Owns the Partner business relationship. Establishes, develops and maintains trusted advisor relationships with Partners and understands their business models, strategy and capabilities. Guides partner business strategies towards Cisco, encouraging the adoption and expansion of Cisco technologies and business practices and driving Cisco preference. Leverages market trends and insights to position Partners as preferred providers of Cisco technologies, expanding their practices to align with key products, services, and segments. Develops and executes strategic partner account plans, identifying priorities for performance optimization and transformation, while enabling capability development. Builds and/or strengthens Partner capabilities& practices and develops differentiated GTM strategies to drive growth across each practice. Orchestrates Partner ecosystems to align with the company’s technology portfolio, driving innovation, market expansion, and competitive differentiation. Engages sales teams early to align Partner capabilities with Cisco strategies, exposing and building upon services to enhance partner profitability and co-sell opportunities. Advocates for Partners within internal teams, integrating their capabilities into account plans and engaging specialists (e.g., solution engineers, practice sellers) to support Partner readiness and solution development. Plans and drives demand generation activities aligning Partner offerings and customer needs to create pipeline. Manages and maximizes business performance. Maximizes Partner programs and incentives, leverages and drives Partner investments, and drives operational excellence through integrated planning, forecasting, and performance monitoring (e.g., QBRs). Monitors and optimizes Partner performance through data-driven insights, utilizing profitability programs and methodologies to strengthen Partner success
- Specialization and Focus - Guide and influence Partners to align with the full portfolio of Cisco products and services with Partner’s strategic priorities; and fully utilize Cisco's programs, promotions and resources
- Customer Engagement and Accountability - Strong/primary influencer in Partner’s decision to make an investment, 80% of time spent on relationship orchestration, strategy& planning, practice development and business development with assigned Partner(s)
- The Internal Sales Process - All stages of the deal
- Corporate Interlock - Low to medium corporate interlock (interaction with BE, region leaders)
- Typical Sales Cycle - Sales cycle varies, Deal complexity varies (may be high complexity if the Partner is moving toward more complex deals as solution selling becomes more prevalent, or involve ecosystem, software and/or architecture)
- Success Measures - Annual Business Plan with Key Initiatives and Revenue Goals ($ Target), Partner’s Cisco business growth (% Y/Y), Partner’s Value Index Score across the Portfolios (#), ROI on investments and Demand Generation activities (%)
What You'll Do:
- Typically manages/ is dedicated to one or more large or complex, tactically important Partners • Book of Business: Responsible for significant and impactful revenue growth and business contributions
- Partner Profile: Partners are typically large, national, may be global integrators, managing sophisticated Cisco needs
- Partners with Cisco’s Partner business development teams to identify complementary Partner alliances and create Partner ecosystems
- Negotiates complex agreements covering revenue sharing, IP rights, and go-to-market commitments
- Constructs large and complex growth initiatives leveraging extended resources and eco-system Partners
- Co-designs transformative value propositions (e.g., ecosystem-wide solutions), presenting to C-level audiences to drive buy-in
- Anticipates and addresses enterprise-level challenges (e.g., scalability) with bespoke strategies, solidifying executive trust
- Fosters enduring partnerships by championing Partner innovations internally, ensuring alignment with Cisco GTM strategies
- Identifies resources for Partners (e.g. technical strategy councils) to help Partners align plans with next-gen innovations
- Anticipates disruptive tech shifts and advises GTM leadership on practical ways to future-proof strategies, sharing insights with senior/executive leadership
- Ensures any Partner governance frameworks align with global regulatory standards
- Leads cross-functional task forces to address strategic challenges impacting Partnerships; represent the company as a thought leader at global industry event
- Inspires collaboration across teams by demonstrating executive presence during high-stakes negotiations
- Provides consultative engagement to unlock large scale opportunities
- Drives alignment between corporate priorities and partner ecosystem strategies effectively
Why Cisco?
At Cisco, we’re revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We’ve been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.
Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you’ll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.
We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.
