To be successful in today’s IT-climate means outsmarting your competitor. There is plenty of choice on the market, so it is your job to convince prospects that your product is the best.
This is achieved through what I call the “sales mix”, which are the three core components of anyone in a commercial role. This mix consists of:
- Personal experience;
- A salesman’s “magic” – your natural ability and drive to sell;
- And factual knowledge.
While your experience can only improve over time and your “sales magic” is in your genes, your knowledge is something you can always work on. And often something your employer and professional relations expect you to actively improve.
Where do I begin?
As Service Delivery Manager working at a medium sized Security Integrator; SecureLink NL, I tend to several customers – large and small. The infrastructures at these customers are all composed of products from different vendors using a variety of solutions and architectures.
This presents a challenge when it comes to being knowledgeable about the entire spectrum of products and to be a trusted advisor to my clients in times of need. A major time-consumer and therefore a roadblock when it comes to learning about something new, is figuring out where to begin.
This is the thing I personally love the most about the Juniper Networks Learning Academy; I get everything spoon-fed to me. All I have to do is eat it. Ok, I realize that sounds a bit too good to be true. You still have to study! But by providing well-organized courses with illustrated examples and easy-to-follow narrated classes, you can focus your time on studying instead of looking for what to study. Afterwards you can always test yourself with the practice exams.
Image source: http://jpartnertraining.juniper.net/ (copyright Juniper Networks)
From zero to hero
To help you get started, Juniper will first ask you whether you would like your training to be sales or engineeringfocused. Since I took the sales route, that is what I will limit this article to. Juniper’s sales certification is calledJNSA, which stands for Juniper Networks Sales Associate.
While some of you may already have prior knowledge of networking or network-security, others may come from a completely different background. To provide a common ground to work upwards from, Juniper requires you to complete a few basic courses prior to starting your JNSA program.
These are called the Juniper Vision and JUNOS Fundamentals, as you can see in the image on the right. All the courses are grouped into categories help you pick the ones you need.
Don’t be fooled by “only” 8 categories – Juniper offers a lot of courses (over a hundered!). You will have to make choices of what to study when and to follow every course will take you from several weeks up to several months. Depending on the time you can invest, of course. Don’t feel overwhelmed and take your time.
Image source: http://jpartnertraining.juniper.net/ (copyright Juniper Networks)
After completing your JNSA you will have a solid understanding of Juniper’s solutions for:
- Routing
- Switching
- Security
- WLAN
- Data Center Solutions
Juniper Credits and Partner Status
It is important to stay accredited as a Juniper Partner, so your organization needs to accumulate enough credits annually. Credits you obtain by completing these online courses! This benefits your own knowledge, as well as your company as a Juniper Partner.
Also, technical and commercial credits are counted separately, so if you’re feeling competitive with your technical peers you can always try to accumulate more points!
These credits that you earn also count towards your Juniper Sales Rank, which is displayed on your personal page. In the screenshot below you can see that I am working my way to the Juniper Master title.
Image source: http://jpartnertraining.juniper.net/ (copyright Juniper Networks)
Besides perhaps some personal satisfaction gained from your new title, it also assures your contacts that you have a certain degree of knowledge. This builds trust and allows you to focus your story on what you can do for them, as opposed to first proving you have what it takes to make an offer.
Most courses take between half an hour and 2 hours to complete, depending on their complexity. Another half about is to be expected for each exam. If you spend a lot of time on the road, you can download the podcast to listen to in your car.
Start outsmarting your competition!
So whether you are completely new to networking or already know your hubs from routers and fiber from Ethernet,Juniper Networks Learning Academy will have something for you. If you have any feedback about the Learning Academy, feel free to post them below as well. I’d love to hear your own experiences with it.
