quickdrawyall

Sales Specialist

Old School Bravo

Finding MSFT account team alignment?

Hey all - I’ve been given a sample work task in the final stages of a job I’m interviewing for at a Microsoft partner. Part of the task is to identify the contact info of several people on the account team for Eaton at Microsoft (AE, Azure specialist, Account technologists, ECM and a GBB specialist).

If I were in role at the company, the clear answer would be to just get this from our MSFT PDM. But I’m not at the company so it’s not nearly as straightforward, and whatever I do probably wouldn’t reflect how I’d actually approach it in the role. Any recommendations on how to go about doing this?

I’ll probably also challenge the premise in my interview and explain what I said above, but it’d be great to have an answer anyway.

UPDATE: Turns out the document for the challenge I was given was incomplete and they updated it yesterday. They proactively changed this part to be just explaining what my process would be to identify Microsoft team members, as opposed to actually needing to have their contact info. So that fixed the issue. Nonetheless, appreciate all the support and ideas!

🔎 Prospecting

🤝 Interviewing/Offer

7

15 comments

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LordBusiness

Politicker

2

Chief Revenue Officer

LinkedIn is likely your friend here - but this sounds like a pretty ridiculous task.

Tres

Politicker

1

Account Executive

That seems like a silly assignment, as that information generally isn't public. Microsoft partners often get account lists to look that up, but in my experience that information is closely guarded.

quickdrawyall

Fire Starter

1

Sales Specialist

That is what I’m thinking too. It’s just a part of the whole assignment, but it feels like a risky move to just reject the whole premise. I’m at a big company right now, and if someone asked me it’d be a problem just trying to figure that info out on our own customer accounts.

Tres

Politicker

0

Account Executive

My other idea was to ask someone at Eaton for that information too, but that seems risky.

SADNES5

Politicker

1

down voters are marketing spies

I think they are looking for a creative solution, but lead with just ask the PDM first. Then go into - troll linkedin, find email format for the team, carpet bomb the likely targets to see if the email bounces. If DMARC authentication is on for some inboxes (the ones that likely get spammed) see if one of the new contacts that respond can loop in their manager/other team members to set up a MS Teams meet to introduce yourself and get them to send contact details.

-5

braintank

Politicker

0

Enterprise Account Executive

LinkedIn?

quickdrawyall

Fire Starter

0

Sales Specialist

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the account team lists on their LinkedIn that they support Eaton ☹️

braintank

Politicker

1

Enterprise Account Executive

To clarify: your task at this reseller/partner is to find Microsoft employees who support a specific account (Eaton)?

braintank

Politicker

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Have you interviewed with multiple people at this company? I'd just ask one of them to look it up for you.

quickdrawyall

Fire Starter

0

Sales Specialist

Correct on your other question, part of the task is to find contact info for those individuals.

I get the sense that the point is for me to do it outside of their company, so I’m not sure anyone I’ve interviewed with would help or keep the ask on the downlow.

I’m not sure this information can even be looked up by their team without using someone on the Microsoft side. I think those are the only people who’d have access to account listings.

Hate to just respond to your suggestions with problems. But hopefully helps show why it’s such a predicament. The only things that I’ve been able to think of are getting a Microsoft reps direct help, but I’m not really tight with any Microsoft reps. Or telling the HM who gave the assignment it’s a BS task, but that’s a risky move.

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

My suggestion was to tell you to try to get the info from MS employees and you get it. I feel sometimes it's good to be honest and ask for a favor. Two possibilities - it will work or won't and we should be ready for both!

All the best champ!

braintank

Politicker

1

Enterprise Account Executive

The assignment does feel like BS, but they probably won't take kindly to you telling them that. I'd suggest calling in a favor at the company and/or calling someone at MSFT. The only other option would be to make an educated guess based on Eaton's HQ and company size and ID-ing potential MSFT candidates. I'd walk the hiring manager through your thought process to show how you approached.

SaaSam

Politicker

1

Account Executive

This would be my suggestion as well. Prospect that information, if you tell folks you're interviewing for a position and it is an assignment most would be more willing to lend a helping hand I would say.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

0

🦊

The company website, Google, LinkedIn, etc.

jefe

Arsonist

0

🍁

Glad to see the update... didn't even know how to approach this

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