IntroductionThis call guide provides triggers for initiating a discussion with a business decision maker (BDM) of a small business. It features qualifying questions based on business pain points and includes objection-handling techniques. Before using this call guide, Cisco® suggests you research the prospect’s recent business changes and issues using Google, Hoovers, or other resources.

Objective of Call Secure a sales appointment for <partner name> that will start the sales cycle for implementing the Cisco Smart Business Communications System.

Option 1: Set up an appointment with <partner name> in which the customer will see a demo showing how the Cisco Smart Business Communications System can help address specific business communications challenges and learn about the financing options that are available.

Option 2: Encourage the prospect to visit the partner’s Website to learn more about the benefits of the solution and to register to meet with the partner and view the demo.

Conversation Starters

Event Triggers• Mergers and acquisitions: We noticed your company has recently acquired another

company. Do you now have different communications systems? Cisco has solutions that can help integrate your communication systems. Would you like to learn more? We can set up an appointment for you to meet with our representative.

• High growth: We noticed that your company has been experiencing some expansion. Congratulations. Typically with growth, communications costs go up exponentially. Cisco has solutions that can help you keep up with increasing communications demands. Would you be interested in learning more? We can set up an appointment for you to meet with our representative.

Cisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation PlayCall Guide

• Office moves: We noticed that you recently relocated your office (or are planning to move). Cisco has helped many companies just like yours in moving and setting up their communications systems in a cost-effective way, without disrupting the business flow. Would you like to learn more?

• Lease expiration: Is the lease on your key system or PBX system expiring soon? If so, now is a great time to evaluate a new, IP-based system that enables you to manage your voice and data networks from a single, converged IP-based network, complete with application capabilities that can increase productivity and efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure that your converged network is secure.

Vertical Triggers• Financial Services: I understand that your bank has recently established another

branch. Are your multiple branch networks hindering productivity and collabora-tion among your employees? Did you know that Cisco offers tools that can help your employees at different branches collaborate and share information? The Cisco Smart Business Communications System can help you improve internal communications, train new employees faster, and keep them connected and informed with messaging. Do you want to learn how these tools are helping banks like yours to reduce costs and differentiate themselves?

• Heathcare: We realize that healthcare providers must comply with mandates for improved patient safety and quality of care. Do your medical providers want access to healthcare information at the point of care? Are they looking for ways to integrate the latest medical technologies and applications? Do you want to learn more about Cisco’s healthcare solutions?

Rational Triggers (Business Challenges)

Key challenge: Maximizing limited resourcesGrowing businesses are constantly being asked to accomplish more with less. With the Cisco Smart Business Communications System, you can take control of your business expenses even as you deliver more informed, personalized service to customers. You can also reduce travel, cell phone, and long-distance charges. Plus, current users of Unified Communications applications experience time savings of 30 to 55 minutes per day per employee as a result of these applications. (Sage Research, 2006)

Key challenge: Reaching the right decision makerBusiness communication is moving faster than ever. The more quickly you can respond to a question or return a call, the happier your customers will be. To stay ahead of the competition, your employees require immediate access to the people, information, and communications tools they need—regardless of where they’re working or how they are communicating.

Key challenge: Keeping mobile workers connectedWith the Cisco Smart Business Communications System, you can set yourself apart from the competition by giving your customers and employees easy access to the information they need. Secure wireless technology lets you extend the reach of company resources and help employees accomplish more, wherever they are located. You can even give visitors guest access to wireless services as you work together in your office. Robust security protects your business, customer, and partner information every step of the way

Cisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation Play

Key challenge: Giving employees the resources they need when working from home or on the roadToday’s customers expect immediate responses to questions and problems, 24 hours a day. Meeting these expectations can be challenging for businesses with workers on the move. The Cisco Smart Business Communications System gives you the mobility and flexibility to deliver service anytime, anywhere. Whether your employee is working in the office or from home, a hotel, or an Internet café, they can reach the right people and access the right information. They can make a secure connection to the company network anywhere there is an Internet connection, and take advantage of the same tools and resources they have in their office.

High-Level Qualifying Questions • How many employees do you have?

• How many employees do you expect to have in 12 months?

• Do you currently have or anticipate adding any part-time employees in the next 12 months?

• Where do you see your business growth goals taking you in the next five years?

• What type of telephone system are you using?

• Are your existing voice equipment leases expiring soon?

• Did you know that instead of managing separate products from multiple vendors, you could integrate your voice and data networks into a single network provided and supported by a single vendor?

• Are you aware of the features available on an IP phone system that are not available on traditional PBX and key systems—such as extension mobility, presence, and click-to-dial with CRM integration?

• How many remote sites do you have today?

• Is your business growing? Do you plan to add offices?

• Do you plan to relocate your office?

• Do your plans for supporting growth include improving or replacing networks and/or improving communications?

• Am I correct in assuming that controlling capital expenses and preserving cash flow are high priorities for an organization like yours?

