5 Ways Cisco Learning Partners Pave the Path to Customer Success

Back in October 2022, I told you about how Cisco Learning Partners can make your life easier. But now I want to tell you about the ways we empower our Learning Partners to guide customers to reach their learning goals. 

When it comes to the big picture of meeting customer demands, Cisco Learning Partners are critical. At the Cisco Partner Summit this year, Oliver Tuszik, Senior Vice President, Global Partner Sales and GM Routes to Market, talked about the ‘Age of the Partner’ in his keynote address. In his blog, Cisco Partner Summit 2022 Ushers in the Age of the Partner, he explains that customers expect “fast, flexible, and simple solutions with more automation and self-serve capabilities.” Learning Partners are so important to merging the pieces of a solution. By incorporating their unique talents and insight, they deliver solutions and ensure a quality customer experience. That’s why it’s so crucial to work together, building learner stickiness (information that sticks long after the training is over). 

Here are five ways Cisco Learning Partners pave the path to customer success, leveraging our learning solutions and their expertise to customize the learning journey

#1: Cisco Digital Learning: Partners as digital learning guides 

One of the main pieces of feedback we got at Partner Summit was that customers are interested in flexible, self-paced, mentored learning options in addition to attending instructor-led training. What better way to remedy this than with digital learning and a Partner to guide you? 

Cisco Digital Learning has always been a great way to move through your training at your own pace in your own time. But sometimes learners could use a guide to help them figure out what courses to take or answer questions about those they’re already taking. That’s where a Learning Partner can make a big difference—helping customers build a focused and effective learning plan within the big picture of their learning journey. And newcomers to digital learning can get support from their guide so they don’t have to feel alone on their journey. 

#2: Cisco U. provides Cisco Learning Partners with content solutions 

But more than just offering learners a digital subscription, Cisco is building a strategy that involves Partners working in tandem with our new digital learning experience, Cisco U. 

A main part of our strategy is to involve Partners who can optimize Cisco’s new learner experience during their first engagement with Cisco U.  

We plan to offer solutions for Partner content contributions so Learning Partners can build customized solutions for their customers’ training needs. We’re also offering Partners new ways to train and certify the Cisco community in a more flexible and guided way through our learner journeys within Cisco U. 

Expanding our sales community and enhancing the Cisco sales lifecycle has always been part of our philosophy to build on the power of the partner ecosystem. The delivery of Cisco U. through our Partners will only strengthen this philosophy as we roll it out to the learning community. 

#3: Digital Learning: “New Year, New Skills” promotion 

In light of a new year and reaching new goals, Cisco is working with our Learning Partner community to build digital delivery of our learners’ certification journeys. The most recent 20% sales promotion, called “New Year, New Skills” (a limited-time offer through January 20, 2023), was a great way for Learning Partners to help launch the new year for customers’ digital training strategies. 

We look forward to the success of this promotion and to adding more promotions in the coming months to further engage our Learning Partner community with our customers. 

#4: Customized learning and guided learning paths 

Through our Partner Derivative Works (DW) program, Partners can customize content and now have more flexible options to submit additional content and deliver courses that make sense for their customers. And offering customized content also applies in the world of digital—the very thing we’re planning to deliver through Cisco U. 

#5: Flexibility to procure new opportunities through digital, hybrid, blended learning 

Cisco Learning Credits (CLCs) will also play a huge role through how our Learning Partners deliver Cisco U. 

With CLC redemption through Cisco, Learning Partners can deliver Cisco training in a mode that will benefit customers through digital delivery as well as ILT. Their sales of Cisco Digital Learning (CDL) with the use of CLCs will help familiarize learners with the concept of digital learning, hybrid learning, and even blended learning.  

One example of putting CLCs to good use is through attending CiscoLive in Amsterdam or Las Vegas, where attendees will have plenty of opportunities for certification, live training, demos of Cisco U. and meetings with Learning Partners.  

We need to stick together 

This trajectory of new plans for our Learning Partners only strengthens as we move through 2023. We want our Partners to stick with us through all types of learning opportunities: 

• They’ll play a key role in the future delivery of ILT as we open more courses for which Partners can deliver ILT from their own portfolio. 
• We’ll be expanding Learning Partner programs, such as the DW program, so we can bring Cisco CX and our Learning Partner Community together to deliver the best customer training solutions. 
• While we know that in-person training will still play a key part in the development of our Cisco customers, we also want to ensure Learning Partners stay engaged with customers who are first starting out with Cisco U. Our Learning Partners will play a pivotal role in guiding customers with new ways to deliver a customized and guided learner journey through Cisco U. and the targeted digital content.  

Look to the next couple of quarters in 2023 for more enhancements to Learning Partner digital programs, where we work with our Partners to deliver personalized journeys for their customers through guided digital learning. 

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