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Cisco Confidential – For Cisco and Reseller Use Only

Welcome to the Selling Cisco Services Against the Competition learning module.

This learning module is part of the Cisco Services Accelerate Program, an ongoing Cisco effort designed to help resellers accelerate their service practice profitability.

The Accelerate Program includes:

Training resources

Sales tools

Incentives More Info

Selling Cisco Services Against the Competition

Positioning Cisco Services in the Security, Wireless, and Switching Technology Segments

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Module Overview

The module focuses on helping you to sell Cisco Services against the competition in the security, wireless, and switching technology segments. This training module provides:

Information about the competitive landscape

An overview of customer buyer profiles

Strategies for guiding the sales conversation toward value and away from price

Guidance for addressing competitive issues professionally

It should take you about fifteen minutes to complete this module and the unscored knowledge checks. At the conclusion of this module you will be directed to a quiz to test your knowledge and earn points to increase your eligibility to win prizes.

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The Competitive Landscape

In these challenging and dynamic times, competitive pressure is mounting. The most successful salespeople have a competitive strategy. They:

Understand customer business challenges

Offer a complete solution to solve those challenges

Position the uniqueness of the overall solution

Preempt customer objections

Emphasize value

The competitors you might face will vary depending on region, technology, and customer type.

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Market Players

Competitors that you might see in each technology segment are listed below. This list of competitors is illustrative, not exhaustive.

Security

Check Point Cisco SonicWALL Tipping Point WatchGuard Technologies

3Com Check Point Cisco Juniper Networks Avaya/Nortel

Switching

Cisco D-Link HP ProCurve

3Com Alcatel-Lucent Cisco Juniper Networks Avaya/Nortel

Wireless

Aruba Networks Cisco D-Link Meru Networks NETGEAR

3Com Alcatel-Lucent Aruba Networks Cisco

HP ProCurve Meru Networks Avaya/Nortel

Small Business Medium Business

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Variety in Buyer Behavior

One of the main reasons for the diversity of the competitive field is that small and medium business customers vary greatly

In the small and medium business space, you might find anything ranging from small offices with just a handful of employees, all the way up to medium-sized organizations with several hundreds of employees, or branch offices of large organizations

The customers in this space fall into several different kinds of buyer profiles that are independent of their size or industry

Understanding the competitive field and what it means to your sales approach requires that you understand your buyers and the way they think about technology, how it supports their business, and partner relationships.

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Customer Profiles In The Small And Medium Business Segment

Small and medium business customers and their buying behavior vary greatly. Cisco has identified three primary types of buying behavior:

Elite Buyers

• Sophisticated, depend on the availability of their network for business success

• Think like a larger enterprise

• Represent just 10 percent of all the market, but over 30 percent of the networking spend

• Interested in improving their business, but are not sure where to start

• Represent 40 percent of the market and over 60 percent of the networking spend

• Represent an important growth opportunity

Open-to-Guidance Buyers

Basic Buyers

• At the low end of market, less technology-intensive needs, purchase through retail or online

• Represent 50 percent of the market and less than 5 percent of the networking spend

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Profiles Mapped to Services and Functionality

Each buyer profile has a different perspective and approach to buying technology

It is important to determine your buyer’s profile and then propose the appropriate service offering from the Cisco Smart Service for Small and Medium Business portfolio to address their needs

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Cisco Smart Services for Small and Medium Business

Cisco Smart Services for Small and Medium Business are a portfolio of services for small and medium business customers. This portfolio provides a range of options from resale to jointly delivered services.

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Cisco Smart Care Service

Cisco Smart Care Service is a comprehensive networkwide service that combines technical support with proactive monitoring, assessments, and remote repairs to help keep networks secure and running optimally.

This offering is sold exclusively as a Collaborative Service and customers can only acquire this collaborative service through a Cisco Certified partner.

This services offers you a platform for building a competitive set of services and for creating an annuity stream.

Cisco Smart Care Service

More Info

Target customer:

• Businesses with 50–600 network users and 1 to 105 devices

• Network is critical to business

• Limited IT expertise, wants network-level coverage

Features

• Proactive network-wide monitoring, assessments, and notifications

• Advance hardware replacement: next business day (NBD)/same day ship, 4-hour

• Software application updates

• Partner access to Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

• Cisco.com knowledge base and Smart Care portal

• Operating system software updates and upgrades

For more information, visit the Cisco Smart Care Service website.