• Are you looking for financing options to fund your network and communications build-out?

Customer Relationship–Related Questions • Would you like to improve your ability to be responsive to your customers?

• Do you have mobile and remote workers who need the same business communications capabilities as main office or headquarters employees?

• Do you feel that your current telephone system enables you to respond to customers who have high expectations for service?

– For example, do you feel that your voicemail is adequate?

– Can customers reach whomever they need to, whenever they need to?

– Can employees in the field, on the road, or working from home access their voicemail, calendars, and CRM applications?

Cisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation Play

Would you like access to additional capabilities beyond those available on your PBX?

• Can your current voice system be tailored to support your specific needs and business applications to give you a competitive advantage?

• Do you do business internationally?

– If so, how do you communicate with international customers?

– What challenges have you encountered?

• Do you use a business application solution today to perform customer relationship management (CRM)? More specifically, what business solution do you use to manage salesforce automation, marketing automation, customer service and support, and partner relationship management?

• Did you know that Cisco has launched a new connector (middleware application) called the Cisco Unified CallConnector for Salesforce.com? This application integrates a Cisco telephony system with the Salesforce.com CRM web application, enabling help desks and sales organizations to enhance responsiveness and personalized customer service.

• Did you know that Cisco has released an enhanced version of the Cisco Unified Call-Connector for Microsoft Dynamics CRM? This version integrates a Cisco telephony system with the Microsoft CRM software application, enabling help desks and sales organizations to enhance responsiveness and personalized customer service.

• Did you know that Cisco Unified CallConnector for Microsoft Windows was just announced? Cisco Smart Business Communications System customers can now use the resident Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express call control to integrate this solution with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Internet Explorer to provide click-to-dial, directory look-up, and other intuitive call control capabilities.

Operational Efficiency–Related Questions • Have you considered how combining voice and fax messaging with your e-mail system

could benefit your business, and whether an integrated or a unified approach would best suit your company’s needs?

• Do you have employees who are spread out across multiple locations? Would you like to improve their ability to communicate and collaborate more effectively?

• Do you use or plan on using mobility solutions to become more productive?

– Can your mobile workers easily access the data and applications they need to do their jobs?

– Do any members of your workforce work from home?

• Did you know that unified communications solutions can help make employees more productive by reducing telephone tag and helping them reach coworkers more reli-ably on the first try? A Sage Research study shows that it can save up to 30 minutes per employee per day.

• Do you know that the average worker uses more than 10 different types of communica-tion devices and applications? Yet with all these tools, it’s still difficult to keep up with the pace of business.

• Did you know that you can access and administer your most frequently used communication tools through one intuitive application that helps streamline business processes?

Cisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation Play

• Have you considered that the Cisco Smart Business Communications System can improve communications by streamlining business processes?

• Would you like to enhance employee collaboration and eliminate outsourced conferencing expenses?

• Would you like to empower your employees, enabling them to get answers fast, collaborate in real time, and respond more quickly to customer needs?

• Does your current communications system make it difficult to integrate or add new business applications?

• What kind of flexibility do you have when you need to make system changes?

• Can your communications system evolve to meet new needs?

Cost Containment–Related Questions • Have you ever formally addressed the cost savings you could realize by unifying your

communications systems?

• Are you looking for new ways to control the cost of your communications network infrastructure?

• Would you like to reduce your recurring communications costs, such as long-distance bills or moves, adds, and changes?

– How often do employees at your company change offices, desks, or workstations?

• Would you like to reduce the expense of deploying new applications?

• Does your organization handle high volumes of internal calls?

• Do you use an external voice and/or Web conferencing vendor?

• Do members of your staff often travel to visit suppliers or customers?

• Do you perform your own network maintenance?

• Are you facing an expensive or disruptive upgrade to your old voice systems because of limitations in size or capability?

Security-Related Questions • How do you protect your networks?

• How important is security to your business and your customers?

• Do you have a plan to ensure that your voice and data networks won’t go down due to a security threat?

Handling Stalls and Objections Objections give you the opportunity to handle not just the objection, but to ask more questions and thereby develop new opportunities to position an issue or provide more information. An objection is often a request for more information, indicating that the prospect has not yet arrived at a buying decision. Some of the more common objections and possible responses follow:

Cisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation Play

Objection Response

The Cisco solution is too expensive.

Stress value and total cost of ownership (TCO) over the lifetime of • the Cisco Smart Business Communications System. Convergence enables enhanced productivity and competitive differentiation.

TCO is typically 25 percent initial purchase price and 75 percent • ongoing expenses. Cisco solutions are superior at reducing these ongoing expenses, particularly with a single-vendor solution. Use the return on investment (ROI) calculator to demonstrate the long-term cost-effectiveness of the Cisco solution.

If the Cisco purchase price is more than 20 percent higher than that • of the competition, the proposals may not compare the same solutions. Compare the proposals to find differences—handset models, maintenance costs, inline power, applications, data networking equipment required, service and support plans, redundancy, financing alternatives.

