1. Selling Cisco Services Early in the Sales Process
Increasing Your Opportunities to Provide Value-Adding Solutions

2. Cisco Services Accelerate Program For more information visit:
Welcome to the Selling Cisco Services Early in the Sales Process learning module.
This learning module is part of the Cisco® Services Accelerate Program, an on-going Cisco effort designed to help partners1 accelerate their service practice profitability.
The Cisco Services Accelerate Program includes:
Training resources
Sales tools
Incentives*
Cisco Services Accelerate Program
For more information visit:
1 The term “partner” does not imply or signify a legal partnership relationship between Cisco and the Cisco reseller or other party. X
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* Incentives not available in all regions.

3. Topic Overview
This topic is designed to help all Cisco partners, particularly owners and managers and your service specialist teams, learn how to accelerate your service business opportunities by selling Cisco® Services early in the sales process as part of a complete solution.
This topic provides you with:
Sales strategies
Best practices
Links to important resources
It should take you about 20 minutes to complete this learning module.
At the conclusion, test your knowledge with the online quiz and earn points to increase your eligibility to win prizes.*
* Prizes not available in all regions.

4. Navigating the Learning Module
You can navigate this learning module in two ways:
Use the blue navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen to move through slide-by-slide.
Click the color-coded buttons at the top of the screen to explore a specific section.

5. What You Need to Know
Driven by market opportunities and customer requirements to improve performance in today’s business environment, the need for services has increased.
Services have become the primary differentiator and profitability engine for Cisco partners and represent a substantial opportunity for you to grow your business.
Services can help your customers address many important technology challenges and are integral to getting the most out of their network investment.
As a Cisco partner, you are in an excellent position to support your customers’ business issues and help solve their challenges.
With more than 80% of Cisco’s annual product and services revenue flowing through our partners, services represent a significant growth opportunity.
Additionally, of this $41B services market opportunity, Cisco Services currently participates in less than 20% of the market— creating an enormous opportunity for you.
We expect partners to generate 5-10 times the services revenue of Cisco.

6. What You Need to Know Why Position Services Early in the Sales Cycle?
Attempting to sell services after taking the product order makes it difficult to introduce the value of services at a later point. It also inaccurately sets customers’ budget expectations and adds administrative and logistics overhead to your operations.
If you do not include services as part of the original solution you lose much more than just the margin on the services. You will lose the opportunity for a recurring stream of revenue that could last five to seven years.
Equally as important, you might lose the opportunity to stay regularly involved in your customer’s business during times of renewal, additions, moves, and other changes.
The most effective approach is to promote Cisco Services, and the benefit of service coverage, as part of a complete solution at the very beginning of a sales opportunity.
Why Position Services Early in the Sales Cycle?
Positioning services early can help your customer identify what technology they need to achieve their business goals, and how to operationally address the adoption of that technology.
It also enables you to set clear budget expectations before your customers determine their spend.
Experience shows that after the equipment is installed, you are unlikely to get an opportunity to sell services. X
Positioning services early can help you to:
Provide value-added solutions
Strengthen your customer relationship in the role of trusted advisor
Create new revenue and profit opportunities
Increase attach rates and recurring revenue streams
Rise above the competition and differentiate
Reduce administrative and operational costs associated with selling services later
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7. What You Need to Know The Cisco Lifecycle Services Approach
To meet customers’ needs and challenges, Cisco has developed the Cisco Lifecycle Services Approach which defines the minimum set of activities needed by technology and by network complexity to help customers successfully deploy and operate Cisco technologies and optimize their performance.
The Cisco Lifecycle Services approach is a beginning-to-end view of the continuum of events that take place in the network lifespan. It creates a framework for defining services that is independent of who performs the service activities and provides a coordinated sequence of activities in deploying and operating technologies and optimizing their performance.
The Cisco Lifecycle Services Approach, supporting methodologies, and training provide you with opportunities to increase your profitability by helping you to improve your skills, enhance your portfolio, and expand your service practice.
For further information, refer to the Accelerate Program topic: Network Lifecycle Services Approach. X
Plan
Prepare
Design
Build
Run
Implement
Operate
Optimize
The Cisco Lifecycle Services Approach
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8. What You Need to Know Customer Business Benefits
Services are a vital contributor towards helping your customers address many important technology challenges and gain the most out of their network investment.
Services can help your customers address many important technology challenges:
Enable rapid, reliable, secure communications
Implement new technologies
Keep the network operating efficiently
Resolve problems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Provide rapid access to technical expertise

