Cisco 700-150 ICS Introduction to Cisco Sales Practice Exam
Build the account-manager knowledge the 700-150 exam tests — Cisco’s architectures and their business value, consultative selling, customer engagement, and business outcomes — with objective-mapped questions, immediate feedback in Learn mode, and full timed simulation in Exam mode.
Start 24-hour free trial →700-150 exam at a glance
- Vendor
- Cisco
- Exam code
- 700-150 (ICS)
- Full name
- Introduction to Cisco Sales
- Track
- Cisco sales / specialist exam (not a CCNA–CCNP career-certification tier)
- Target role
- Account manager selling Cisco technology services and solutions
- Duration
- 90 minutes
- Question count
- Cisco does not publish an official question count
- Exam sections & weights
- Cisco does not publish per-section percentage weights for this exam
- Passing score
- Scaled score; Cisco does not publish a fixed public cut score
- Official course
- Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS)
- Predecessors
- Replaced the earlier Cisco Sales Expert (CSE) and Selling Business Outcomes (SBO) exams
- Prerequisites
- None formally required; familiarity with Cisco’s portfolio and solution selling helps
- Delivery
- Pearson VUE; test center or online proctored
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (700-150 ICS) exam page. Verify current details with Cisco before scheduling.
About the Cisco 700-150 ICS exam
The 700-150 ICS exam tests, in Cisco’s own framing, the knowledge and skills an account manager needs to successfully sell Cisco technology services and solutions. It is a breadth exam rather than a depth exam: you are expected to recognise what each Cisco architecture does, which customer problem it solves, and how to articulate that value in a business conversation. For how certification exams work generally, see the certification study guides in our Learning Hub.
ICS is foundational within Cisco’s sales track. It consolidated and replaced the older Cisco Sales Expert (CSE) and Selling Business Outcomes (SBO) exams, and it underpins the Advanced Architecture account-manager roles — the specialised sales exams that follow it, such as IoT Account Manager (700-826). If your focus is the small and midsize market, Small Business Sales (700-250) is the sibling exam; for the post-sale lifecycle, see Renewals Manager (700-805).
Every PowerKram practice question maps to a topic area the exam covers and links to Cisco’s own exam material, so a weak spot becomes a specific study step rather than a guess.
What the 700-150 exam covers
An important note on weights: Cisco does not publish per-section percentage weights for the 700-150 exam, and there is no public exam-topics PDF with a weighted breakdown. Several third-party sites assert weightings, but they disagree with one another and none is sourced to Cisco — so this page does not repeat them. The topic areas below reflect Cisco’s own description of the exam and the scope of the official Introduction to Cisco Sales course; treat them as a study map, not as an official weighted blueprint.
The Cisco portfolio and architectures
Recognising Cisco’s major solution areas — networking, security, collaboration, data centre, and cloud — and what business problem each one addresses.
Selling business outcomes
Framing technology in terms of the customer’s desired result — cost, risk, growth, productivity — rather than feature lists and speeds and feeds.
Customer engagement
Discovery conversations, identifying stakeholders and decision makers, understanding the customer’s business drivers, and handling objections.
Cisco sales methodology
The consultative, solution-led approach Cisco expects account managers to follow, including how opportunities are qualified and progressed.
Services, lifecycle, and value
Where Cisco services, support, and the customer lifecycle fit into a proposal, and why adoption and renewal matter to long-term account value.
The Cisco certification and partner landscape
Awareness of how Cisco’s certification and partner programme structures work, and where specialised sales roles sit within them.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (700-150 ICS). Cisco publishes the exam duration and role focus but no weighted section breakdown; confirm current details before scheduling.
Who the 700-150 exam is for
ICS is aimed at commercial and customer-facing roles rather than engineers:
- Account managers and sales representatives at Cisco partners or distributors who sell the Cisco portfolio.
- Inside sales and business development staff who need to qualify opportunities and speak credibly about architectures.
- Pre-sales and solution consultants who want the business-outcome vocabulary to complement their technical depth.
- Partner staff pursuing Advanced Architecture roles, for which ICS is the foundational requirement.
Specialise after ICS with Small Business Sales (700-250), move into an architecture role with IoT Account Manager (700-826), or cover the renewal motion with Renewals Manager (700-805). For adjacent customer-facing career paths, see the solution-architect track in our Career Hub.
