US Air Force Enterprise Account Manager

Manages one or several larger accounts or acts as the account lead for a substantial part of a top account. Understands the customer’s IT and business goals, priorities, requirements and trials. Adds value by understanding, and implementing HPE’s strategy. Drives business performance for all HPE BUs and manages the portfolio mix to optimize profitability of the account. Accountable for pipeline building; accountable for and supportive in deal closing and orchestrating the deal team. Builds and develops relevant customer relationship networks with key influencers and decision makers in IT and business. Develops and engages with the extended partner ecosystem to maximize HPE’s presence in the account. Constantly develops information technology industry knowledge to position HPE’s portfolio in the account. Orchestrates, engages, guides and provides feedback to the extended account team members. Acts as customer’s advocate inside HPE. Plans for accounts to deliver results through the financial year and beyond.

Management Level Definition:

Unique mastery and recognized authority on relevant subject matter knowledge including technologies, theories and techniques. Contributes to the development of innovative  ideas. Successfully operates in the most complex disciplines, in which the company must operate to be successful. Provides highly innovative solutions. Manages large, cross-division functional teams or projects that affect the organization's long-term goals and KPI's. May participate in cross-division, multi-function teams. Provides mentoring and guidance to lower level employees. Routinely exercises independent judgment in developing methods, techniques and criteria for achieving goals. Develops strategy and sets functional policy and direction. Acts as a functional manager within area of expertise but does not manage other employees as a primary job function.

Responsibilities

• Articulates a two-way connection between the customer's core KPIs, business priorities and initiatives, and the plan to support the customer with IT solutions. Influences the choices made by customer executives including the C-level through credibly describing the value of HPE's solutions and their relevance to the customer's priorities and effectively building relationships with the customer. Positions HPE strategy and solutions in such a way that the customer sees that HPE is critically important to their business in the short, medium, and long term. When appropriate, understands the innovation agenda and digital journey of the customer, and contributes to them. Independently builds a compelling business value framework for the customer. In order to create a transformational business value framework, industry knowledge is often essential.
• Proactively builds and executes a plan to drive growth and profitability across HPE's portfolio, in a structured and recurring way. Continuously accelerates growth in HPE's strategic value portfolio through positioning these solutions with an ever-widening network within a customer. Formulates and presents technology choices for the customer that will expand HPE's presence and margin in the account. Actively leverages HPE programs and tools (e.g. Executive Sponsors, BU deal support, and supply chain programs) to improve business performance. Significantly contributes to internal reviews connected to deals and sales planning.
• Actively engages with the customer to identify opportunities, starting from the higher levels of the customer organization. Translates customers' business obstacles and goals into IT opportunities in a compelling way. Proactively ensures a strong and rightsized pipeline funnel from the account team. Manages and governs pipeline building activities for the account, delegating to other account team members as appropriate. Identifies and develops high value opportunities for short, mid, and long term success. Proactively manages early engagements. Accountable for deal closure. Ensures end to end clear governance and ownership throughout the team, and across all deals in the pipeline. Drives deals of high complexity and size to closure through managing a multi-disciplinary team, including partners.
• Knowingly invests in maintaining and developing a professional relationship network within the customer to maximize efficiency and effectiveness for HPE. Understands and leverages the underlying concept for the customer organization's functioning. Builds influential relationships with executives including the C-level when necessary. Proactively defines an effective engagement model with the customer's key influencers and decision makers.
• Develops and maintains comprehensive view of the partner landscape in the account - from both IT and vertical industry perspectives. Proactively develops partner relationships. Runs an active governance process for the partner network for the account. Works with the Partner Business Manager to assess and update the partner strategy for the account.
• Constantly develops and updates expertise in IT technology. Engages effectively with the customer's CTO/CIO. Articulates relevant modern trends in IT and presents them to the C-level within the customer when appropriate. Describes portfolio pieces in detail and references their use in other customers. Mentors others within HPE.
• Actively builds, develops and manages the extended account team. Runs a comprehensive governance with the extended team and empowers the account team to engage on different levels within the account. Establishes a recurring process to provide feedback to the account team members and the relevant managers. Actively works with relevant managers to provide development opportunities for extended team members.
• Provides feedback into other HPE organizations and coordinates with other customer facing HPE organizations to improve the customer experience. Fully utilizes the entire set of HPE tools and processes for customer advocacy. Effectively leverages the existing tools, processes and resources to continuously assure a high level of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Fully owns the development and execution of a comprehensive account business plan for defined accounts. Oversees the collective effort to build and maintain both strategic and tactical elements of the plan. Shares and aligns the plan with relevant stakeholders of the account.

