Whether you’re a managed service provider or VAR, Cisco Systems CIO Rebecca Jacoby (pictured) is offering up some tips to help channel partners sell into CIOs. Sure, the following video with Jacoby has a few self-serving Cisco statements. But The VAR Guy also heard some valuable nuggets of Info.
First, the Cisco-produced video with Jacoby…
Some Observations
Jacoby’s tips included:
1. Who are the key advisors to the CIO? When you’re selling, you need to spot those advisors. But please, don’t call them trusted advisors because The VAR Guy can’t stand that term.
2. Lead with productivity: In the current economic environment, you need to describe how you can drive down a company’s TCO while also promoting value and productivity. Choose the right architecture and you can add value to the business over time.
3. Key projects: Cisco is currently investing in a communication and collaboration architecture (translation: “Cisco buys Cisco”). Cisco also is investing in data management, content management and video (translation: “Cisco buys more Cisco”).
Kidding aside, our resident blogger thinks more IT vendors should put their CIOs front-and-center in the media to drive discussion.
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Your summary points are spot on. Rebecca’s keynote at the Cisco Partner summit was very good and a message that sales teams should try to understand.
Bob: Yes, The VAR Guy was in the audience during Rebecca’s Partner Summit keynote. Only suggestion would be for Cisco to allow questions from attendees during future talks by Rebecca. The interaction would have been great.
I really like the concept of targeting through the advisers. It’s a more long-term strategy, but certainly a great way to get through the noise.