We’re heading into the second half of the year with fierce momentum. The Dell Technologies Global Channel is a $43 billion business, accounting for over half of the Dell Technologies’ annual revenue. Thanks to the incredible support of our partners, Dell Technologies continues to achieve immense success, expanding our leadership footprint in the storage, data protection, server, and hyper-converged infrastructure markets, among others. And while this sounds great, as Michael says, we’re ‘pleased, but not satisfied.’ We know there are still opportunities ahead of us and that we still have work to do.
Our partners have told us they want more predictability in engagements; more front end margins so their sellers can retire quota more quickly; and more speed and simplicity around quotes and deal registration. We took this feedback to heart and are empowering Dell partners to attack the market.
Enterprise Preferred Channel Program
When partners and Dell Technologies sales work together, we’re absolutely unstoppable. We call this the “Art of the AND.” In collaboration with Bill Scannell and our colleagues in Dell’s Enterprise sales organization, this week we announced the Enterprise Preferred Channel Program. We’re leveraging joint sales and partner planning to drive one joint approach to market, simplifying our sales engagement and being prescriptive about how our sales teams and partners should work together.
Today we see phenomenal results in our top 1,000 Enterprise accounts. Nothing changes here as these accounts are well-covered. The next tier, which we call “Enterprise Preferred,” is full of opportunity. In these Enterprise Preferred accounts, we will bring in trusted partners with relationships and technical expertise to maximize sales coverage through a channel-led model – specifically in driving solutions across the datacenter. In other words, we want partners to drive, be aggressive, and find that new business.
So how does the enterprise preferred channel program help all of us grow our businesses?
- Let’s start with expanded coverage. We’re investing in dedicated channel team members that will support sales engagement in Enterprise Preferred accounts. This is a win for all of us.
- Next, we’ll collaborate on joint account plans, leveraging our strategic partner relationships. This provides clarity to everyone involved, helps us focus our efforts in the right places, and creates a smooth, positive experience for the customer.
- We’ll offer more competitive pricing. For eligible Storage opportunities in relevant accounts, we will offer a new “acquisition” Deal Registration with an incremental discount tied to it. This gives partners the greater front-end margin they asked for.
- We’re investing in a compensation uplift for the Dell sales teams to protect their commission on these accounts, even with the more aggressive front-end discounts. This means our Enterprise Preferred sellers will be incented to work closely and scale with our partners.
- And finally, we’re offering more formal protection for partners through an earned partner of record model, available in certain whitespace accounts within the Enterprise Preferred segment for either Storage or across our Infrastructure Solutions (ISG) lines of business (Storage, Server, and Networking). For our partners who earn partner of record status for all of ISG, this means they will truly own the datacenter in that account.
As our partner community knows well, we have a three word mission statement to make our program work for them – Simple. Predictable. Profitable.™ That’s precisely what this announcement is about, and just one of the ways that we’re delivering on our partners’ feedback.
While we’re only talking about Enterprise today, we are exploring the possibility of aligning these programs to the Commercial segment later this year. Stay tuned for more information as those plans are solidified.
Harnessing our full salesforce to solve customers’ challenges
We believe this approach will give us opportunities across the board, but this is particularly true when it comes to customers looking to solve storage issues. We have all the ingredients available for customers to effectively deploy and derive greater value from their storage solutions – an extraordinary channel storage business, remarkable direct sales expertise, and industry-leading solutions. These strengths, coupled with our collaborative channel and sales go-to-market strategy, mean we’re well equipped help companies through their digital, IT, workforce and security transformations.
We’re excited about this program – this is big! Alongside our Enterprise organization, we are fully committed to helping our partners win new business in this Enterprise Preferred segment as well as helping modernize customer datacenters.
This is ONE approach to the market – we’re in it together!
To learn more, please visit the Dell Partner Portal.