Classification Guidance

The sections below help differentiate between levels to enable consistency.

Education and Experience

• University or Bachelor's Degree preferred, or equivalent experience. Engineering or technology education, advanced degree or MBA desired.
• Typically 8-12 years account management experience.
• Experience in IT industry. Experience working as an IT leader, within an IT department, and/or working within customers is a plus.
• Experience in vertical industry preferred.
• (Extraordinarily) strong track record of account management and sales performance.
• Experience in different sales roles is a plus.
• Experience in big data, hybrid IT, IT services, digital business, information security, AI and intelligent edge desired

Knowledge and Skills

• Drives Results: Shows strong will to win, is persistent in face of obstacles and has a clear results orientation.
• Strategic Planning: Exceptional at articulating a vision for the future and a path to achieve it in an account business plan, aligned with the HPE strategy, direct leadership, and the HPE business units.
• Sales Execution: Able to efficiently deliver on short term sales engagements, KPIs, and goals.
• Continuous Learning: Continuously and actively pursues own learning, and shares knowledge with team members.
• IT Industry Acumen: Builds and maintains comprehensive knowledge of cutting edge IT industry developments and technology trends with potential impacts to our customers.
• HPE Portfolio Knowledge: Builds and continually updates a comprehensive understanding of HPE products, solutions, and service offerings - their value propositions, competitive differentiators, and benefits to our customers and our customers' customers.
• Team Leadership: Highly skilled at leading teams (including dispersed and indirect team members) successfully through sales engagements in a complex matrix organization.
• Network/Relationship Building: Highly skilled in creating strong professional relationships across all levels of the organizations internally and externally; understands and leverages the value of networks and collaboration.
• Two-way communication: Able to listen actively to understand the perspectives of others, and to articulate value propositions, plans, and proposals in language highly relevant to the customer, partner or internal stakeholder.
• Influencing and Negotiating: Understands and expertly leverages influencing and negotiation techniques.
• Business Acumen: Understands how different parts of a business interoperate to produce business outcomes and how actions impact company results. Demonstrates thorough understanding of general business concepts and the economy. Able to understand financial reports and make relevant conclusions for planning. Similar theories apply to public sector organizations.
• Operational Excellence: Consistently able to show predictability and operational excellence both internally and externally.
• Integrity: Acts with integrity throughout complex situations even if under pressure.
• Vertical/Industry Knowledge Preferred: Understands the customer's industry landscape, enterprise architecture, and partner and influencer ecosystem, and is able to use this knowledge to build and advise the customer on its digital journey plan.
• Consulting: Can synthesize a number of skills and relevant knowledge to guide the customer through a process of achieving business outcomes leveraging HPE's portfolio.

Impact/Scope

• Typically manages 1 to many accounts representing moderate to high revenue for HPE. One or more accounts may be a large multi-national or global account. May manage a portion of a large Top Account, usually within an assigned geography.
• Typically qualifies and closes large deals of moderate to high complexity and cross- BU scope.
• Works with all levels of decision-makers in the customer organization, including C-Level.
• Orchestrates regional pursuit resources for the account.
• Participates in account investment decisions about pricing and resources.
• Complexity
• Manages highly complex sales engagements, project management and coordination to meet customer deadlines.
• Typically oversees engagements with cross-BU portfolio solutions.
   

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