What this 700-150 practice exam delivers
Learn mode
Get the correct answer, the explanation, and a direct link to Cisco’s exam material — immediately after each question. Especially useful for scenario questions where several answers sound commercially plausible.
Exam mode
Timed, full-length simulation at the real 90-minute pace, spanning the full breadth of topics — so test day feels familiar.
Source-linked explanations
Every answer links to Cisco’s own ICS exam material, so you can verify each claim about the exam’s scope and role focus against the source.
Score by topic area
Because Cisco publishes no weighted sections, results break down by the topic areas above — so you can see whether portfolio knowledge or sales methodology is the weaker half.
Sample 700-150 practice questions
Ten free questions across the topic areas the 700-150 exam covers, with full explanations and source links to Cisco’s exam material. The complete bank is available with the 24-hour trial.
According to Cisco, which role is the 700-150 ICS exam designed for?
- An account manager selling Cisco technology services and solutions
- A data-centre cabling technician
- A CCIE-level network architect
- A firmware developer
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A. Cisco describes ICS as testing the knowledge and skills needed by an account manager to successfully sell Cisco technology services and solutions. That role framing explains the exam’s business-outcome emphasis.
Why not the others: a cabling technician (B) and firmware developer (D) are implementation roles this exam does not target, and a CCIE-level architect (C) sits in the technical career-certification track, not the sales track.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) → Further reading: PowerKram — Small Business Sales (700-250) →A customer says their branch teams lose hours each week to unreliable video meetings. Which response best reflects outcome-based selling?
- Quote the switch model numbers immediately
- Quantify the productivity lost, then position a collaboration solution against that cost
- Send a full technical datasheet and wait
- Offer the largest available discount up front
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B. Outcome-based selling ties the solution to a measurable business result — here, recovering lost productivity — so the customer evaluates value rather than price. That framing is the core of the exam’s business-outcome material.
Why not the others: leading with model numbers (A) or a datasheet (C) is feature-led selling that skips the business case, and discounting first (D) concedes value before it has been established.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) →Early in an opportunity, what is the main purpose of a discovery conversation?
- To deliver a closing pitch
- To negotiate final pricing
- To understand the customer’s business drivers, challenges, and decision process
- To install equipment
Show answer & explanation
Correct: C. Discovery exists to surface the customer’s drivers, pain points, stakeholders, and buying process before any solution is proposed — everything downstream depends on getting it right.
Why not the others: closing (A) and pricing negotiation (B) come later in the cycle, and installation (D) is post-sale delivery, not discovery.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) → Further reading: PowerKram — IoT Account Manager (700-826) →A retailer needs to connect many branch sites reliably and centrally manage that connectivity. Which Cisco solution area fits best?
- Collaboration
- Physical badge printing
- Payroll processing
- Networking (including SD-WAN for branch connectivity)
Show answer & explanation
Correct: D. Multi-site branch connectivity with central management is the networking architecture, and SD-WAN is the specific answer Cisco positions for it. Matching a customer scenario to the right architecture is a central exam skill.
Why not the others: collaboration (A) addresses meetings and communications rather than site connectivity, and badge printing (B) and payroll (C) are not Cisco solution areas at all.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) →A hospital is most concerned about ransomware reaching patient systems. Which Cisco solution area should an account manager lead with?
- Office furniture
- Security
- Catering services
- Travel booking
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B. Ransomware and threat protection map directly to Cisco’s security architecture — the solution area an account manager should lead with, then connect to the customer’s risk and compliance drivers.
Why not the others: furniture (A), catering (C), and travel booking (D) are not Cisco solution areas and address no security risk.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) →What best characterises the consultative selling approach Cisco expects of account managers?
- Diagnosing the customer’s business problem first, then recommending a fitting solution
- Pushing the highest-margin product regardless of fit
- Reciting technical specifications in every meeting
- Avoiding contact until the customer issues a tender
Show answer & explanation
Correct: A. Consultative selling starts with diagnosis — understanding the problem and its business impact — and only then prescribes a solution, which is why Cisco frames the account-manager role around outcomes rather than products.
Why not the others: pushing high-margin products (B) ignores fit and damages trust, spec-reciting (C) is feature-led selling, and waiting for a tender (D) forfeits the chance to shape requirements.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) →A prospect objects that the proposal costs more than a competitor’s. What is the most effective first response?
