In Scott Brown's recent blog post, "The Digital Shift: Partner Evolution and Future of IT", he talks about the transformation of product and service delivery models in our industry and evolution of sales practices to keep pace with customer expectations. As digitization and the anything-as-a-service model have taken hold, buyers want to pay as they go and try things out before they commit. By the time a prospect speaks with you, odds are they've already done their research and are pretty confident they are going to give you a try. Landing a new customer is no longer the ultimate goal.  In fact, today, the initial sale is when the customer journey begins. And it's post-sale where partners have the opportunity to differentiate and get ahead of the competition.

So, What's the Key to Success? Take a Lifecycle Management Approach

Driving loyalty and delivering value after the initial point of sale is what sets companies apart, which means that now more than ever, the post-sale customer experience trumps all things.

Watch the on-demand webinar: Lifecycle Practice Development

Growing customer satisfaction along the entire relationship lifecycle is something we have to work at every day.It's not easy. That's why we've been analyzing the anatomy of the customer journey here at Cisco. We know that customer success is not driven by sales, or delivery or support alone: it's the combination of all of these moving parts -at all the different touch points along the relationship lifecycle that creates an optimal customer experience.

Customer Success Starts with Adoption

As we drill down further into what drives customer success and loyalty, it's clear that effective software adoption is critical. Building an adoption practice requires a focus on the health of the customer throughout the relationship lifecycle, looking both forward and backward. Ask yourself:

• How effectively have your customers used your solutions?
• Who has not logged in to the product in over 30 days?
• Are there features they don't know exist which would really help them?
• Are they achieving outcomes they had hoped to with their technology investment?

Definition of Effective Adoption:  Help customers realize the full value of their current Cisco investment so that they achieve the highest-potential ROI.

If we can answer these and other questions and empower customers to use all of the features and get maximum ROI from the things they buy from us, we evolve from being just another technology provider to atrusted advisor. In a nutshell, that's exactly what we're doing at Cisco with our lifecycle management and adoption strategy. We're providing partners with the resources and enablement tools they need to assess customer health and drive value realization.

The partners who have participated in the early stages of our program have learned that adoption is a two-way street. It's about creating value for customers, and in turn, this opens up new revenue opportunity for your business.

We're on a Shared Journey

Customer needs are changing... and the pace of change is multiplying.  And in today's digital age and dynamic business environment, where trust and loyalty aren't what they used to be, maintaining customer health can be challenging to say the least! At Cisco, we're embracing the transformation and driving innovation to help our partners stay ahead of a changing economy and stand out from the competition. That's why we're organizing adoption and lifecycle management workshops to help partners exceed customer expectations for the Cisco technology investments they've made. In addition, we created the SuccessHub resource center, which offers innovative partner-focused content, playbooks and processes built around adoption, value exchange and customer success. With change comes uncertainty but also great opportunity. We're embracing change and invite you to join us on this journey.

Watch this on-demand Customer Success Talk webinar:

Lifecycle Practice Development