Reference the Cisco Unified Communications ROI tool. Contact your • Cisco account manager to get access and instructions for the tool.

Cisco equipment is too complex for an organization my size.

Cisco’s architecture is designed with simplicity in mind while tak-ing advantage of the powerful capabilities of Cisco’s existing Unified Communications solutions. As your company grows, the system will grow with you, allowing you to simply add new services and capabilities as you need them.

Cisco Unified Communications lacks the features of a PBX.

Identify the PBX features currently in use based on daily operation and • business needs. Cisco Unified Communications Manager supports most commonly used features. If a required feature is not available on Cisco Unified Communications Manager, is it available as an XML application from a Cisco partner?

If a required feature is not available, emphasize the other value the • prospect will gain with the Cisco Smart Business Communications System. Articulate the value of built-in and optional applications within a Cisco Unified Communications network environment.

Avoid “telephone feature wars,” which can be common with smaller • prospects, and identify the Cisco Unified Communications solutions that meet the customer’s communications requirements and strategic needs.

IP telephony is not as reliable as a hybrid PBX.

Reliability is a function of network design. Cisco can design your • solution to be more reliable than a PBX.

Understand the customer’s definition of “reliability.” Is it five 9s? Is it • processor redundancy? Is the customer currently using redundancy options?

Identify where reliability is most critical to the customer. Is it a compel-• ling business/department issue, or does it involve business-critical calls (call center, inside sales department, executives, conferencing)?

Convince your customer that data now holds the same importance as • voice. What happens to their business if the data network goes down?

Use references from other Cisco customers with similar reliability • needs.

Cisco does not understand voice.

On the contrary, Cisco is the voice leader; Cisco is a voice company • with more experience with IP-based customer applications, service, and support than any competitor.

Cisco offers simplified products for small businesses•

Cisco solutions feature reduced install time (Cisco Unified • Communications Express Quick Configuration Tool)

Cisco products require less training than other vendor offerings.•

Every Cisco employee worldwide is using Cisco Unified IP Phones. • No other major competitor is doing this. Suggest that the prospect ask competing vendors if they are using their IP solutions companywide.

Cisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation Play

Objection Response

Why do I need a Cisco infrastructure to run Cisco Unified Communications?

Cisco switches and routers provide a highly secure network foundation and capabilities such as intelligent power management and port security between the phones and the switched port, making voice solutions simpler to deploy, troubleshoot, and manage.

A Cisco solution requires me to “rip and replace” my entire PBX and messaging all at once.

With the Cisco Smart Business Communications System, you choose • the pace of migration. Cisco integrates elegantly with most major PBXs and their common applications, such as messaging. Cisco messaging, contact center, and rich media applications support most major PBXs. This enables you to gain the benefits of these converged applications without removing your existing PBX and without requiring the installa-tion of Cisco call processing.

Cisco Unified Communications performs the traditional functions • of your old phone systems, including supporting multiple incoming phone lines.

Cisco Unified Communications frees you up from having to worry • about downtime that may be caused by legacy systems and provides you with peace of mind when it comes to communications management.

I don’t need a new phone system.

The Cisco Smart Business Communications System is more than just a phone system. It is an affordable system of voice, data, video, and wireless networking products that gives your employees secure access to information anytime, anywhere. And it gives your business more effective and efficient ways of communicating with customers, partners, and employees.

I don’t have a computer network.

If you’re using the Internet, you are using a network today. The Cisco Smart Business Communications System replaces your existing phone system with a converged IP-based network, which gives you far more capabilities than a conventional phone system. At the same time, you have the foundation for a data network, so you can take advantage of online business applications to benefit your organization.

I don’t have a technical staff to manage a network.

The Cisco partner that installs your Cisco Smart Business Communications System can also provide remote management and maintenance of your solution.

I don’t have time for a sales call.

If you can take the time for a brief phone conversation with an account manager, I’m sure you’ll see whether the Cisco Smart Business Communications System is right for you.

What is Cisco? Cisco is a leading global technology company and is the market leader in business voice communications, data networking, and network security.

Cisco equipment is too expensive.

The Cisco Smart Business Communications System is easy to purchase and own. We offer flexible financing options that don’t require a large capital investment. So, for example, you can lease the system with an affordable monthly payment versus a capital expenditure. In addition, by bringing your voice and data services together on one network, you can actually reduce the total cost of ownership of your network.

I can’t afford to have my phone system fail if my network goes down.

A thorough network assessment and proper network design will enable your network to be “voice-ready.” With redundancy built into your network, you can achieve “five nines” reliability—99.999 percent uptime.

I can’t afford to invest in a new communications network.

Cisco offers flexible financing options to help you take advantage of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System without a large capital investment.

Cisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation Play

Cisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation PlayCisco Smart Business Communications System—Lead-Generation Play

Copyright © 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Cisco, the Cisco logo, Cisco Catalyst, and Cisco Capital are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. ETMG_207167.A 8/07