Module 9: The Value Selling Approach

Map Service Offerings to Fulfill The Vision

After listing and repeating the customer’s pain points and identifying the customer’s vision for how these points can be addressed, your next step is to use your knowledge of the service programs and offerings within both your own portfolio and the Cisco portfolio to map key service deliverables to help fulfill the customer’s vision.

Many Cisco qualified partners will be able to look at both the service offerings within the Cisco Brand Resale and Shared Support programs and at their own partner branded solutions above and beyond what is offered in these programs for ways in which their service offerings can help address the customer’s pain points and meet their vision and desired outcomes. At this stage, your goal is to help your customer visualize the when, who, and what that will enable them to understand how to address the reasons for their pain.

In many cases, it can be helpful for you to articulate this vision with your customer in terms of “when”, “who”, and “what.” For example:

		When experiencing network degradation or downtime, what if your technical experts (who) could immediately access troubleshooting tools and technical documentation via the Cisco.com online tools and resources available via the SMARTnet program?
		When a piece of equipment or part fails, you (who) could receive advance delivery of replacement equipment within one of the 2-hour, 4-hour, or Next Business Day (what) delivery options available within the SMARTnet program?
		When your application system software needs to be updated, your technical experts (who) could quickly access software updates via the Cisco Software Center (what), which can be accessed with a SAS or SASU service contract?

By mapping Cisco and your own service offerings to the vision statements stated by your customer, you can demonstrate the value of service AND help the customer understand how these services will assist the company in addressing certain pain points and achieving its business objectives.

<  Previous  |  Next  >