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Exam Information
Official specifications published by Cisco
Exam Format
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Skills this practice test covers
- Validate a customer's desired business outcome with its key stakeholders.
- Score account health from product usage, product quality, sentiment and financials.
- Classify a customer barrier as business, operational, technical or corporate culture.
- Pick the action that protects time to value when a project sponsor leaves.
- Prepare a Quarterly Success Review and record the outcomes it produces.
- Write a mitigation plan for each risk found in a renewal risk analysis.
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820-605 exam content
5 domains · 36 topics · 246 of 254 questions sorted by domain
Customer Success Industry15%49 questions
This domain explains why customer success exists and how it differs from support and sales. Candidates describe the customer lifecycle, IT purchasing and consumption models, the key metrics and their financial effect, and engagement models for each customer segment.
Skills tested
- Explain the drivers behind customer success and the difference between expected and unexpected value.
- Compare customer success with customer support and with sales.
- Compare software licensing, service subscriptions and enterprise agreements, and CapEx vs OpEx.
- Explain what churn, expansion and renewal metrics such as MRR, LTV and ACV mean for revenue.
- Match high touch, virtual touch and digital touch engagement to customer segments.
Questions by topic
- Describe customer engagement models based on customer segmentation7
- Explain the financial implication of the following metrics7
- Identify the key metrics for customer success5
- Explain the key drivers creating the need for Customer Success4
- Compare customer success, customer support and sales5
- Explain the value proposition for customer success6
- Explain the customer lifecycle journey4
- Define customer success (expected and unexpected value)4
- Explain different IT purchasing and consumption models3
- Describe the objectives of the Customer Success Manager4
Success Plan Creation25%55 questions
A success plan ties what the customer bought to the business outcome it wants. Candidates identify stakeholders, validate that outcome, connect critical success factors and KPIs to it, find gaps in the account baseline, and read a customer health score.
Skills tested
- Identify the product purchased, the key stakeholder roles and the desired business outcome.
- Connect critical success factors and KPIs to the business outcome.
- Analyze the account baseline across tools, process and people to find gaps.
- Analyze a health score built from product usage, product quality, customer sentiment and customer financials.
- Define targeted use cases and assign responsibilities in a RACI.
Questions by topic
- Identify the individuals and responsibilities within a RACI6
- Explain how outcomes, Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and metrics contribute to customer value achievement6
- Analyze a customer health score7
- Analyze the account baseline to identify gaps5
- Identify critical success factors to connect to business outcomes5
- Validate the desired business outcome based on information obtained from key stakeholders7
- Explain the purpose of targeted use cases4
- Describe the common elements of a customer success plan8
- Identify key stakeholder roles4
- Identify the product or solution purchased3
Barrier Management25%54 questions
A barrier is anything that slows adoption or value. Candidates sort barriers by type, find them through observation, conversation and data, and choose the actions that protect time to value.
Skills tested
- Classify barriers as business, operational, technical or corporate culture.
- Find barriers through tools such as telemetry and consumption data, through process and through people.
- Choose actions for a stalled implementation, a lost project sponsor or missing product features.
- Respond to product quality problems, or to a product that is not the right fit.
Questions by topic
- Identify types of customer barriers14
- Identify actions that impact time to value for common customer barriers26
- Describe sources used to identify customer barriers6
- Identify customer barriers8
Customer Success Management20%47 questions
This domain is the regular work once the plan exists. Candidates explain onboarding, routine customer management activities, the communication each stakeholder needs, the Quarterly Success Review and customer advocacy.
Skills tested
- Plan onboarding with deployment planning, a priority success focus, a timeline to value and a feature matrix.
- Run routine activities such as scoreboard reviews, success plan reviews and capturing moments of success.
- Tailor communication to the customer executive, the account manager, users, services and the business unit.
- Prepare a Quarterly Success Review and identify its outcomes.
- Spot customers who can act as advocates.
Questions by topic
- Explain the purpose of essential customer management activities10
- Describe the Quarterly Success Review process4
- Explain the elements of customer onboarding10
- Explain communication needs of stakeholders9
- Identify outcomes from a Quarterly Success Review8
- Identify opportunities for customers to act as advocates6
Expand Opportunities and Renewal15%41 questions
The last domain turns adoption into growth and protects the renewal. Candidates find expand opportunities in the success plan, run an adoption campaign, analyze renewal risk and write mitigation plans.
Skills tested
- Describe expand opportunities: added features, new use cases, more user groups, new solutions and change management services.
- Create an adoption campaign that surfaces expand opportunities.
- Update the customer success plan with each expand opportunity.
