Strategic Account Director

As a **Strategic Account Director and Global Business Manager for a Japanese Global Retail Company**, you will creates and lead strategies for high-impact/high-profile accounts that yield high-volume sales and open new opportunities for both Microsoft and its partners that are aligned to goals, outcomes, and forecasts. Proactively build and expands strategic network of key internal and external partners and decision makers to ensure execution of core tasks and account transactions, and to provide a comprehensive account management experience. Develop a broad and deep understanding of customers' industries and priorities to identify opportunities to drive optimizations and new digitalizations based on customers' strategies. Understand customer drivers of business and technology transformation and leverage deep knowledge of customer's business to engage internal teams to accelerate co-innovation and digital transformation and strategy. Cultivate, leverage, and manage a strategic set of relationships and uses Microsoft business-value sales strategies throughout multiple levels of the customer's organization to establish strong alignment on long-term goals and secure buy-in and execution. Leverage a strong knowledge of and experience with Microsoft's product landscape, solutions, and strategy to generate insights, provide thought leadership, and address customer's needs and translate needs into Microsoft solutions.

**Responsibilities**:
**Account Management**:

- Orchestrates the execution of strategies for the assigned account to ensure engagements yield high-volume sales, drive plans to increase revenue potential, and open new opportunities for both Microsoft and the partners, aligned to goals, budgets, and forecasts. Leads, challenges, and inspires team to focus on top priorities and challenges to drive business case. Leverages deep industry expertise to anticipate industry direction, ecosystem, and transformation.
- Proactively expands strategic network of key internal and external partners and decision makers, including vertical industry partners, to ensure execution of core tasks and account transactions and to provide a comprehensive account management experience. Leads regular meetings for strategic accounts with relevant partners. Influences transformation for partners to build innovative solutions.
- Leads efforts with key internal and external partners including vertical industry partners with business and technical decision makers in developing, sharing, and promoting mutually beneficial, long-term, customizable account plans to grow sales and partner impact, leveraging deep relationships, broad influence, and in-depth industry expertise. Leads efforts to share Microsoft and partner strategies across other segments of the customer's account and ensure customer success in the acquisition, implementation, and consumption of Microsoft's and partner's services and solutions. Collaborates across organization and partners in discussions to impact the broader ecosystem (e.g., passing legislation).
- Proactively solicits feedback on additional needs, products, and features to develop targeted strategies for customers. Demonstrates a strong understanding of the customer's business model to articulate growth opportunities, leveraging industry expertise to shape ecosystem. Influences relevant (internal and external) stakeholders and resources to drive change on behalf of the customer and to enhance team capabilities, improve Microsoft offerings, and adapt Microsoft's messaging to the assigned account.

**Strategic Thinking**:

- Leverages Microsoft sales strategies to articulate Microsoft's and partners' point of view and creates deep connections with decision makers through multiple levels of the customers' organization to drive purchase decisions and increase interaction and participation, leveraging relevant tools and resources (e.g., LinkedIn). Leverages relationships in ecosystem to address highly complex political blockers and drive execution for the customer.
- Engages in strategic discussions by discussing ideas to transform customer business models to better serve their own customers, increase profitability and market share, and transform the ecosystem. Promotes and implements a more holistic digital approach between Microsoft and the customer.
- Leverages unique, strategic industry-focused business insights and opportunities to create long-term, competitive advantage for the customer. Provides thought leadership and strategic co-innovation ideas.

**Customer Engagement**:

- Proactively owns and elevates a transformative customer stakeholder engagement strategy to foster customer trust and brand growth and loyalty. Sets organizational tone for building and maintaining long-term strategic customer relationships and for driving larger impact for the customer. Proactively defines and executes governance model to ensure mapping across seniority levels.
- Proactively develops a strong, comprehensive unde