The discovery process is a critical phase in the sales cycle, where the SE gathers information about the customer’s network environment, business goals, challenges, and needs. The discovery process helps the SE to understand the customer’s pain points, identify opportunities, and propose solutions that align with the customer’s objectives and address their problems. The discovery process also helps the SE to establish credibility, trust, and rapport with the customer, and to map Cisco innovation to the customer’s needs.
Some of the activities that should occur during the SE’s discovery process are:
Gathering information about the current state of the customer’s network environment. This includes collecting data about the network topology, devices, protocols, applications, performance, security, availability, scalability, and management. The SE can use various tools and methods to gather this information, such as interviews, questionnaires, surveys, audits, assessments, and network analysis tools. Gathering information about the current state helps the SE to understand the customer’s existing network capabilities, limitations, and gaps, and to benchmark the network against best practices and industry standards12
Mapping Cisco innovation to the customer’s needs. This involves identifying how Cisco products, solutions, and services can help the customer achieve their desired outcomes, address their challenges, and overcome their pain points. The SE can use various tools and methods to map Cisco innovation to the customer’s needs, such as value proposition, business case, return on investment (ROI) analysis, proof of value (POV), proof of concept (POC), and demonstrations. Mapping Cisco innovation to the customer’s needs helps the SE to show the value and benefits of Cisco solutions, differentiate Cisco from competitors, and influence the customer’s decision making34
References:
1: Cisco Discovery Service 2: Cisco Network Assessment Services 3: Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Demos 4: Cisco Business Critical Services
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