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Cisco SMARTnet Service

Cisco SMARTnet Service

Cisco SMARTnet Service is an award-winning technical support service that offers direct, anytime access to Cisco engineers and extensive technical resources.

Cisco SMARTnet Service delivers

Rapid issue resolution

Flexible device-by-device coverage

Premium service options to help improve operational efficiency

More Info

Target Customer

• Any size business, any number of Cisco devices

• Network is critical to mission critical

• Skilled IT staff who require direct access to Cisco engineers and want flexible device-level coverage for all network devices

Features

• Advance hardware replacement: NBD/same day ship, 2-hour, 4-hour and/or onsite parts replacement and installation

• Direct customer access to Cisco TAC 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

• Cisco.com knowledge base and tools

• Operating system software updates and upgrades

• Proactive diagnostics and real-time alerts on select devices with Smart Call Home

For more information, visit the Cisco SMARTnet Service website.

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Cisco Smart Foundation Service

The Cisco Smart Foundation Service:

Is an entry-level technical support service

Provides the support that small businesses need to help them maintain network reliability and minimize disruption to business

Cisco Smart Foundation

Service*

*Cisco Smart Foundation Service was previously called SMB Support Assistant More Info

Target Customer

• Businesses with data-only networks, SMB-class products, and fewer than 250 network users (~50 or fewer network devices)

• Network is important, but not mission critical to business

• Needs responsive support with device-level coverage that meets budget requirements

Features

• Advance hardware replacement: NBD/same day ship

• Cisco SMB TAC call back service (SMB TAC engineer responds to service requests within one business day)

• Cisco.com SMB knowledge base

• Online network troubleshooting tools designed for SMBs

• Operating system software updates for bug fixes

For more information, visit the Cisco Smart Foundation Service website.

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Sorry, incorrect.

Sorry, incorrect.

Knowledge Check

The three types of buyer profiles in the small and medium business segment are:

1.

2.

4. Sorry, incorrect.

Foundation, growth, and optimized

Select, premier, and gold

Innovator, early majority, and laggard

Correct!3. Elite, open to guidance, and basic

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Establishing Value in the Mind of the Customer

Ask questions to help establish value:

How do you use the network in your business, and how long do you expect your network investment to last?

Does it enable new services for you as well as revenue-producing applications?

Is it agile, resilient, and robust enough to keep up with business demands and future growth?

Do you have the right expertise at your disposal to maintain the network properly and help it evolve to meet future demands?

Cisco Services play an important role in mitigating that risk and associated costs.

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The Benefits of Cisco Services

A whole Cisco solution can include best-in-class products, industry-leading support, and comprehensive financing solutions

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 greater customer loyalty, increased bookings, and longer-term customer relationships.

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Cisco Technical Services:Industry-Leading Support Capabilities

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Protecting A Customer’s Network Investment

The best way to protect a customer’s network investment is with a Cisco Technical Services contract.

Highly trained engineers help resolve issues rapidly to keep network up and running

Sophisticated call routing system prioritizes and sends service calls to the right technical expert, minimizing time to resolution

Multiple options for delivery of replacement parts

Extensive online tools and knowledge base help avoid need to open a case

Operating system support can enhance and extend life of Cisco devices

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Positioning Cisco Smart Services for Small and Medium Business

Elite customers who have an enterprise-like perspective will see the value of a more robust solution such as the Cisco SMARTnet Service

Customers that are open to guidance might find that Cisco SMARTnet Service provides the type of support that they require

For basic customer buyer profiles, the Cisco Smart Foundation Service might be an appealing alternative to the services that are offered with retail or online products

For both elite and open-to-guidance customers, partners who are willing to invest in building a unique service offering based on the Cisco Smart Care Service can offer

customized solutions designed to meet the specific needs of this segment.

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Cisco Services Small and Medium Business Buyer Profiles

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The Sales Discussion

Address competitive issues at the beginning of the discussion, don’t wait until your customer or competitor brings it up

Consultative selling can be an effective tool to win against your competition

Steer customers away from price discussions by emphasizing the breadth, depth, and quality of Cisco Services offerings

Ask your customer important questions to get them thinking critically about the competition

Address competitive issues at the beginning of the discussion; don’t wait until it comes up. This is your opportunity to influence how you and your competitors are perceived.

