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General Manager and VP of Global Sales at Netformx
More about Mark Bickerstaffe
Thank you, Cisco, for an amazing Partner Summit!
Well, that was fun, encouraging, and valuable! Not to mention a little exhausting. I am a little out of practice at having all the face time for these types of gatherings. However, as was repeated many times, – it was terrific to see everyone again!
I think we all came out of the Summit understanding that we need to stay more connected than ever. We need to rely on each other to transform the selling motions and sell to customers in a way they want to buy and still find ways to be more profitable. It was very clear to me that Cisco is dedicated to driving innovation in the partner programs to help you increase profitability when margins may be getting tighter. It takes work to take advantage of these programs as they evolve, and especially as you transition to annuity selling underpinned by world class customer success processes. However, the rewards are achievable and material.
At Netformx, we will continue to be laser focused on solving your Cisco program participation problems with our automation tools to simplify the process of earning and collecting Lifecycle Incentive rewards, VIP rebates, and Annuity rebates. Feel free to reach out to us any time you need a helping hand!
I fully support what Chuck said in the opening keynote!
“Our time is now, together let’s own it” — Chuck Robbins
Pipeline Insight Tool (PIT) – Get an early jump on LCI preparation and planning
Make Customer Success Plans (CSP) and Successful Business Outcomes (SBO) part of the Proposal phase
The Deals Pipeline report for Lifecycle Incentives has been updated to provide contact details on the sales manager that created the deal.
This feature was created based on partners request to provide better information to the customer success teams early in the sales cycle. With the addition of the sales manager contact information CSMs can download the LCI report and have information on who to reach out to early in the sales cycle to start discussions around CSP’s and SBO’s. This is a proven Best Practice for Cisco Partners who want to maximize Lifecycle Incentive Dollars.
In addition, early CSP discussions will help win the deal, with the customers feeling good knowing there is a success plan in place. It just makes sense!
ChannelXpert v6.0 – VIP & LCI Dashboards better address Partner needs
The ChannelXpert v6.0 update was released November 17, 2022. We are excited to announce several useful updates for managing both VIP and the Lifecycle Incentives.
We enjoy having regular conversations with partners to ensure they are leveraging our tools and getting the expected benefits. During these trainings or dialogs partners often share their desire for some slight adjustments to get even better value. Many of the updates in this release are based on partner requests. We recommend you engage and share with your account manager or CSM ways we could simplify your life even more when managing Cisco partner programs.
Go to the Product Updates article to learn about all the updates
Cisco Annuities have you stumped?
You may have seen Mike Johnson’s recent blog about jumping on the Cisco Annuity Money Train. He covered at a high level how annuities work. But since the blog is public, he couldn’t dive very deep out of respect for Cisco’s confidentiality to make much of the information only available to Cisco Partners.
Mike is available to spend time with your individual teams, to explain annuities with more depth. He can also cover how Netformx solutions specifically can help to simplify capturing these rebates and understanding the payment trending to help your financial team better plan for downstream payouts.
For some one-on-one with Mike on Annuities contact him at mike.johnson@netformx.com.
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify
This is our mantra at Netformx. Creating digestible dashboards that provide the information you need at the pre or post sales stage of the customer journey is what we do. Check out some resources that may help you to understand how having a better handle on Cisco programs could increase your profitability in ways you didn’t think were possible.
It is our desire to be your go to when something around Cisco programs don’t make sense. Lean on us to help you fully embrace Cisco programs and have visibility to the data you need delivered in a meaningful way. Reach out to us at any time at sales@netformx.com or through your account manager.
