July 2009 - Dell Channel Blog

Greg Davis recently spoke with CRN’s, Sara Yirrell, about growing Dell’s partner base with enhanced portal features and opening its deal registration. Read More-

A few weeks ago we blogged about a podcast interview with Erik Dithmer, GM for Small & Medium Business Americas, about how potential channel sales conflict is managed at Dell.  So we thought it would be interesting to have the same conversation with his counterpart in Europe -- Aongus Hegarty, GM  for Small & medium business in Europe.  Rather than cover same ground, we took the conversation to another aspect of conflict management:   compensation.  The idea seems pretty simple…Dell sales people get compensated for deals made by channel partners.  But exactly how does it work, and more importantly, what is the benefit to channel partners?  Listen to a great interview with Aongus.

It is natural for a channel partner to question the value they get out of a vendor program like Dell’s PartnerDirect.  And it is natural to compare programs.  So when we contacted Don Basler, director of marketing at  Mosaic Technology, USA, the results he saw were pretty astonishing:  20%-50% reduction in sales cycle time, 17% more prospects due to Dell telemarketing efforts, and a 20% success rate selling Dell EqualLogic storage arrays to previous users of Fibre Channel SANs.  The results speak for themselves:  Read about it here.

A lot of channel partners want to morph their business, to provide stickier relationships with their customers.  One way to do this is to offer managed services – that is, managing components of a customer’s IT environment.  So you might be asking: what is the fastest path to adding this practice area to your portfolio of services? We talked recently with Rebecca Grigas, who is the Manager of Managed Services Consulting for Dell.  Listen to the podcast here, as she talks about the business potential of becoming a MSP and how to become one.

Dell is constantly asking in person, on this blog, and other places what channel partners want in a vendor program.  When we launched PartnerDirect we heard three things:  Simplify the program and lower my administrative costs while giving me the best products.  With that direction we launched PartnerDirect less than two years ago.    Today I found that CRN in the UK is asking the same question, which you can find here.  What is interesting is that the responders are asking for the same kinds of things as they did two years ago:  Help me make money.  Work with me, not against me. Give me the tools. 

Partners tell us we’ve made great strides.  We also continue to build out the program and invest based on partner input.  So join the CRN debate, so we can learn from your comments. Or add your comments below.