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Positioning Cisco Against the Competition

The most successful sales approach ultimately involves

• understanding the customer’s requirements

• making sure that you are proposing the strongest Cisco Services offering to meet those requirements and

• clearly communicating the value that Cisco offers

•understanding the competition, their approach and how their offerings truly compare.

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HP/3Com

HP ProCurve is often seen as a competitor in situations where the customer:

Can tolerate a reasonable degree of network downtime or degradation

Sees no value in leading-edge networking and refuses to pay for it

HP Sales people position the Cisco warranty as being shorter than the ProCurve Warranty with no cover on software updates.

Customers feel that the ProCurve offering consists of products and services that deliver the simple capabilities they need, at a low cost, and that the lifetime warranty is enough for their needs

HP might also offer ProCurve Care Packs service offerings to provide support beyond the warranty.

The Truth about the Cisco Warranty

• Cisco software updates are available on Cisco.com to guest users at no charge

• The Cisco warranty duration for Cisco Catalyst 2900 and 3500 Series Switches is a limited lifetime warranty

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Strategies for Selling Cisco Services Against ProCurve

Offer Cisco Smart Foundation service to customers with the basic buyer profile Cisco Smart Foundation provides an affordable support service for customers whose networks are important, but network support is not mission critical

Offering this service will create an even playing field with the HP ProCurve lifetime warranty at a reasonable cost and provide more comprehensive support than the ProCurve warranty alone

Smartnet Service is a great fit for coverage of core and data center solutions and provides a compelling offer over the HP ProCurve’s Care Packs in service delivery capabilities

Propose Cisco Smart Foundation to create parity between Cisco and the HP ProCurve warranty.

Offer a multiyear Cisco Smart Foundation Service agreement to create an even more attractive offer with as much as a 40 percent discount for a five-year contract.

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Juniper Networks

Juniper’s discounts for both hardware and TS services often range between 50-80% where TS services typically account for 7-10% of hardware net price over a three-year contract

All of Junipers technical support services fall into one of two broad categories - offerings that the company sells and delivers directly through its own captive sales force, and others it sells and delivers indirectly through its channel partners

• Juniper has been seen to package services with products in deals of 3 or more years making pricing variable

• The vendor tends to choose its deals carefully pouring the bulk of its limited sales energies into the very largest opportunities

• Juniper routinely claims to provide technical services for free but disputing this claim, published company data shows Juniper’s services revenue to be growing steadily as the company’s gross margin for support remains relatively constant at 50%.

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Strategies for Selling Cisco Services Against Juniper

Juniper’s number of customer-facing technicians world-wide is less than half that of Cisco therefore limiting their ability to provide the level of technical support service which Cisco provides.

• The J-Care ‘Essential’ portfolio is Juniper’s suite of conventional, reactive technical services equating roughly to Cisco’s SMARTnet and SP Base. By far the majority of customer TS engagements begin and end with J-Care Essential

• J-Care ‘Essential’ is enhanced by integrating with its Advanced Insight Solution – a collection of nested technical services, each more extensive than its predecessor. These are J-Care ‘Efficiency’, ‘Continuity’ and ‘Agility’ comparable with Cisco’s High Touch Services.

• Juniper’s certification program covers only 3 levels each for hardware and software with 9 education centers and 7 training centers – focus on Cisco’s prestigious certifications program as a major source of value

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Huawei Technologies

Huawei’s suite of technical support services consists of multiple categories of hardware and software maintenance activities /elements that differ according to the intended region of delivery. Outside China constituent categories include Technical Support Service ,Software Updates Service and Spare Parts Support. Inside China, Value-Added Service is added to this set.

Huawei are unlike any other competitor. Relatively low labor costs comparative to the west enable Huawei to draw from its engineers in China and temporarily reassign them in vast numbers to make sure of responsiveness.

Outside of China Huawei do not publish a price list but either sell their products and solutions as one price.

Huawei does not differentiate between product and services, rather they regard services as being central to achieving superior levels of customer satisfaction, to gaining competitive advantage and to securing the company’s own long-term success.

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Strategies for Selling Cisco Services Against Huawei

Remind customers and prospects of the difference between quantity and quality. A large number of onsite technicians can hinder, as well as help, service.

A redeployed workforce cannot guarantee that personnel assigned to a support case have the appropriate expertise

Processes and infrastructure are comparatively less solid with this vendor, making their ability to track and rectify issues more complex.

Never compete with Huawei on price and never assume a lost contract is a lost account. When a vendor is over eager to please the inclination is to overpromise and under deliver.