9. What You Need to Know Your Business Benefits
Selling services enhances your customer interaction beyond a product sales relationship by providing comprehensive, strategic and innovative solutions which can position you to play a greater role in your customers’ success.
Adding services extends the length of your overall engagement and positions you for additional up-sell and/or cross-sales opportunities over the life of the engagement
It also helps to position you as an expert resource and business partner who understands your customers’ concerns and overall business needs
By including Cisco Services as part of a complete solution early in the sales process, you can position yourself to:
Win additional equipment and service sales
Reduce risk in deploying and supporting new and complex technologies
Enhance your customer satisfaction and loyalty
Move up the value chain with your customers

10. Collaborative Services Cisco Branded Services
What You Can Sell
Cisco offers you a range of options from resale to jointly delivered collaborative services that address the requirements of all phases of the network lifecycle services:
Cisco branded services are sold by partners and delivered by Cisco experts.
Collaborative services are sold and delivered by partners working collaboratively with Cisco.
By taking advantage of the Cisco Lifecycle Services framework, you can add more value- added services to your portfolio mix, resulting in comprehensive solutions that do not require significant investments to develop, and which allow you to operate your own support systems.
Cisco Services
Collaborative Services
Cisco Branded Services
Service offerings sold only to partners
Combines Cisco intellectual capital, smart service innovation, and service infrastructure with your services
Service offerings sold through partners
Ready-for-resale offers that speed time to market, increase technology and geographic reach
Partner Value
Growth
Differentiation
Profitability
Note: The availability of Cisco Services for resale is dependent on your geographic region, the terms of your contract with Cisco, and whether you purchase directly from Cisco or through a Cisco Authorized Distributor. X
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11. What You Can Sell Cisco Services
Cisco’s flexible go-to-market strategy provides a wide variety of service capabilities:
Cisco Technical Services. A broad range of traditional support services and proactive technical services for large enterprises as well as small and medium businesses.
Cisco Professional Services. Complement your own services practice. The portfolio is extensive and services can be custom-tailored to meet the needs of your customers.
Cisco Remote Management Services. A suite of services that help accelerate the business benefits from Cisco advanced and emerging technologies.
Note: Not all Cisco Services are available in all regions. Contact your local Cisco account manager or Cisco Authorized Distributor for further information.

12. How To Get Started How To Get Started
The most compelling moment to make a case for services is at the beginning of discussions with your customer to determine their overall needs.
From the onset, proactively promote the value of Cisco Services and highlight the benefits a services contract provides compared to cost of providing network support internally or through the purchase of time and materials.
If you help your customer understand the value of Cisco Services and the benefit service coverage brings to their business, then selling a services contract will be easier. .
Cisco Services:
Cisco offers the widest range of services- supported network technologies in the industry
Cisco sets the gold standard for service and support, with numerous industry recognitions and awards in recognition of excellence in technology service and support
Cisco consistently rates high in customer satisfaction, which has been proven to lead to building trusted adviser relationships with greater profit potential and greater customer loyalty, resulting in long term customer relationships X
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13. How To Get Started
Use a solutions-led sales approach to explore opportunities for initial and ongoing consulting services, technical services, professional services, multiyear service agreements, and financing.
Focus your initial selling activities on securing consulting engagements that will ultimately promote sales of all product, advanced technology, and follow- on services
Securing the initial consulting services engagement is crucial to achieving the greatest revenue potential and generating future revenue from sales of both product and services

14. How To Get Started
As part of your initial discussions, introduce the implementation of a network discovery.
End-to-end knowledge of a customer’s network devices enables you to up-sell, cross-sell, or explore advanced technologies and services opportunities.
Exploring your customers’ network support requirements will provide you with an opportunity to discuss your customers’ questions about cost of ownership, the effects of unexpected downtime, their need to show a return on technology investments, and what a reliable network solution means to the long-term success of their organization.
Discussing these issues will help you discover the complete solution that will best fit your customers’ overall needs: hardware, software, services, and financing.

