Customer Program Manager Private Equity

Job content

Microsoft is on a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our culture is centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. In doing so, we create life-changing innovations that impact billions of lives around the world. You can help us to achieve our mission.

The Small and Medium Business (SMB) segment at Microsoft is at the leading edge of our transformation. It is a tremendous growth engine for the company, driven by exponential growth in cloud as well as continued momentum in the traditional on-premises business. Dedicated to empowering every SMB worldwide to achieve more, this high performing segment delivers compelling Microsoft cloud solutions to millions of customers globally, growing revenue and market share while delivering a high level of customer and partner satisfaction.

We are expanding our focus into engaging with Private Equity and therefore are looking to hire new talent into our Private Equity Business Development Team.

The SMB Customer Program Manager is at the center of our transformation, where the focus is on innovating our go to market capability and capacity to best serve SMB customers at scale. This requires continuous innovation and evolution of our sales engagement strategy, while remaining centered on the SMB customer. As the SMB Customer Program Manager you will be the business owner of Microsoft’s SMB Private equity business development and SMB customer advocate across the organization.

To be successful, you must understand the specifics of the German Private Equity market & the engagement with Private Equity to drive customer acquisition engines and upsell/cross-sell motions across services/products and the respective routes to market. You will work with a v-team of key business partners from the partner, products and services, marketing, and operations teams, driving alignment on the SMB strategy through the development of a holistic SMB Private equity business plan, and ensure always on execution with the right level of investments to address SMB customer needs and accelerate their digital transformation.

The SMB Customer Program Manager Private Equity key outcomes / measures of success include:

• Number of Private Equity houses and portfolio investments engaged
• Digital transformation projects and resulting revenue across the Microsoft portfolio
• Case studies and customer advocacy
• Net satisfaction of both Private Equity houses and portfolio investments
  

Responsibilities

The SMB Customer Program Manager achieves impact mainly through:

• Growth and Transformational Sales Leadership: The role is directly accountable for all-up SMB business performance. As the leader of the `One SMB’ v-team, the SMB Customer Program Manager is accountable for landing WW SMB strategy, identifying growth opportunities, prioritizing sales plays, developing the go-to-market execution plan, identifying channel capacity needs and securing necessary investments to ensure Microsoft realizes its full SMB growth potential. The SMB operating model requires a high degree of collaboration across key business partners such as Channel Partner, Product and Commercial Marketing, Digital Sales, Sales Excellence, Finance, etc. The SMB Customer Program Manager is an effective and efficient collaborator and v-team leader able to drive alignment, execution, and results via extended v-teams.
• Customer Advocacy and Market Thought Leadership: The individual should possess deep business insights into local SMB market dynamics, knowledge of political/legislative requirements, and demonstrate strategy leadership in the formulation of a robust business plan working in alignment with key SMB business partners to deliver short term results and build a foundation for long term sustained success. The SMB Customer Program Manager is responsible for supplementing global data with local insights to optimize for customer lifetime value through acquisition, retention and growth strategies leveraging scalable routes to market. The individual should leverage their strong local SMB market insights on customer preferences, competitive dynamics, and digital maturity to execute relevant and timely global core sales plays while identifying local sales plays to optimize market demand.
  

The SMB Customer Program Manager Private Equity is an exciting and highly visible role that engages with the German Private Capital community on a shared vision of success.

You’ll be working with a range of German based Private Equity firms to understand their investment strategy, support due diligence and deal sourcing, engage their portfolio investments and work alongside them to ensure successful implementations of Microsoft solutions and reduced time to value from their investments.

You will be the single point of contact for Private Equity houses into Microsoft, making it easy for them to navigate and get the best out of the relationship across internal teams (sales, marketing, customer success & support) as well as our partner community. You will be the point of escalation and will hold others to account for delivering exceptional experiences to both Private Equity houses and their portfolio investments.

You’ll spend time working with the portfolio investments to understand their desired commercial outcomes and will ensure that they are connected to the right teams and/or partners to deliver on those outcomes. You’ll stay connected throughout to ensure successful delivery of transformation projects and ensuring the CxO community are then enthused to share those experiences with their peers.

You will be the expert in programs and support for Private Equity across all of Microsoft’s portfolio including not just our five clouds but also Linked In, GitHub, Surface and Microsoft Advertising. You’ll understand how each of these areas can benefit Private Equity and will build a strong network across Microsoft to help you achieve impact.

You’ll also build a network of senior leaders who can bring value to Private Equity houses not just from a digital transformation point of view, but also thinking about areas of success such as talent attraction and retention, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, sustainability, accessibility, financial and risk management.

You will be the voice of the Private Equity community back into Microsoft to help us shape our strategy and partnerships for long term mutual benefit ensuring senior leaders are aware of our progress and where we must do better.

Qualifications

Who We Are Looking For

Role

Specifically, this highly visible and strategic role requires a candidate, who possesses the following characteristics

The successful candidate is an experienced sales and marketing leader with deep SMB customer insights, a track record of business strategy development, sales leadership and hands-on execution excellence.

• Ability to set and drive customer strategy at scale, thus translating strategy into concrete actions and marketing/sales motions
• Excellent project management skills and business judgment for results across a range of disciplines including multi-channel sales, marketing, learning programs set-up
• Ability to effectively drive cross-group collaboration, using project management, impact and influence, as well as communication skills
• Strong analytical mindset, but creative in problem solving and entrepreneurial in approach to drive business development strategies. Effective at managing and thriving in ambiguous situations.
  

Additional Requirements For This Role Include

• 7+ years’ experience in within Private Equity, M&A, Financial Auditing and Digital/Technology Consulting
• Understanding the operating model of private investment houses and experience in due diligence (financial, commercial or technological) consulting projects with private equity
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or Engineering
• Engaging C-suite to influence business leaders through value based propositions
• Understanding technology platforms and developing new solutions to business challenges