Thursday, June 30, 2016

Channel conflict under control at Dell

When @Dell first started out in the PC business, it turned the market upside down by selling its products direct to end users rather than through the reseller partner channel.

Although it abandoned this model some years ago, enthusiastically embracing a channel-led route to market, many resellers harbour a persistent feeling that the vendor still prefers a direct model.

@BennieduPlessis, channel account manager, says he runs into the objection about #Dell being perceived as a direct vendor quite often, with accompanying mistrust from reseller partners.

“I have seen Dell grow from a direct organisation to a channel-centric organisation,” he says. “And the direct thing comes up a lot.

“How we tackle that is through deal registration. The reseller registers their deals, and they are locked into the CRM tool.”

There are still some direct customers, he points out, and these will be aligned in the CRM system with a specific team. “Partners can still work with the named accounts, collaborating with the account team.

“I facilitate meetings between partners and account managers, and make sure the direct teams treat our partners correctly.”

Any potential conflict, particularly on enterprise accounts, is dealt with quickly, says Dell SA GM Doug Woolley.

“There are 46 customers that make up Dell’s direct large enterprise customers – and about 50% of them have partner activity in conjunction with Dell,” he says.

http://dell.it-online.co.za/?p=588

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