15. Strategies For Successful Selling
Adopt Best Practices
Utilize a network discovery
Lead with consulting services
Promote the value of services over warranty
Take advantage of programs, incentives and promotions
Avoid Common Mistakes
Define customer spend
Sell complete solutions
Always offer financing solutions
Preempt customer objections

16. Strategies For Successful Selling: Adopt Best Practices
Utilize a Network Discovery
A network discovery involves using a collection-led process to explore customer networks to identify product migration and service opportunities. It creates an actionable inventory report which:
Provides your customer with important business intelligence needed for decision making
Gives you the ability to identify gaps between a customer’s existing infrastructure and future network requirements
Lays the foundation to propose coverage and technology migration solutions and professional services to help your customers plan, design, and deploy a network architecture solution and promote the value of network-level coverage
Cisco offers a number of network collection and inventory reporting capabilities available for mid-market to large customers. Before your customer engagement find out what is available in your region by contacting your local Cisco account manager or Cisco Authorized Distributor.
You can also use your own network collector during the process of network discovery to assess business opportunities in your customer’s network.
For more information, see topics covered under the Accelerate Program topic area: Know Your Customer’s Network.
In Cisco’s experience, the majority of customers do not have an accurate assessment of their Cisco network devices.
A discovery of a customer’s network will often show that a significant percentage of their networking equipment (possibly as much as 30 percent to 40 percent) is not covered or is only partially covered by a service contract.
In addition, often more than one quarter of a customer’s networking equipment has reached its last date of support. X
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17. Strategies For Successful Selling: Adopt Best Practices
Lead with Consulting Services
By leading with a consulting services engagement early in the sales cycle, you can help your customers identify their challenges and opportunities and define their technology requirements, enabling you to design and deliver a solutions architecture recommendation that addresses those needs.
Offering consulting services early in the sales cycle helps you learn important information about your customer that informs the entire sales process and enhances your ability to generate incremental revenue from implementation services, hardware and software sales, and support solutions.
Regardless of size, any business that is converting its technology infrastructure to a real-time high-technology platform to support its business needs is an excellent candidate for consulting services.
Inform your customer that this consultative approach reduces their risk and accelerates their success by providing a solution that goes above and beyond the limited assessment of a simple sales approach.
Explain that, even if your customer has a strong in-house technology staff, it is unlikely that they can match the expertise and support Cisco and its partners can offer.
Cisco’s flexible go-to-market strategy enables you to offer your own brand of consulting services.
You can also use Cisco intellectual property to build or expand upon your professional services practice.
If you do not have plans to build a professional services practice, you can offer Cisco Professional Services.
For more information refer to the Accelerate Program topic: Selling Professional Services. X
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18. Strategies For Successful Selling: Adopt Best Practices
Promote the Value of Services over Warranty
Some customers mistakenly think of warranties as a substitute for a service agreement and that they can rely solely on warranty rather than purchasing a service contract.
Warranties alone will not adequately protect your customer’s network investment and are no substitute for a Cisco Services contract.
Always make sure your customer is aware that warranty is not the same as a services agreement.
Warranties and support contracts are different in that they serve fundamentally different purposes.
Warranties protect only against defects in materials and workmanship.
Support contracts go further by also protecting against human factors, such as configuration errors, protocol errors, and the like.
The distinction is important because human errors account for up to 80 percent of all the issues that cause networks to fail or seriously falter.
A Cisco support services contract covers purchased equipment and licensed software, provides access to Cisco industry-leading expertise and extensive resources, and offers a proven track record of quality customized support. It helps make sure of a reliable, highly available, and stable network within a total system solution.
For further information refer to the Accelerate Program topic: Positioning Services over Warranty. X
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19. Strategies For Successful Selling: Adopt Best Practices
Take Advantage of Programs, Incentives and Promotions
Cisco offers a variety of programs that enable you to sell and deliver services according to your preferred business model.
By taking advantage of the partner programs, you also become eligible for incentives and rewards.
For the current Cisco Services partner programs, incentives and promotions available in your region, visit the Cisco Services Programs and Promotions  website.

20. Strategies For Successful Selling: Avoid Common Mistakes
Define Customer Spend
Introducing the value of services early enables you to set clear budget expectations before your customer determines their spend.
Prepare your customer for the additional expense of these services so they can plan appropriately.
Get them thinking about the long-term value of multiyear contract discounts and build these into your initial proposal.
Offer financing solutions. Including financing can help customers of all sizes obtain the services they need.
Remember, attempting to sell services after taking the product order makes it difficult to introduce the value of services at a later point.
It also inaccurately sets customers’ budget expectations.

