Good afternoon everyone! It's been quite some time since I've visited the forums. However, just like back when I was in the community, if I needed something System Center related; MyITForum.com was the answer! My name is Christopher Urban and I'm a Datacenter TSP for US Education. I've been in role for almost 7 years. What I'm looking for are two motivated and technical individuals to join me on the US Education Team at Microsoft selling Microsoft datacenter solutions (Windows Server and System Center 2012). It's a tall order but I'm looking for someone with experience across the stack of System Center as well as down the stack with Windows Server (i.e. AD, virtualization, storage, clustering, etc.). The BEAUTIFUL thing is that I'm looking to fill two positions; one in the East Region and one in the West. The BEAUTIFUL thing is that it's not location based such that you have to be living in a specific city. You only need to be in the region of choice but have the willingness to travel through the region.
I've copied one of the job descriptions from the Microsoft website however feel free to forward your resumes on to me at
curban@microsoft.com. We're looking to fill these roles quick (interviews have started) so if you're reading this and it's two weeks old, please disregard. Thanks and I look forward to some great resumes! Thanks everyone!
Job Category: Sales
Location: United States, United States - Non Location Specific
Job ID: 806397 90709
Division: Sales
The Microsoft US Education Specialist team is seeking a highly motivated Data Center technical sales specialist with a solid understanding of the Dynamic Data Center, Private Cloud, and Core Infrastructure solutions: Windows Server, Virtualization, and Management (System Center) for the West Region (CA or WA).
The US Education Specialist Team Unit is a national team serving both K12 and higher education customers across the US. We are seeking a highly energetic, self-motivated and extremely talented Technical Specialist to join our Core Infrastructure selling team as a Data Center Technical Sales Professional in the Education STU. I this role you will be tasked with developing opportunities for our data center solutions, competing against VMware as well as evangelizing Microsoft’s overall vision around scalable data center technologies. You will drive US Education sales through solid solutions expertise, effective sales and presentation skills, and superior customer focus.
Position responsibilities are:
1. As part of the Core Infrastructure Team work to develop sales strategies that can be leveraged across the US Education business.
2. Meet or exceed Data Center revenue targets in for both the Managed and Breadth education space all up for core infrastructure products (including Windows Server and System Center).
3. Manage a set of objectives (commitments) that leverage experience in customer and partner engagements, deep competitive product knowledge and positioning, data center workload knowledge and opportunity management.
4. Drive key workload opportunities and track individual sales pipeline for data center solutions working with account managers and team members.
5. Drive deployment of solutions to achieve customer satisfaction and reference accounts / case studies for future sales evidence.
6. Ensure the Account Manager and Account Technology Specialist communities are equipped to sell core infrastructure Solutions at the 100-200 level (feature, function, benefit and technical skills), articulate deployment strategies, and prepared for product launches and introductions.
7. Develop in-depth understanding of core infrastructure products & services, related solutions, and the value they bring for solving business problems in education.
8. Be the competitive sales leader for virtualization and Windows Server platform for the US Education Specialist Team Unit team.
9. Cultivate relationships with large system integrators and local partners to integrate them into the sales process.
10. Participate in Monthly Business Reviews with Education and BMO Leadership.
11. Develop and maintain Standard Play content for the Data center Workload within EDU.
The ideal candidate will have 7-10 years of experience in technical sales with excellent organization, communication, and technical problem solving skills. The candidate will also have a general understanding of business decision sales cycles and solution selling sales processes. Candidate must be familiar with the competitive landscape around Virtualization, Server management technologies and deployment solutions. Education-specific (HED or K12) selling experience is also highly desirable.
Requirements, Skills and Qualifications:
Demonstrated expertise in positioning and delivering technical sales engagements (Design Sessions, Proof of Concepts, technical presentations) technical audiences and IT decision makers by reinforcing the technology value to the customer’s overall business pain and/or strategic opportunities.
In depth technical knowledge of Windows Server, Hyper-V, System Center and Active Directory technologies.
Demonstrated strategic time management and multitasking skills.
Strong, proven track record of consistently holding or exceeding quota using a consultative/solution selling approach, focused on solving Enterprise customer problems.
Engaging at deep technical levels within assigned opportunities and being able to translate how Virtualization and Server platform technology solves business problems. Is a resourceful problem-solver, leveraging internal and partner resources where and when needed to do what’s right for the customer and for the organization.
Working effectively within a virtual team, taking strategic direction from opportunity owners and considering inputs from team members.
Listening to customers (as opposed to telling/selling), probing for business process pains and opportunities, in an effort to meet or exceed their expectations.
Leveraging partner-facing readiness activities to continuously find ways to scale capacity.
This position can be based anywhere in the West Region, San Francisco or Silicon Valley preferred
50% Travel required.