Americas Influence Lead

In the Consumer Sales Organization (CSO), our purpose is to earn fans and drive growth by building emotional connections to delight and empower everyone. We engage with consumers globally throughout their shopping journeys, navigating both physical storefronts and digital visits across Direct and Partner Channels in Gaming, Windows, M365 and Surface. Together with our ecosystem partners, we strategize and implement plans for customer engagement and economic growth.

As a member of our team, you’ll be part of growing a multi-billion-dollar business, charting new areas of innovation, and impacting billions of lives around the world. You also will be a part of a culture centered on embracing a growth mindset, a theme of inspiring excellence, and encouraging teams and leaders to bring their best each day. If that appeals to you, it’s an exciting time to be here in CSO.

In the role of Americas Influence Lead, you will develop our strategy and execution plan for building product knowledge and brand advocacy with retail sellers and driving conversion with consumers in-store and online through our key retail partners across our Gaming and Devices & Creativity customer solution areas. You’ll work with channel marketers to understand product roadmaps, priorities and seasonal campaigns to activate and amplify through our evangelism platforms. You’ll facilitate a globally consistent, locally relevant approach to influence consumers and retail sellers in targeted areas of the consumer shopping journey. Success is measured by execution excellence, audience engagement & education, conversion, sell-through and brand love.

You will act as a trusted advisor to drive strategic decisions about how we engage and influence our partners’ sellers and customers through product knowledge and brand advocacy. In this role, you’ll be the voice of the consumer and the face of the brand at retail to support our business ambitions and business goals. A true omnichannel function, you will leverage the power of people to engage with our audiences across digital and physical channels, building a community of Microsoft representatives and trainers to expand the reach and impact of the brand.

There is an art and science to delivering great influence programs. We are looking for someone with a broad-based understanding of evangelism and influencer marketing, but also a data-driven mindset to evaluate program effectiveness, establish best practices, and continuously enhance learning experiences.

Working with the Americas Partner Readiness & Influence Team, you will shape our product storytelling, how we humanize the sales motion and drive advocacy for our products. You’ll be joining a tight-knit global community with deep experience and a passion for transforming traditional labor programs into omnichannel readiness and influencer marketing. Being a member of Consumer Sales Organization Marketing team means you’ll be part of a cross-functional team focused on driving channel marketing for an exciting and growing ecosystem. You’ll have the opportunity to share feedback around store-level and market trends, product feedback and establish best practices for influencing retail sales professionals and consumers, leveraging the global infrastructure for support and shared platforms.

This role is flexible in that you can work up to 50% from home based on proximity to a Microsoft office.

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.

Responsibilities

• Leverage global/regional guidance to build strategy & execution plan that drives synergies and efficiencies across the region. Manage agency teams, ensuring program effectiveness and execution excellence. Assess and drive performance regionally, sharing insights and best practices across teams and stakeholders.
  
  

Influence and Product Evangelism

• Develop and execute the vision and strategic plan for how we engage and influence our partners’ sellers and customers. Drive advocacy and be the trusted training source for the Microsoft brand, deliver world class training and meet goals for Retail Pros trained, consumer training, influencer training and social training.
• Use a blended learning model to build consumer education, retail staff proficiency and drive completion of learning content, virtual event attendance and face-to-face training activations.
• Lead training program execution for Microsoft Retail Pro community across Americas region. Leverage worldwide assets, platforms and tools to develop local training content, sales tools and consumer-facing content. Partner with WW CCPM, CSO Channel & Partner Marketing, local Field Labor teams to execute partner plans.
• Based on Global Editorial calendar, deliver robust local editorial content that leverages our people to deliver compelling content across all learning levers (social, video, livestreaming and in-person/virtual events) that drive engagement and expand reach.
• Manage and activate regional ExpertZone social channels, optimizing performance through content analytics, established frequencies and community management.
• Drive innovation by utilizing resources and talents across the organization to progress the capabilities of the training organization (media, social commerce, AI, internal training enhancements)
  
  

Execution Excellence

• Aggregate consumer, product and retail feedback leveraging data capture & reporting tools.
• Drive creation and review of monthly and quarterly feedback/reporting in support of regular business milestones.
• Analyze performance results against execution activities to identify opportunities and actions.
• Assess program impact via ROI and cost to serve analysis.
• Drive brand consistency and deep understanding of the retail, competitive and marketing landscape.
• Track and manage budget assigned to each project or category to ensure that it’s at or below the approved spend.
• Embody our Culture and Values
  
  

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Public Relations or related field AND 4+ years digital, retail, channel marketing, marketing, retail sales, or commercial sales experience
  • OR equivalent experience.
    

Additional Or Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Public Relations or related field AND 5+ years digital, retail, channel marketing, marketing, retail sales, or commercial sales experience
  • OR Master's Degree in Business Administration, or related field AND 3+ years Digital, Retail, Channel Marketing, Marketing, Retail Sales, or commercial sales experience
  • OR equivalent experience.
• 1+ year(s) project leadership/generic management experience.
• Experience with retail relationships, an in depth understanding of store operations, readiness & in-store and digital selling motions.
• Ability to manage and inspire large, indirect teams through training, evangelism and targeted goals/priorities.
• Operationally savvy – a master project planner and time maximizer, passionate about metrics and insights.
• Proven management capability in driving exceptional business results within a positive work/health culture.
• Direct experience interfacing with partners and a proven track record delivering growth/performance metrics.
• Understand the digital and physical buying journey (omni channel), well-versed in sales channels, commerce platforms. Experience landing and coordinating cross-discipline training and sales programs.
• Track record of marketing execution excellence and ROI through planning, operations-savvy, creative execution, readiness and analytics/insights.
• Experience managing ambiguity and rapid change – demonstrate agility and risk-taking.
  

Channel Marketing IC4 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $103,800 - $200,300 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $133,700 - $219,200 per year. Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here: https://careers.microsoft.com/... will accept applications for the role until August 6, 2024.

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. Consistent with applicable law, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, immigration status, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran or military status, race, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.