Senior Sales Business Development Manager at Microsoft

This role will report into the ATO Managing Director and can be based out of Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria or South Africa. The Snr BDM will be a key member of the ATO leadership team and will work closely with the ATO lead in execution of strategic AI transformation partnerships to drive digital transformation in Africa targeting African and Global MNCs, African governments; Start ups & SMEs.

The Senior Sales Business Development Manager plays a key role in Microsoft's ATO enablement and growth strategy. This position calls for an agile and enterprising individual who can handle multiple tasks and quickly learn as the ATO expands its mandate through AI transformation journey. The individual will need to achieve results by effectively navigating matrix organizations and working with the Microsoft Africa leadership team—particularly country managers—to execute on bespoke country value propositions.

Finally, you will be co-leading the unconventional partnerships and project workstreams that will be driving AI transformation at scale across the African continent.

Responsibilities

Some of the key responsibilities will include but not be limited to: -

Drive business growth 

• Identifies suitable Multi-National Customers (MNCs), SMBs, StartUps, and large pan-African organizations for partnership or sales by assessing their needs and defining value propositions. This involves evaluating, prioritizing, and pursuing market opportunities by identifying, quantifying, and qualifying potential areas where customers can leverage Microsoft platforms/products. Contributes to opportunity evaluation and leads account planning with partners to set and prioritize goals for realistic targets.
• Recognizes and involves various internal teams (such as Global Accounts, Downstream, product, engineering, finance, legal, sales, marketing) and business leaders to help shape and align the strategy. Develops strategic partner/customer deals for a commercial framework that aligns with business objectives and addresses the current state and requirements of partners/customers, maintaining the appropriate pace and coordination with customers.
• Integrates key market factors (competition, economy, industry) into strategic deals for optimal ROI. Focuses deeply on customers and strategic growth to enhance customer presence and loyalty by incorporating feedback. Develops pipelines and opportunities into viable deals.
• Fosters a robust customer-centric approach in strategic planning and involves the customer throughout the process. Utilizes insights from past engagements to refine strategies effectively. Enhances comprehension of customer requirements, secures internal agreement, and coordinates partners to execute the strategy.

Drive and deliver operational efficiency including programme management

• Promote ongoing improvement throughout the ATO business by creating a culture where team members are committed to outcomes and empowered to make changes. This includes driving investments, reporting on KPIs, ensuring business development team members meet revenue and impact goals, and collaborating with both internal teams and external customers and partners. Collaborating with the ATO lead, the Senior BDM will oversee strategic programs and execution workstreams for major AI transformation partnerships across Africa.

Stakeholder engagement

• Identifies key executive-level stakeholders within customers to collaborate with Business Development for new business opportunities. Orchestrates sales and partnership activities with customers/partners, acting as their advocate within internal teams. Promotes awareness of and connects with key influencers, showcasing Microsoft's value to develop effective customer strategies. Manages connections between Microsoft stakeholders and customers, forging strategic relationships across various engagements.
• Builds trusted advisor relationships with leaders and managers across functions, representing the organization to regional leadership. Initiates actions by influencing cross-functional teams (finance, engineering, legal, commercial, product, sales) and multi-country team members. Manages resources, ensuring availability and proper allocation. Identifies and drives strategic and communication alignment across functions for the benefit of customers/partners. Designs internal processes, influences commitments, and contributes to feedback loops with stakeholders to align resources and support strategic growth. Develops internal strategies for orchestrating sales opportunities, particularly in solution sales management (cloud, data), to enhance capabilities effectively.

Deal Negotiation

• Engages in discussions with customers and partners to align on and identify mutual needs and goals for the region. Negotiates and influences both current and new customers and partners for long-term planning to create a strategically-oriented deal. Identifies and collaborates with key internal stakeholders (e.g., product, engineering, finance, legal, sales, marketing) to gain support and progress negotiations. Ensures financial responsibility and alignment with profit and loss strategies. Helps raise awareness about required protections, compliance, or security regulations within the market.

Closing the Deal

• Completes beneficial customer/partner agreements by executing the strategy with internal teams (e.g., Sales). Helps create an action plan covering all strategic aspects to close the deal, integrating reports, risk analyses, and assessing value. Participates in public relations and communications for the deal. Collaborates with necessary internal stakeholders (e.g., finance, engineering, legal, commercial, product, sales) to ensure a successful deal closure. Works with Microsoft's legal team to finalize contracts and ensure compliance.

Reporting

• Analyzes, enhances, and executes communication strategies by applying reports. Offers improvement suggestions for long-term strategies and outcomes across portfolios. Makes decisions based on ROI, profit and loss reports, and lessons learned. Uses insights from financial and strategic reports to recommend actions like error correction or accelerating successes. Suggests reporting improvements to Microsoft for better insights. Aligns stakeholders by providing up-to-date financial forecasts and keeping everyone informed. Identifies and resolves issues from leadership teams, escalating when necessary.

Compliance

• Personally, commit to generate and protect Microsoft trust by modeling integrity every day and contributing to ethical sales and sustainable growth. 

Qualifications

• 8-12+ years of experience in core sales experience, partner channel development, business development, alliance management in the technology industry
• Executive presence and ability to influence business leaders through business value propositions
• Experience with technology platforms and developing new product and business solutions
• Working knowledge of cloud business models & how apps/services are brought to market
• Strong experience of managing virtual teams across functions and geographies:
• Inclusive and collaborative – driving teamwork and cross-team alignment
• Strong partner relationship management and solution development skills
• Evidence of managing and reporting against opex investments
• Strong communication and presentation skills with a high degree of comfort
• Challenger mentality leveraging internal and/or external resources, conflict resolution, and follow through
• Bachelor's degree desired (Sales, Marketing, Business Operations) MBA preferred