformation areas that is aligned with the customer's industry. Has a fundamental understanding of customers' business to initiate conversations with customers on digital transformation in a single solution area, in collaboration with partners and services. Shares learning on digital transformation through seminars, workshops, Webinars, and direct engagement.

Scaling and Collaboration
- Leads the planning and execution on opportunities with resources and partners to cross-sell, up-sell, and co-sell. Identifies, leverages, coordinates partners and resources across solution areas, and supports on-boarding new partners. Validates partner solution relevance for customers. Provides input and feedback to One Commercial Partner (OCP) on developing partner strategies and consumption plans, and connects the partner ecosystems to scale business results.
- Leads the sales orchestration to proactively drive deal closure by identifying and aligning internal stakeholders as well as leveraging and expanding relationships with partners. Applies a holistic approach to build network across territories. Positions opportunities to promote collaboration and participation.

Technical Expertise

provide feedback to other teams (e.g., sales, marketing, engineering) on future product trends or sales blocker.

Sales Excellence
- Builds and transforms new markets by leveraging tech