On January 28, 2024, Cisco announced it is evolving the process it uses to reward Cisco partners for completing lifecycle motions. The move from Lifecycle Incentives 1.0 to 2.0 is like night and day. Cisco is no longer requiring partners to submit Customer Success Plans (CSPs) and instead will be using telemetry goals associated to use cases aligned to lifecycle phases for each technology.
“Wait, what, no more CSPs!? Does that mean we have to change everything we have been building for the last almost five years since the launch of Cisco Customer Experience?”
I have received several phone calls from partners with statements and questions very similar to that since the announcement. My answer is no, you don’t have to, and you shouldn’t change the way your CX practice operates. CSPs are still the core of customer success and how you want to engage with your customers.
Cisco is making this change to evolve and simplify how CX specialized partners receive their Lifecycle Incentives. In the past, partners had to submit Customer Success Plans that had to be reviewed and approved by a team within Cisco.
Sometimes these plans were delayed because the Cisco team not being a part of all the conversations with the customer didn’t understand exactly what the customers business outcomes were and how the partner intended to achieve those outcomes with quantifiable metrics (Key Performance Indicators – KPIs). This increased the number of Cisco cases and caused tension between the partner and Cisco. Let’s face it, when things are left to interpretation, we can all see it in a different way.
What Cisco did to try and relieve this situation was have things based on new, more complete, use case metrics that can be validated by telemetry straight from the device at the customer’s location. No more interpretation, no more delayed plans, no more delayed progress or payment. The use cases are clearly laid out with what is required to complete each phase of the lifecycle. Advancement to the next phase as well as payment approval is automated. I’m not going to get into all the details of the program here; you can read all about it on Cisco’s Lifecycle Incentives website. Let’s just say some believe this is a win-win scenario for both Cisco and partners.
“Well, if that is all I have to do to get my rebates, why would I keep doing CSPs? That’s a lot of work!”
Lifecycle Incentives 2.0 use cases are put together by Cisco and hit quantifiable metrics that are not always going to meet your customers’ true business outcomes. Don’t get me wrong, those metrics can help you support your KPIs, but utilization, the use of some features, and number of IT logins may not be enough to convince CFOs of the value they received from the solution you provided.
Remember business outcomes usually show the customers how the solution helped their business increase revenue, decrease cost, or reduce a risk in some way. Oh, and they had a good experience while achieving those outcomes; it’s called Customer Experience for a reason.
Customer Success Plans help partners and customers to pull all this together in one document. It’s a living document that ensures that the partner understands what the customer is trying to achieve with their technology spend, as well as, ensuring that the customer knows the steps and measurements that the partner is going to provide to prove that those outcomes were achieved. Working the metrics from the Cisco use cases into the KPIs and Adoption plan within the Customer Success Plan is only going to strengthen the partner’s ability to reach the customer’s business goals and the partner’s goal of providing a positive experience and a successful renewal.
In the end, we are all driving toward a sustainable recurring revenue stream and Customer Experience is how to achieve that result. To learn more about the changes in Cisco’s LCI program and how to adapt your CX practice, register for our upcoming webinar on March 6th.
