Customer Success Account Mgmt
Sales & Business Development, Customer Service
Johannesburg, South Africa
Posted on Jul 29, 2026
Overview
Responsibilities
Qualifications
Collects external information on customer business, needs, and strategy. Develops a deep understanding of customer's business lines, business processes, business outcomes, competition, key personas, digital transformation priorities, and industry trends. Optimizes value realization by engaging other resources and ensuring progress reporting. Adapts customer success plans for anticipated tradeoffs in order to stay aligned with strategic vision. Works with business development managers (BDMs), information technology decision makers (ITDMs), and key stakeholders to execute actions outlined in the Customer Success Plan. Engages with and influences business and technical decision makers by providing feedback or insights to help customers define and realize their digital and business transformational targets. Executes consumption motions with partners. Provides regular updates to account and regional stakeholders on customers' transformation initiatives. Deepens competitive and strategic expertise via conversations with customers and community involvement.
Responsibilities
Community Involvement
Actively participates in and contributes to relevant internal and external communities (e.g., sharing experience and best practices). Identifies trends across customers and customer audiences and connects them to relevant communities and programs (e.g., user groups, success factories) to enable customers to use technology to be successful. Shadows and is shadowed by Customer Success Manager (CSMs) on new workshops. Collaborates in iterating engagement frameworks, new initiatives, programs, and workshops. Champions programs and represents their region in regional and global virtual teams to progress execution and impact. Shares success stories and best practices across communities and provides feedback and insights into the playbook for optimization.
Cross-Team Collaboration
Leads and contributes to internal teams across functions to inform programmatic improvements to internal account strategy, such as developing business outcomes and enabling the execution of customer success through One Microsoft. Identifies and integrates key stakeholders in other solution areas to do joint solution identification to increase relevance, support execution, and drive customer business value.
Customer Trust and Advocacy
Acts as the voice of the customer (VOC) and partner by driving new feedback, blockers, insights, resources, etc., across communities and internal teams (e.g., product teams, programs, policies, Engineering) so they can be added and prioritized. Drives action based on feedback and advocates on the customer's behalf to drive resolution. Brings in advocates to showcase success as references and advocates for customers by sharing stories, learnings, and best practices. Consistently builds trust with the customer/partner to establish trusted advisor status. Supports the establishment of executive sponsorship within customer/partner organizations and in Microsoft to support customer's success and digital transformation journey.
Driving Business Value Realization
Using a data-driven approach, performs assessments and analyses of customers' adoption activities to optimize Microsoft solutions against adoption and business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), success measures, and customer expectations, as appropriate. Adapts customer success plans for anticipated tradeoffs in order to stay aligned with strategic vision. Optimizes value realization by engaging other resources (e.g., Engineering, Partners, Cloud Solution Architects) and ensuring progress reporting. Galvanizes technical and sales experts to develop customer-specific roadmaps to drive further business value realization. Cultivates successful customer outcomes as references/case studies to accelerate the velocity of all current and future customers.
Driving Consumption
Works with business development managers (BDMs), information technology decision makers (ITDMs), and key stakeholders to execute actions outlined in the Customer Success Plan. Guides the customer in managing change initiatives by applying knowledge of change management principles, influencing decision-makers to implement and scale change, and identifying and communicating alignment between customer culture and digital transformation. Drives awareness of the importance of change management in partnership with customers to drive consumption. Takes accountability for resolving consumption blockers by galvanizing resources and solutions, as required. Creates a plan for the next best action and routes for removal by the appropriate party.
Driving Intent for Consumption
Actively engages with the customer to drive all intent, use cases, and business value scenarios, through envisioning as appropriate. Maps modules, offerings, or workloads purchased by the customer to business objectives and use cases. Prioritizes and leverages top key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive prioritization of high-impact business outcomes and helps the customer build evidence of business value in the customer environment. Actively uses relevant customer stories and industry, competitive, and/or Microsoft best practices to reinforce findings. Actively listens to and respectfully challenges customers when necessary on their decisions and/or areas where they could drive more value from solutions purchased. Works with Account Team to identify and include all decision-makers needed to identify value scenarios and validate customer business objectives.
Guiding Customer Success Strategy
Engages with and influences business and technical decision-makers by providing feedback or insights to help customers define and realize their digital and business transformational targets. Leverages customer success engagement frameworks to guide customer success strategy, create a customer journey map, and produce customer success plan (e.g., dynamic journey to success). Provides feedback to Microsoft on customer development needs.
Operational and Execution Excellence
Manages operational excellence and customer health by ensuring consumption process compliance and managing pipeline (e.g., customer relationship management systems), engagements, and blockers by leveraging key tools, programs, and insights (e.g., End Customer Investment Funds [ECIFs], Consumption and Renewal Review). Establishes and maintains internal governance processes. Leads solution area-specific rhythm of business (ROB) and reports on overall health across territories within the organizational unit (OU), interpreting and providing data-driven insights focused on the business unit. Leverages standard tools to ensure engagement and pipeline hygiene. Provides regular updates to account and regional stakeholders on customers' transformation initiatives.
Partner Engagement
Engages with, leverages, and/or builds relationships with relevant partners to support business outcomes. Leverages strategic offerings to run plays with partners based on a joint understanding of the customer. Builds a joint plan with partners. Recommends partnerships with high strategic value and cultivates their support. Executes consumption motions with partners.
Technical Development
Deepens competitive and strategic expertise via conversations with customers and community involvement. Leverages development opportunities (e.g., mentorships, role-based resources, trainings, and internal events such as Ready, Ignite) to learn new technologies or services. Provides mentorship by participating in the onboarding of new team members and guiding other team members through processes and scenarios. Leverages partnerships with technical teams (e.g., Cloud Solutions Architects, Fastrack, Engineering) to increase Customer Success discipline expertise, including product and required technical skills. Continuously updates business process knowledge in relevant industries, as well as functional knowledge of workload.
Understanding the Customer
Proactively aligns with internal teams on customers' business priorities. Collects external information on customer business, needs, and strategy. Develops a deep understanding of customer's business lines, business processes, business outcomes, competition, key personas, digital transformation priorities, and industry trends. Meets with and holds conversations with customer stakeholders and business decision makers (e.g., Chief Experience Officers, Chief Marketing Officers, Chief Revenue Officers, Chief Commercial Officers, line of business [LOB] leads) to create and update stakeholder maps. Ensures customer insights are communicated to internal teams (e.g., Engineering, Specialists, Account teams).
Qualifications
Required/minimum qualifications
Master's Degree in Business, Engineering, Technology, or related field AND 3+ years related work experience (e.g., consulting, pre-sales/post-sales, business analysis, technical sales, technology solutions, change management) OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Engineering, Technology, or related field AND 4+ years related work experience (e.g., consulting, pre-sales/post-sales, business analysis, technical sales, technology solutions, change management) OR equivalent experience.
Additional or preferred qualifications
Master's Degree in Business, Engineering, Technology, or related field AND 4+ years related work experience (e.g., consulting, pre-sales/post-sales, business analysis, technical sales, technology solutions, solution architecture, change management) OR Bachelor's Degree in Business, Engineering, Technology, or related field AND 6+ years related work experience (e.g., consulting, pre-sales/post-sales, business analysis, technical sales, technology solutions, solution architecture, change management) OR equivalent experience.
2+ years experience in change management and/or technology adoption.
This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.
Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. 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 with religious accommodations and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application process, read more about requesting accommodations.