Dell is evolving its partner program to match that of recent storage acquisition Compellent, and is making sure inside sales tows the channel line.
By James E. Gaskin
Eight months ago, Greg Davis said he was “very focused on changing Dell’s culture.” Today that’s still the case, and Davis, vice president and general manager, global commercial channel, says Dell “had an ‘aha’ moment about the channel internally, because of so many acquisitions of companies with strong channels.” In February, for example, Dell’s purchase of Compellent Technologies, the mid- to high-end SAN vendor, became official.
At the first-ever Dell Storage Forum, we spoke with Davis about how his efforts on behalf of the company’s reseller channel are going, as well as with some of the 200 Dell partners in attendance to verify if the official word matches the view from the trenches.
“When we bought EqualLogic four years ago, we didn’t do a good job working with their channel,” admits Davis. EqualLogic, a SAN vendor supporting the midmarket and smaller businesses, had about 150 dealers at the time of the acquisition. Compellent, on the other hand, has 454 strong channel partners focused primarily on the enterprise, and Davis and Dell plan to take advantage of these new partners.
“About 75 percent of [Compellent’s] partners are new to us,” says Davis. “But the top 20 in volume were almost all Dell partners before the acquisition.” Officially, Dell now has about 1,200 certified partners in the United States, 782 of which are storage certified.
The “certified” moniker changed in May, though, when Dell rolled out PartnerDirect. There are now three reseller tiers: Registered, Preferred, and Premier. Meshing partner programs can be tough, but Dell changed its program to match the Compellent program; for example, Dell extended its deal registration windows from the previous 120 days to 180 days.
As for the direct sales team, “the top-down directive for inside sales to work with the channel is impressive,” notes Davis. “Inside sales are getting mandatory channel training. HR penalizes bad sales behavior—for instance, by not giving them quota credit if they sell the wrong way. Blatant violation of the rules leads to written performance evaluations up to termination.”
But Davis much prefers the carrot. “I show sales teams that on a quarterly basis, the top producers on the inside have a high mix of channel sales. We emphasize that the best inside performers are the ones who work best with the channel.”
Dell’s resellers, who asked not to be named, agree inside sales are coming around, and that some are much better than others. Resellers are getting to know the inside sales team serving their areas, but since inside sales are assigned by vertical rather than geography, there are many people to contact in a service coverage area. But once resellers and salespeople get acquainted, good things sometimes happen. For example, one partner asked an inside salesperson if he had any leads he could share, and received a spreadsheet with 1,500 names.
Most resellers agree that Dell’s storage lineup, from PowerVault to EqualLogic to Compellent, allows them to cover the entire storage needs for their customers. For customers that didn’t know about EqualLogic or Compellent, having Dell stand behind the products eliminates the credibility question. However, the customer of one Compellent reseller canceled his order when the acquisition was announced because of earlier problems with Dell support.
Compellent’s support program, CoPilot, gets rave reviews from both resellers and customers. Dell executives promise to continue CoPilot, and perhaps expand the support program to include EqualLogic.
Renewing his personal pledge to continue building the channel program, Davis says, “There are basic principles we said we would do from the beginning. We may put 40 ideas on a white board, and if we can only do three, we promise to really do those three right. We try real hard not to commit to things we can’t deliver.”
And Davis says the inside salespeople are getting the message. “They’re starting to see that working with the channel can help them make their numbers.”
JAMES E. GASKIN is a freelance writer and former reseller based in Mesquite, Texas.
