Sales Manager (Chicago)

Job Description

Title: Outbound Telesales Representative 5

Location: Chicago, IL

Work Arrangement: Hybrid Work Arrangement (only when needed, else remote)

The job in one line: Lead the team, covering a portfolio of partners, own the aggregate revenue number, and grow both the business and the people.

Typical Day in the Role

Purpose of the Team: The purpose of this team is to drive technology sales and partner business success through operational excellence, pipeline management, quote execution, KPI achievement, and support of strategic partner engagements.

Key projects: This role will contribute to technology sales operations by supporting pipeline management, quote activity, KPI attainment, partner engagement, and operational processes that drive sales execution and business performance.

Candidate Requirements

Disqualifiers: Candidates with insufficient operational experience, poor organizational skills, weak communication skills, or lack of a structured/analytical approach will not be eligible for the role

Best vs. Average: The ideal resume would contain technology sales experience, strong operational experience, pipeline management, quote management activity, KPI-driven work, excellent organizational skills, strong communication skills, and the ability to think in a structured and process-oriented manner.

Hard Skills Assessments

Expected Dates that Hard Skills Assessments will be scheduled: ASAP

Hard Skills Assessment Process: The assessment process will include potentially two to three rounds with sponsor and FTEs.

Required Candidate Preparation: N/A

Summary

Manager, Partner Sellers — Summary

The job in one line: Lead the team, covering a portfolio of partners, own the aggregate revenue number, and grow both the business and the people.

Core construct

Revenue is earned through the partner's own sales engine — the manager's job is making the team consistently effective at arming partner champ teams, inside reps, and AEs with accounts, insights, offers, and deal support.

Equal parts people leadership (onboarding, coaching, inspection, weekly/monthly rhythm) and business leadership (portfolio strategy, coverage model, goal allocation).

Escalations beyond the individual seller and executive relationships with partner sales leadership land here.

Boundaries

No end customers, no displacing a seller on their partner — engages behind them for executive depth, escalation, or investment approval.

Owns the aggregate portfolio number and coverage model, not an individual account set.

Four responsibility pillars

• Lead and develop the team — onboard and ramp sellers, documented development plans, consistent 1:1 cadence, clear expectations with early gap correction, culture of recognition and shared learning.
• Own portfolio revenue and coverage — carry aggregate revenue plus YoY growth commitment, allocate goals/quotas, forecast pipeline, run corrective plays on coverage, aging, or conversion gaps.
• Run the business rhythm — weekly pipeline and lead follow-up inspection, monthly business reviews, accountability for account lists landed, routed lead response times, SMEC coverage, and standardized plays/assets/reporting.
• Own executive relationships — sponsor-level ties with partner sales leadership and the joint growth agenda; represent performance, risks, and asks to Microsoft leadership with a point of view and a plan.

Plus strategy and operational design: shaping Agentic AI sales programs and AI device positioning, directing BI/analytics investment toward short, ranked, assignable target account lists, and owning lead management rules and closed-loop reporting.

How success is measured

Cadence Measures

Weekly

Pipeline coverage vs. quarterly goal; follow-up discipline by seller

Monthly

Portfolio revenue attainment and YoY growth; team attainment (share at/above goal, time to correct); SMEC account coverage

Quarterly

Team capability — new sellers ramped, partner sellers onboarded/certified, retention

Qualifications that matter most People leadership of quota-carrying sellers; channel/partner sales background in device, hardware, or commercial IT; a record of delivering revenue through others; fluency in deal registration, special pricing, incentives, and reseller alliance terms; strong analytics and forecasting (coverage models, propensity, attainment, ROI); executive presence across partner and Microsoft audiences; comfort building new programs in ambiguity, including AI-driven motions.

Seller vs. manager: the seller owns one partner's selling capacity and works individual deals; the manager owns the portfolio of partners, the team covering them, the coverage model, the goal and investment allocation, the inspection rhythm, and the development of the people.

Education/Experience

• Bachelor's degree in business/marketing or equivalent training required.
• 10+ years' experience required managing people

Typical day in the role

The day is built around two things the role never delegates: the rhythm that keeps the team's selling motion consistent, and the executive air cover that only the manager can provide. A representative day looks like this:

Morning — inspect the number

Start in the data, not the inbox: portfolio attainment to goal, open partner-sourced pipeline against the quarterly coverage target, and the follow-up dashboard showing which routed leads and assigned accounts were actioned inside the agreed window, by seller. This is where corrective plays get triggered — aging pipeline, a conversion gap, a seller whose account lists haven't landed with their partner's champ team.

Mid-morning — the team rhythm

Weekly pipeline and lead follow-up inspection with the SDC team: each seller walks their partner's coverage, top deals, and SMEC accounts mapped and touched. The manager's job here is pattern-spotting across partners — a play working at one partner that should be standardized for all of them, or a call guide and enablement asset the whole team should be using.

Midday — coaching, one seller at a time

A 1:1 or two against documented development plans: partner strategy, deal execution, how to read the business intelligence and turn it into a short, ranked, assignable account list. Some of these are ramp conversations with a new seller; some are direct conversations about a gap that needs to close now rather than at review time.

Afternoon — partner and Microsoft leadership

A sponsor-level call with partner sales leadership on the joint growth agenda — investment, program participation, where their champ teams and inside reps need more from Microsoft. Then the internal counterpart: representing portfolio performance, risks, and asks to Microsoft leadership with a clear point of view and a plan attached.

Threaded through the day — escalations and strategy

Whatever the individual seller cannot resolve arrives here: an incentive question, an investment approval, a high-value opportunity that needs executive depth. The manager engages behind the seller, never in place of them. And in the gaps, the forward work — sequencing Agentic AI sales programs and AI device positioning, directing analytics investment, tightening the lead management rules and closed-loop reporting that connect the Microsoft field to the partner's sellers.

The through-line: almost nothing on the calendar is a customer conversation. The day is spent making other people's selling capacity more effective — the sellers on the team, and through them, the partner's champ teams, inside reps, and AEs. Success at the end of the day is measured in team attainment, rhythm consistency, and seller growth, not in deals the manager personally closed.

What is the ideal background of a candidate for this role?

Technology Sales

What are unique selling points that would get candidates interested in your role over another?

Own a number, a coverage model, a team, and an executive table — and build the AI-era selling motion for Surface in the channel while you do it.

How will contractor performance be measured?

Performance is measured on the JD's stated scorecard — outcomes delivered through the team, not personal selling activity. Five categories, on set cadences:

Measure What's tracked Cadence

Portfolio revenue Aggregate attainment to goal and YoY growth across the partner portfolio Monthly

Team attainment Share of sellers at or above goal — and how fast those below it are corrected Monthly

Pipeline coverage Open partner-sourced pipeline across the portfolio vs. quarterly goal Weekly

Follow-up discipline Share of assigned accounts and routed leads actioned within the agreed window, by seller Weekly

Account coverage SMEC accounts mapped, assigned to a named partner seller, and touched Monthly

Team capability New sellers ramped to goal, partner sellers onboarded and certified, team retention Quarterly

How that translates into the review rhythm

Weekly — pipeline and lead follow-u]]> <