- Analyze renewal risk and create a mitigation plan for each risk factor.
Questions by topic
- Create mitigation plans that address risk factors9
- Describe types of expand opportunities7
- Create an adoption campaign to identify expand opportunities5
- Update customer success plan with expand opportunities6
- Explain the elements of a renewal risk analysis8
- Identify potential expansion opportunities across the customer lifecycle from a customer success plan6
Requirements
- No formal prerequisites: anyone can book the exam.
- Recommended: hands-on experience with customer relationships and with customer lifecycle management.
- Recommended: familiarity with SaaS and subscription business models and with technology adoption frameworks.
About the 820-605 exam
Cisco's 820-605 exam is about the work that starts after a sale: making sure the customer reaches the business outcome it bought the technology for. It checks how a customer success manager builds a success plan, finds and removes adoption barriers, runs onboarding and Quarterly Success Reviews, and plans renewals and expansion. It tests customer success practice, not the configuration of Cisco products. Passing earns the Cisco Customer Success Manager Specialist certification.
Success Plan Creation and Barrier Management are the two largest domains, and the PlanetCert practice test gives them the most questions. Its biggest single topic asks which action protects time to value for a common barrier, such as a stalled implementation or a lost project sponsor. The explanations say why that action fits that barrier. Flashcard mode suits the renewal metrics, such as MRR, LTV and ACV, and Brainy AI Assistant can explain how a customer health score is built or what belongs in a RACI.
How to earn the certification
- Earns
- Cisco Customer Success Manager SpecialistSpecialist
The certification stays valid for three years.
How to prepare for 820-605
- 1
Write one success plan in full
Choose a real or sample account and write its success plan: the product purchased, the stakeholders, the desired business outcome, the critical success factors and a RACI. Success Plan Creation is one of the two largest domains.
- 2
Score an account's health by hand
Rate one account on product usage, product quality, customer sentiment and customer financials. Then sort each input into a leading or a lagging indicator.
- 3
Pair each barrier with an action
Take the five common barriers in Cisco's topic list, from a stalled implementation to a product that is not the right fit, and write the action that protects time to value for each one.
- 4
Rehearse a Quarterly Success Review
Draft an agenda and the expected outcomes for one review. Note what the customer executive, the account manager and the users each need to hear from it.
- 5
Finish with a timed full run
Take the 820-605 practice test in Timed Mode, then use Study Mode on the metrics questions. Ask Brainy AI Assistant about any renewal metric that is still unclear.
Start a timed 820-605run
Cisco's course for this exam is Cisco Customer Success Manager (DTCSM), available as e-learning and as instructor-led training, with a learning path on Cisco U.
Who 820-605 is for
- Customer success managers who look after technology customers after the sale.
- Technical account managers and service delivery managers who own adoption and renewals.
- Account and relationship managers who work alongside a customer success team.
- Customer experience staff who want a structured method for success plans and reviews.
Typical job titles: Customer success manager · Technical account manager · Account manager · Service delivery manager · Customer experience manager
820-605 glossary
18 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.
- Account baseline
- The starting state of an account's tools, processes and people, used to find the gaps the plan must close.
- Adoption campaign
- A planned set of activities that drives the use of features or use cases, and can reveal expand opportunities.
- Annual Contract Value (ACV)
- The yearly value of a customer's contract, averaged over the length of the contract.
- CapEx vs OpEx
- Capital spending buys an asset up front; operating spending pays for use over time, as with a subscription.
- Churn
- The loss of customers, or of their revenue, when they stop using or do not renew a product.
- Critical success factors
- The few conditions that must be met for the customer to reach its business outcome.
- Customer health score
- A combined rating of an account, built from product usage, product quality, customer sentiment and customer financials.
- Customer success plan
- A shared plan that records the customer's desired business outcome, its success factors, its use cases and who does what.
- Digital touch
- An engagement model that reaches many customers through automated content and tools instead of personal meetings.
- High touch
- An engagement model in which a named customer success manager works closely with one customer.
- Lagging indicators
- Measures of results that have already happened, such as churn or a completed renewal.
- Leading indicators
- Early signals, such as product usage, that point to a future result like a renewal.
- Lifetime Value (LTV)
- The total revenue a customer is expected to bring over the whole relationship.
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
- The predictable revenue that a customer's subscriptions bring in each month.
- Quarterly Success Review
- A meeting held each quarter in which the customer and the customer success manager review progress against the success plan.
- RACI
- A chart that shows who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed for each task.
- Telemetry
- Usage data that a product sends back automatically, which shows how much and how it is used.
- Time to value
- The time a customer takes to get real benefit from what it bought.
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