MICHAEL NELSON
205 Bayside Drive, Cape Carteret, NC 28584
(919) 398-2165 | nelsonm010@gmail.com | linkedin.com/in/michnels
GLOBAL TECHNICAL SALES EXECUTIVE – Grow Sales & GTM Strategies |All
Domains | Manage the Sales & Sales Engineering Staff, Identify Sales Capture
Opportunities, Develop Partnerships & Generate Revenue and Market Share
Jumps | IBM, Cisco, Intel and McAfee Alumni | Just completed a Large-Scale
Division Turnaround by Leveraging New JVs & Strong Cross Functional
Interlock
Drive multimillion-dollar growth initiatives within target global markets by leveraging extensive market entry and
expansion due diligence, such as potential market share, brand awareness, and customer acquisition costs.
Collaborate with other teams to identify profitable opportunities, e.g., maintained brand loyalty and generated
$320M in additional revenue within the 1st year of an equipment refresh program at Cisco. Conceptualize and
implement robust selling strategies that provide the best ROI within the overall competitive landscape for Global
500/Fortune 1000 employers. Create growth marketing plans when launching new and existing products and
services to international clients (Americas, Europe, China, Japan & Middle East), capitalizing on specific research
data that unearth distribution points, pricing advantages, and demand potential. Established and developed YOY
high-success, award-winning partners at McAfee.
SALES SKILLS AT A GLANCE
Org Building- Buyer Personas & Targeting – Budget Development – Value Propositions & Corporate Messaging –
New Product Launches – Strategic Partnerships & Alliances – Sales Conversion Strategies – Brand Awareness &
Development, Product-Market Fit – Pricing Strategies – Channel Sales Management – Competitive Sales
Advantages Sales Engineering Management – Third-Party Partnerships & JVs – Managed Service Providers
(MSPs), – Market Research/Due Diligence – Demand Generation – Sales Conversions
PROFESSIONAL CAREER
SENIOR DIRECTOR, GLOBAL GTM LEADER, HYBRID SECURITY PORTFOLIO | Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA | 08/2019 – present
Led a Successful Division Turnaround – Implemented New Revenue – Expanded Global Audiences & Markets
Technology Acquisition Due Diligence – Quarterly Business Review with Cisco ELT
• Advance global go-to-market (GTM) strategies, product awareness, and market share of security
applications and network infrastructure products including SASE, XDR and AI Analytics. Drive KPIs throughout
North/South America, EMEA, and APJC. Manage upwards of $1.3B in sales for a security portfolio of up to 12
products/services.
• Establish sales/marketing channels, pricing strategies, and client segmentations based on country-specific
due diligence and market research based on market size, competition, and partnership opportunities.
Leverage valuable insights to determine possible audience reach and growth/expansion possibilities.
• Identified and leveraged white space routes to market (untapped customer bases) that reduced
competition, produced higher margins, and increased growth opportunities within those areas. Collaborated
with the product marketing team to identify additional benefits and differentiators that increased outcomes.
• Led turnaround sales strategies for the network security portfolio in 2019, which was down -18%. Introduced
a sales roadmap that included restructuring sales and performance expectations, realigning the client persona
based on market, and leveraging analyst support. Recaptured the downtrend with a 1% growth on the books.
MICHAEL NELSON
PAGE 2 | Professional Career, Continued:
• Managed, coached, and drove the performance of a large global team that consisted of a Proof-of-Concept
Engineering Team, Systems Integrators, Sales Engineers, Data Scientists, Outside Sales, and Sales
Development Reps (SDRs).
• Audited and managed two $5M budgets (combined $10M) which was earmarked for operating expenses
(OPEX) and sales/marketing initiatives, such as GTM Lab, programs, and promotional events. Monitored fixed
and variable costs to generate positive returns for the investment.
• Promoted the Cisco Refresh program that offered remanufactured equipment, which enabled clients to
update their equipment for a sizable price reduction with a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Increased
yearly spend of existing customer base from .86 to .91, resulting in $50M in additional revenue annually.
• Negotiated an OEM contract with Radware, a cybersecurity company that provides (DDoS & Cloud
Protection). Created and implemented a sales roadmap that realized approx. $25M in new revenue
annually through the joint venture/JV. Worked with a team of 6 Applicant Security Specialists. Added
products to Cisco buying programs globally.
• Launched incentive programs for resellers and partners, establishing Center of Excellence (COE)
requirements that included training, technical support, and a dedicated team to promote partner success.
Provided partners with sales enablement, product updates, and success stories.
• Primary team member for Valtix acquisition in 2022. Led the global launch of Cisco Multicloud Defense in Q4
2023. Built a $60M sales funnel while securing new logos in Q1 2024.
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, GLOBAL SALES | McAfee | 08/2012 – 08/2019
Grew a $90M Partner Portfolio – Developed Award-Winning Partners – Realized $22M in Revenue From India
• Negotiated, onboarded, and nurtured profitable Global Service Integrator (GSI) partnerships with DXC
(now HP), AWS, Azure, Google, Oracle, and Atos. Built go-to-market programs and trained partners that
included Managed Security Sellers, Cloud Service Providers, and Infrastructure Centers (NetApp, Cisco).
• Launched multiple services (e.g., managed vulnerability, intrusion prevention, managed tech/response
solutions, and cybersecurity compliance) with the world’s largest GSI’s across core security domains. For
example, directed initiatives for MVision, a managed detection/response and cloud-native app.
• Led a technical team of Solutions Architects (6 total) in addition to a team of Business Development Reps (6
additional staff). Led the hiring, training, coaching, and performance reviews for the team. Formed a new
team that built partners with cloud security services, such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Identified “quick wins” for global sales, which included optimizing efforts through HP in the UK (location of
company’s primary security group). Captured millions in market share previously held by 7 competitors.
Expanded throughout European territories, including South Asia (India market added $22M the first year).
• Grew the partnership portfolio from one major partnership in 2012 worth $11M to nearly 15 by 2019, which
equated to a staggering $90M in partner revenue. Collaborated with the VP of Sales to generate continuous
collaborative success – consistently created 100% YOY partner growth.
• Cultivated partner success stories that resulted in multiple Partner of the Year awards throughout the
partner portfolio. Enabled GSI partners to launch new global service offerings using McAfee technology that
led to additional highly profitable JVs with HP, Fujitsu, IBM, Accenture, and VMware.
MILITARY CAREER
Served in the U.S. Marine Corps; Honorably Discharged
To contact this candidate email nelsonm010@gmail.com