21. Strategies For Successful Selling: Avoid Common Mistakes
Sell Complete Solutions
Always explore the opportunity to sell additional products and services, as well as financing.
Focus on the issues that influence the need for a range of products and services, and the value of the overall solution, rather than the cost of an individual service.
Make sure that discussions of products, services, and financing always map back to the higher level business needs that customers must address.
In this way, you will be able to help your customers see the value of a complete solution as well as the consequences of inaction.
Customers have needs that Cisco solutions can address.
Always position services, for both hardware and software, early in the sales cycle.
This will help make sure your customer’s expectations are properly set and that you are in the best position to secure the sale for the complete solution: hardware, software, service, and financing.
A comprehensive, strategic, and innovative Cisco solution can include best-in-class products, a portfolio of services with industry-leading support, and complete financing solutions.
This equips your customers with what they need now, while helping to meet their long-term, strategic needs. X
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22. Strategies For Successful Selling: Avoid Common Mistakes
Always Offer Financing Solutions
Financing can greatly improve a customer's cash flow and expense management capabilities—it can even enable them to acquire a larger or more robust solution than they think they can afford.
Introducing the benefits of financing can help to increase the size of your deals.
It also provides you with the ability to maintain better account control and pave the way for future business.
Financing can help you keep the competition out, while helping to make sure of a timeline for future refresh opportunities.
Cisco CapitalSM financing solutions provide straightforward, flexible leasing and finance options, competitive rates and fast approval, documentation and funding turnarounds.
This can help you build a compelling business case for your customers and help them acquire the solutions they need to be successful.
Cisco Capital offers solutions customized to the needs of customers of all sizes and provides specialized programs for different geographic regions.
According to a recent survey conducted by IDC, over 77 percent of IT customers said that the availability of leasing or financing affects their choice of an equipment, software or service supplier*.
To learn more, see the Accelerate Program topic: Selling Cisco Capital Finance Services, and visit the Cisco Capital Partner Portal.
*IDC, Telebriefing Presentation, “The Future of IT Leasing and Financing: How Capital Markets Will Continue to Shape IT Strategies”, September 24, 2009. X
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23. Strategies For Successful Selling: Avoid Common Mistakes
Preempt Customer Objections
By effectively promoting the value of Cisco Services and cultivating your customer’s awareness of the benefits of service coverage as part of a comprehensive solution early in your customer engagement, you can preempt many common objections.
Yet, your customer may still have concerns that you need to address. Be aware however, that there are no standard answers.
The best way to handle objections is to understand your customers’ goals and pain points so you can effectively customize your responses to accurately address your customers’ needs.
Useful strategies for countering objections include:
Always position services early in the sales cycle to help make sure your customer’s expectations are properly set and that you are in the best position to secure the sale for the complete solution: hardware, software, service, and financing.
Be prepared to make the case for the value of services over warranty.
Use Cisco Capital to help counter cost objections—many customers are willing to cover all products for multiyear terms because of their competitive rates.
For the types of questions you might encounter, and some insights into how to handle challenging customer objections, as well as compelling facts to help you prepare for sales discussions, refer to the Accelerate Program topic: Objection Handling. X
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24. Further Resources
The following Accelerate Program topics help you expand on the knowledge you have gained during this learning module:
Network Lifecycle Services Approach
The Value of Selling Cisco Technical Services
Smart Services Strategy
Selling Multiyear Cisco Service Agreements
Positioning Services over Warranty
Selling Professional Services
Selling Cisco Capital Finance Services
Objection Handling
Using Steps to Success
See the Accelerate Program website to access additional training material to enhance your knowledge related to this topic.
Or take advantage of the Important Links on the following slides to obtain further information. 

25. Important Links Cisco Services Accelerate Program
Cisco Partner Central
Cisco Partner Marketing Central
Cisco Services for Partners
Cisco Capital Partner Portal
Cisco Technical Services
Cisco Advanced Services
E-Consulting for Partners
Steps to Success
Services Programs and Promotions
Partner Practice Builder  
Legal Contract Service Description
Important Links
Cisco Services Accelerate Program
Cisco Partner Central
Cisco Services for Partners
Cisco Lifecycle Services
Cisco Services
Cisco Technical Services
Service Finder
Cisco Service Availability Matrix tool
Cisco SMARTnet Service
Cisco Smart Call Home
Cisco Application Software Support
Cisco Routing and Switching Services
Cisco Data Center Services
Cisco Unified Communications Services
Cisco Unified Communications Software Subscription
Cisco Unified Communications Remote Management Service
Cisco Unified Workplace Licensing

26. Congratulations.
You have completed the Selling Cisco Services Early in the Sales Process learning module.
At this point you have the choice of reviewing this module again, or challenging your knowledge by taking the online quiz.
You also have the option of taking the quiz at another time.
Congratulations, you have completed the learning module.
At this point you have the option of reviewing this module again, or challenging your knowledge by taking the online quiz. You also have the option of taking the quiz at another time.
Cisco Services Accelerate Program
For more information about the Cisco Services Accelerate Program, and to gain access to comprehensive training resources on this, and other Cisco Services topics, visit:
Or, return to the Accelerate Program website to select further topics to expand your knowledge.