At Dell we pride ourselves on listening to our partners. When we arrived in the channel business space our first step was to go ask partners what they wanted to see from Dell. We sat down with vendors of all sizes, regions and solution sets and aimed to learn their needs and their pain-points. Knowing what it was top-of-mind was instrumental in designing our programs and benefits.
We couldn’t do everything in one year, and some suggestions we couldn’t feasibly accomplish at all, but we listened to partners, gathered their feedback and built our channel program, PartnerDirect. Once we had our program framework built we once again asked partners to assess it, to make sure that their pain points had been addressed. We saw that partners were looking for that type of approach and relationship with their vendors.
Our approach with partners is to approach the channel itself as Dell’s customer. If you treat the channel as an extension of your sales force, your programs and activities will be different than if you treat the channel as a customer. Our team is focused on listening to our customers, understanding their needs and working hard to win their business and trust as they do every day with their own customers. This approach drives the overall mentality of our teams. We want to solve their issues and that will drive you in a different way than a historical reseller model.
We heard loud and clear that as vendors in this space has consolidated rapidly, partners were looking for alternatives. Dell offers a great brand, great technology, different approach to business, and we’re listening all the time. Just tell us what you want to see.