Commercial Strategy Manager Jobs

Summary

The Commercial Strategy Manager is responsible for directly engaging with commercial customers on strategic, complex nonstandard opportunities that will drive growth while ensuring alignment with Workiva business objectives. This individual contributor will partner with internal cross-functional stakeholders to creatively address our customers’ challenges and empower our customers to rapidly grow through innovative solutions. This role leads the deal engagement by creating an actionable strategy and deal structure.

Responsibilities

Deal Strategy and Negotiation

• Advises Sales and Deal Desk on the competitive situation and creates an actionable strategy to meet the outcomes desired by our customers and our business
• Guides Sales and the customer to utilize standard deal structures when possible, but also able to navigate revenue recognition and legal concerns when crafting nonstandard deals; works with Deal Desk to loop in Accounting and Legal when needed
• Partners with the customer, Sales, and Value Management team to help set objectives, analyze priorities, and ensure customer executive alignment on the strategy for the opportunity
• Acts as a trusted advisor and thought leader for Sales, Deal Desk, and the customer in the development of complex nonstandard deal strategy with a focus on the commercial aspects of the deal and associated contractual business terms
• Leads deal negotiations by thoughtfully balancing the “art of the possible” with the desired business objectives to create a competitive, value-based commercial deal structure that maximizes the value of the opportunity

Internal and External Alignment and Expectation Management

• Partners with Deal Desk to obtain buy-in including briefing senior management and managing internal and customer stakeholder expectations
• Facilitates alignment through effective communication within internal and external stakeholders and promptly resolves any confluent to encourage productive and positive interactions
• Inspires and influences internal stakeholders and approvers to remove obstacles in order to achieve desired business outcomes with short turnaround times

Redlines, Commercial Term Drafting, and Contract Management

• Liaises between Sales and Legal by providing guidance on commonly requested edits, non-standard terms, policies, and frequently asked questions
• Collaborates on key strategic deals with Deal Desk to lead business-critical contract negotiations, redline activities, and objection handling for nonstandard deals with heavy redlines and/or customer paper
• Advises Deal Desk on nonstandard commercial terms, redlines, and contract language

Process Improvement

• Collaborates with teammates and various internal cross-functional stakeholders to develop an internal and external objection handling playbook and talk track for common requests
• Takes part in building the commercial terms library with a focus on standardizing terms, levers, and approval requirements

Forecast Management

• Partners with sales leadership and Deal Desk to prioritize key deals and ensure deal closure

What You'll Need

Education

• Undergraduate Degree or equivalent combination of education and experience in a related field.

Skills

• Ability to remain courteous and professional even during high-stress end-of-quarter deal negotiations
• Confidently influence deal structure and business strategy in customer-facing negotiations
• Ability to be open and honest in communications with all stakeholders – customers and internal stakeholders including but not limited to Sales, Deal Desk, Legal, Accounting, and senior management
• Can quickly identify gaps, problem solve, and then find creative and sustainable solutions
• Work autonomously, set priorities, meet deadlines, and manage multiple projects in a fast-paced, changing environment while exercising sound business judgement and with minimal supervision
• Dedicated to excellent customer service while managing multiple priorities with short turnaround times
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Strong listening, written, and verbal communication skills with ability to synthesize and effectively communicate information across teams

Experience

• 6+ years in reviewing redlines, drafting nonstandard commercial terms, and redlining customer paper as related to Master Agreements and Sales Orders
• Experience supporting remote and local Enterprise SaaS sales teams
• Salesforce CRM experience required; Salesforce CPQ experience preferred
• Working knowledge of ASC 606 Revenue Recognition rules strongly preferred
• Experience working with remote cross-functional teams such as Legal, Finance, Product
• 6+ years experience in architecting deals within a value-based sales process and build a commercial model to support the business case
• 6+ years in customer-facing deal strategy, pricing strategy, and/or value-oriented negotiation roles
• Strong analytical and presentation skills and the ability to articulate concepts to cross-functional stakeholders at all levels
• CLM experience preferred
• Experience with direct B2B sales models

Travel Requirement

• Less than 10% travel
• Working Conditions & Physical Requirements
• Reliable internet access for any period of time working remotely, not in a Workiva office.

How You’ll Be Rewarded:

• Salary range in the US:

$101,000.00 - $172,000.00

• 401(k) match and comprehensive employee benefits package
• A discretionary bonus typically paid annually
• Restricted Stock Units granted at time of hire

The salary range represents the low and high end of the salary range for this job in the US. Minimums and maximums may vary based on location. The actual salary offer will carefully consider a wide range of factors, including your skills, qualifications, experience and other relevant factors.

Where You’ll Work

Our values drive how we work and who we hire. You will see these values ingrained in how we support our customers, work with team members, build our products and in the work environment we’ve created.

• Accountability: Be responsible for your success and failure.
• Integrity: Do the right thing, every time.
• Trust: Rely on each other.
• Innovation: Keep creating solutions and finding better ways.
• Collaboration: Share resources and work together.
• Customer Success: Always delight our customers.
• Inclusion: Support a diverse community where we all belong.

We believe our people are our greatest asset, and our unique culture gives employees the opportunity to make an impact everyday. We give our employees the freedom and resources they need—backed by our culture of collaboration and diverse thought—to continue innovating and breaking new ground. We hire talented people with a wide range of skills and experiences who are eager to tackle some of today’s most challenging problems.

At Workiva, you’ll enjoy:

• Involvement: Ability to participate in Business Employee Resource Groups (Black, Hispanic, Asian, Women, Rainbow (LGBTQIA+), Veterans, Disabilities), Volunteering, Company wide celebrations, and more
• Fantastic Benefits: With coverage starting day one, choose from competitive health, dental, and vision plans on the largest physician networks available.
• Work-life Balance: We have competitive PTO, VTO and Parental Leave. We encourage employees to spend time enjoying life outside of work.
• Casual Dress: Workiva has a casual work environment, most people wear jeans to the office.

Learn more about life at Workiva: https://www.linkedin.com/company/workiva/

Learn more about benefits: https://www.workiva.com/careers/benefits

Workiva is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We believe that great minds think differently. We value diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, and interests, and we recognize diversity as an important source of intellectual thought, varied perspective, and innovation. Employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other protected characteristic. We strongly encourage and welcome people from historically marginalized groups to apply.

Workiva is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. To request assistance with the application process, please email [email protected].

Workiva supports employees in working where they work best - either from an office or remotely from any location within their country of employment.