About Brian Groth

Click here for my infographic resume (PDF) with hyperlinks to examples of my work.

 

I have had a career focused on sales, marketing and technology, which I summarize as:

  • Sales Field & Partner Enablement by creating Demos, Presentations, Competitive Insights, Strategy, Win/Loss Programs & Reviews, and Sales Training
  • Presenting & Consulting with customers and partners, such as presenting from 1 to 1000 employees (sales reps to executives), CxO-level customers, partners about a variety of topics including software solutions, competition, social media marketing strategy and a variety of technologies. A few technical solutions I have presented include: Full Microsoft stack solutions, Individual technologies, Brand advertising
  • 100% quota attainment
  • Grassroots approach to every project I start up

Examples:

  1. My team and I built, deployed and versioned Microsoft’s largest demo platform. Then trained JP, HK TW, and CN sales engineers to do Consultative Selling using this demo. This included selecting and integrating partner solutions into the platform.
  2. I built a globally dispersed community of “compete champs” including sales executives and partners who discuss and share competitive insights as part of a larger competitive intelligence program, focused on improving sales with a strong emphasis on insights derived from win/loss analysis.

The following image is my infographic resume, which attempts to explain my breadth of experience. Click the image for a higher-resolution version, but you can also get an interactive PDF version where the hyperlinks work.

Brian Groth - Infographic Resume - May 2013

——- If you want to know more, read below for a much longer summary ——-

I started my career at Microsoft in 1994 supporting OS/2 LAN Manager and moved onto Windows NT when it released, with my specialty being in networking, which at the time meant understanding and debugging TCP/IP and NetBIOS issues with Microsoft Network Monitor. This naturally led into supporting other Internet-based protocols and products, such as Microsoft’s web server once it released.

I eventually moved on to become a Technologist to understand and explain all things related to the Internet that Microsoft was doing for an HQ team supporting our global field sales. This was so we could both leverage these technologies and help create sales materials for them. This included moving support off of CompuServe’s newsgroups to NNTP-based discussions, tracking early web browser differences, and even helping write a bit of ASP code for Microsoft BackOffice Server (as a favor for a friend). I got a Ship It award for that one.

This led to creating more materials to help our enterprise sales, such as the “SalesKit” DVDs which included content and demonstrations to help sell our enterprise-focused products. Eventually, I ended up helping to start and eventually run a team focused on building scenario-based demos (not just product features), which was a highly regarded resource for our sales teams when they wanted to demonstrate any of our enterprise-focused products. To accomplish this, I partnered with the various product teams in regards to both the product features to highlight and the budget required to create these demos. My specialty was with Office, SharePoint and Active Directory.

Having gained considerable experience with our enterprise products and how Microsoft sales functioned, I took on the task of creating the highest-end and most complex demo system at Microsoft, which was for the Envisioning Show that is presented at our Microsoft Technology Centers around the world. We were even showcased on the MSDN Channel9. My team and I would not only build this, but also present it to our top accounts at the Redmond. To create it, I partnered with other MTC facilities to ensure it allowed our customers to “envision” how their company could operate based on our products. In addition to installing the demo, I even trained our teams in Tokyo, Beijing and Taipei on how to do the consultative selling that’s required to present the Envisioning Show.

Ready for a new challenge, I moved to our Consumer & Online (C&O) organization and first helped establish the field operating model to land this new organizational blueprint in the subsidiaries. I then moved to London and took on one of the new roles, which was the regional product manager for Windows Live covering Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to establish a regional community of product managers and create a predictable rhythm of the consumer marketing business. During this time, I also created the Messenger TV product, which brought MSN video content to the very popular Windows Live Messenger product. We initially launched it in 20 countries and 12 languages.I managed the engineering (specs, design, dev, test) and marketing (sales readiness, marketing materials, etc.) of the project.

After 3.5 years, it was time to move back to the US, which is where I took on the role of supporting the C&O Global Accounts team to specifically look for new ad opportunities with our business groups while also getting a grasp on the impact of social for our advertisers. During this time, I pulled together resources across the company to help establish Microsoft Advertising’s (MSA) first “social media story”, which was eventually taken over by our MSA marketing team so the rest of the sales field (not just global accounts) could benefit from this work. I have most recently been investigating and presenting to our global advertisers and agencies at their offices and in our Executive Briefing Center, with a focus on how brand advertisers are using location-based services and how MSA can help make those efforts more successful for the brands.

Recently, I  focused on developing Microsoft’s Social Advertising Solution while also owning the global deployment of it to all of Microsoft Advertising. I am also applying this go-to-market approach to a general framework to create advertising solutions with the business groups, deploy and market them globally and ensure sales is prepared to sell them locally with the support from HQ for hot competitive situations. This work is requiring a variety of organizational changes and alignments between organizations.   

My primary tasks these days includes (1) establishing a win/loss program for Microsoft Advertising so we can learn why we win and lose sales deals around the globe, gain insights from these that I can then create competitive sales strategy and influence future sales and future  product development; (2) taking on challenging projects that cut across organizations with the goal of explaining what Microsoft Advertising can offer a marketing division from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) on down.

You can find me online at the various social networking services:

Related Social Ratings services (#EGOsystem)

A bit more about me…

  • My environmental mantra is: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink, Replant
  • I like to take adventures as often as possible and learn something new every day. This includes: Experiencing the world, snow skiing, snow boarding, snow shoeing, sea kayaking (including surf kayaking / kayak surfing), mt. biking, hiking, playing with dogs, discovering new music, creating software solutions, and playing with the latest technology.
  • My personal blog highlighting adventures and (mostly) my dog: http://GrothAdventures.wordpress.com

3 Responses

  2. 17 Years at Microsoft: A few of the fun experiences | The Adventures of Milo, Lorie and Brian Groth, on May 8, 2011 at 7:50 am said:

    [...] to share some of the interesting things I’ve done in the last 17 years while at Microsoft. My “about” page gives a good narrative of my history here too, but here are ten fun trivia items I try to [...]

    Reply
  3. 17 Years at Microsoft: A few of the fun experiences - MSDN Blogs, on May 8, 2011 at 7:59 am said:

    [...] to share some of the interesting things I’ve done in the last 17 years while at Microsoft. My “about” page gives a good narrative of my history here too, but here are ten fun trivia items I try to [...]

    Reply

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