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Avaya/Nortel

One of the major changes in Avaya is in their go-to-market strategy. They are moving from a direct services strategy (85% direct – 15% partner) to a partner-led strategy (15% direct – 85% partner)

• Starting with privatization in 2007 and the Nortel Enterprise acquisition in 2009, Avaya has been under-going tremendous change which is creating both opportunity and disruption for their customers, partners and competitors alike.

• Nortel Global Services has the potential of significantly expanding Avaya’s partner base

• Avaya’s technical support services continue to be their largest source of revenue (50%+) with a high reliance on their traditional embedded Services base for overall profit margin

• Going forward, Avaya/Nortel partners and customers will be required to have some form of software support coverage attached as a minimum in order to obtain support from the manufacturer.

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Strategies for Selling Cisco Services Against Avaya/Nortel

Recently Avaya initiated introduction of its latest Aura platform (Aura 6) which includes Aura Session Manager and the potential of extending the take-over management of multivendor legacy embedded base.

• Avaya/Nortel Integration Roadmap has been criticised on its lack of product and service specificity

• Although Avaya/Nortel has a set of comparable technical support offerings, Cisco’s price points are often advantageous

• Avaya Global Services offer annual and multi year contracts with structured term price discounts comparable with Cisco Smart Services.

• SMARTnet with Smart Call Home and Cisco Network Collector is a comparable offering to Avaya’s Proactive IP Support Service

• Cisco’s partner GTM is a valuable differentiator as it is more advanced and well recognised in the industry

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Strategies For Selling Against The Competition

Identify your customer’s buyer profile. Offer the appropriate service for your customer’s buyer profile.

Solve business challenges by offering solutions. Keep the focus on the customer and solving their problem, not selling and convincing them of the rightness of a given capability over another or arguing about price.

Take the high road – don’t bash the competition.

Address competitive issues upfront. Be confident and challenge the customer to critically examine comparable competitive offerings.

Learn about the Cisco Smart Services for Small and Medium Business portfolio and sell the value of Cisco Services. Emphasize Cisco’s industry leadership and financial stability.

Take advantage of Cisco’s resources for partners. Cisco offers training resources, incentives, programs, and tools to help you build or expand a service practice or sell services more effectively.

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Knowledge Check

Click on the correct choice.

True or False: The best way to address competitive issues is to wait until your competitor brings it up and then counter any objections that your customer has.

Click the Next button to continue.

True

False

Incorrect. This is a false statement.

Good choice.

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Resources for Partners

Cisco Services Accelerate Program

Provides training and incentives to help Cisco partners sell Cisco Services effectively to small and medium businesses.

Cisco E-Consulting for Partners

Measures and assesses sales and delivery capabilities against leading practices, and provides customized recommendations and activities to address gaps.

SB Partner Practice Builder

Offers a consistent and repeatable process that enhances productivity by helping you follow a faster path to profitability and repeat business.

Steps to SuccessA business-building platform that provides a step-by-step engagement model to grow your capabilities for selling, delivering, and supporting Cisco Advanced Technology business solutions.

Cisco CapitalLearn about special offers that might be available for unified communications solutions, small and medium business solutions, and services financing.

Cisco provides a wide range of tools and resources designed to help you build or expand your service practice and effectively sell against the competition.

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Important Links

Cisco Services Accelerate Program www.cisco.com/go/accelerate

Cisco Partner Central www.cisco.com/web/partners/index.html

Cisco Services for Partners www.cisco.com/web/partners/services/index.html

Cisco Services for Small and Medium Businesswww.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/ps6888/serv_category_home.html

Cisco SMARTnet Servicewww.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/svcs/ps3034/ps2827/ps2978/serv_group_home.html

Cisco Smart Foundation Servicewww.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/ps6193/serv_group_home.html

Cisco Smart Care Service www.cisco.com/web/partners/services/programs/smartcare/index.html

Offering the Cisco Smart Care Servicewww.cisco.com/web/partners/services/programs/smartcare/offer.html

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Congratulations, you have completed the Selling Cisco Services Against the Competition learning module.

At this point you have the option of reviewing this module or taking the quiz.

You also have the option of taking the quiz now or at another time.

Cisco Services Accelerate ProgramFor more information about the Cisco Services Accelerate Program and to gain access to comprehensive training resources on this topic and other Cisco Services topics, visit www.cisco.com/go/accelerate.

Module Conclusion

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