- Immediately match the competitor’s price
- Explore what is driving the concern and re-establish the value and total cost of ownership
- End the conversation
- Criticise the competitor’s company
Show answer & explanation
Correct: B. A price objection is usually a value question in disguise. Understanding what sits behind it and reframing around total cost of ownership and outcomes protects both the deal and the margin.
Why not the others: matching price immediately (A) concedes value without understanding the objection, walking away (C) abandons a live opportunity, and attacking the competitor (D) undermines your credibility.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) →Why does customer adoption after the sale matter to an account manager’s long-term value?
- It has no bearing once the order ships
- It only affects the support team
- Customers who actually adopt and realise value are far more likely to renew and expand
- It only matters for hardware
Show answer & explanation
Correct: C. In a lifecycle model, realised value drives renewal and expansion — so adoption is a commercial concern for the account manager, not just a support metric. This is why the renewals motion is treated as part of the sales lifecycle.
Why not the others: the relationship does not end at shipment (A), adoption is not solely the support team’s concern (B), and it applies to software and services at least as much as hardware (D).
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) → Further reading: PowerKram — Renewals Manager (700-805) →You are selling a solution with organisation-wide impact. Which stakeholder group is it most important to identify early?
- Only the IT help desk
- Only external auditors
- Only the receptionist
- The economic buyer and other decision makers who control budget and approval
Show answer & explanation
Correct: D. Identifying the economic buyer and the wider decision-making group early is essential — a proposal that only ever reaches technical staff can stall indefinitely without budget authority behind it.
Why not the others: the help desk (A) rarely holds budget authority, external auditors (B) are not the buying group, and the receptionist (C) is not a decision maker for this purchase.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) →How long is the 700-150 ICS exam?
- 15 minutes
- 8 hours
- 90 minutes
- 3 days
Show answer & explanation
Correct: C. Cisco states that Introduction to Cisco Sales (700-150 ICS) is a 90-minute exam. Note that Cisco does not publish an official question count or a fixed cut score for it.
Why not the others: 15 minutes (A) is far too short for the exam’s breadth, and 8 hours (B) and 3 days (D) describe lab-format exams, which this is not.
Source: Cisco — Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) →Keep going: Learning & Career resources
ICS is the foundation of Cisco’s sales track. Two PowerKram hubs back this exam.
Deep dive: where ICS sits, what it tests, and how to prepare
Where ICS sits in Cisco’s programme
Cisco runs two broadly separate tracks: the technical career certifications (CCNA, CCNP, CCIE) and the sales/specialist exams in the 700 series. ICS is the entry point of the second. It consolidated the older Cisco Sales Expert and Selling Business Outcomes exams into one foundational qualification, and it is the prerequisite for the Advanced Architecture account-manager roles that follow. See IoT Account Manager (700-826) →
What it actually tests — and what Cisco does not publish
The exam runs 90 minutes and covers Cisco’s architectures at a business level, outcome-based selling, customer engagement, and Cisco’s sales methodology. Unlike the technical exams, Cisco publishes no weighted section breakdown, no official question count, and no fixed cut score for 700-150. That matters when you choose study material: any resource presenting a precise weighted blueprint is inferring it, not quoting Cisco. Prepare for breadth across all the topic areas rather than optimising for a percentage. See Small Business Sales (700-250) →
Realistic study path
The official Introduction to Cisco Sales (ICS) course is aligned to the exam and is the natural starting point. Beyond it, spend your time learning to map a customer scenario to the right architecture and to express that in business language — cost, risk, growth, productivity. Practise scenario questions where several answers sound commercially reasonable, because that is the exam’s real difficulty: not recall, but judgement about which response an account manager should choose. Finish with a full timed run at the 90-minute pace. See Renewals Manager (700-805) →
Frequently asked questions
What is the 700-150 ICS exam?
What are the exam sections and weights?
How many questions are on the exam?
Is 700-150 a technical exam?
Does ICS replace older Cisco sales exams?
Start your free 24-hour 700-150 practice trial
Full access to the question bank, both study modes, source-linked explanations, and score-by-topic-area across the full breadth of the ICS exam. No credit card required.
Start free trial →