Dell Direct Sales Rep End-Runs Equallogic VAR
While Michael Dell was having a well-publicized lunch with a Long Island VAR earlier this month, at least one of his field sales representatives was trying to make an end-run around the existing relationship that a VAR had with a customer.
The customer (formerly in sales himself) wrote about the encounter on his blog, saying that a Dell Equallogic direct sales rep e-mailed him directly to talk about setting up a demo and explaining what Equallogic could do for him. This is in spite of the fact that the customer had a longstanding relationship with a VAR for his Equallogic business.
The customer includes the text of the e-mail in his blog entry, which, in part, says: "As some of you may or may not know Dell Inc. acquired Equallogic back in November. Previously till now there was no way to send a Dell account executive onsite, now that we can do this, give me a call if you would like to set up a demo or onsite consultation."
Now Dell, smart social marketer that it is, responded to the accusations in the blog's comment section, initially saying that the sales person might be working with a VAR, but then in a subsequent comment saying that "the email must have been an individual sales person trying to make something happen, but that it is definitely NOT part of some bigger program. Dell is a big company, it's not possible to ensure everybody understands the rules of engagement and sometimes things like this happen. Please accept our apologies."
And the next comment comes from someone else at Dell, Amie Paxton (the person behind Dell's new channel blog), who uses her comment to tell anyone who encounters a similar situation to contact her so she can inform Dell's channel team. This effectively shuts down the conversation.
Now, the channel team at Dell indeed has seemed committed to creating a successful channel program. But the last time I checked, the direct sales organization at Dell did not report to Channel Chief Greg Davis. This is where it all breaks down.
While Dell's channel program and marketing efforts look good on paper (or on screen), things like deal registration and who-owns-what-account are only as good as their enforcement.
When a company representative says there's no way a company as big as Dell can make sure all its field sales reps understand the rules of engagement, well, maybe as a company Dell has a ways to go in becoming channel-friendly.
What do you think?
Comments (9)
Dell has no clue on how to deal with the channel. Don't fool yourselves into thinking this is an isolated incident. This will continue to be par for the course, especially with how Dell has structured its compensation for its employees. If I were an Equallogic VAR I would be looking to bring on some other storage partner.
Posted by Joe | May 28, 2008 8:10 AM
I talked to a Customer the other day that was frustrated because a Dell sales rep was pushing EQL, an EMC rep was pushing EMC Clariion, and another Dell Rep was pushing Dell/EMC into the same account. It became so annoying that the customer told them all off and choose LeftHand Networks as his iSCSI SAN solution.
Posted by John | May 28, 2008 1:37 PM
In the six months since we launched PartnerDirect, we have about half-a-dozen situations like this out of many thousands of deals. As Amie and our team know, we take these actions very seriously and I do follow up on every instance to understand what happened in our process and to resolve them to the satisfaction of everyone involved. If XenoChron would like to email me, Greg_Davis@Dell.com,we can resolve his concerns.
Thank you,
Greg Davis
VP, GM Americas Channel Group
Posted by Greg Davis | May 28, 2008 11:14 PM
These types of incidents have been going on for the 25 years I have been involved in sales and will continue to happen. Whether from a business partner or a competitor, a sales person's relationship with a client is constantly under direct assault. As always the key is for a sales person to establish a value added, partnering relationship based on putting the customer's interests first. If the sales person brings true value to the relationship, it won't matter who calls on the account.
Posted by Ray | May 29, 2008 2:30 PM
I think you hit the nail on the head when you pointed out that the Channel organization and the Direct organization are separate chains of command. I've worked for two fortune 100's and I can tell you that sort of side-to-side communication is extremely difficult and convoluted in big companies -- and Dell happens to be bigger than the two I worked for.
I really believe that Dell is sincere in wanting to become more channel friendly, and sincerely wants to stop the end runs. But I also know it typically takes years for a company that's been Direct by tradition and culture to get the Channel mode implemented right. If I was a channel partner, I'd ty to pre-emptively whisper into my customers' ear that the end-run might be coming, and try to position myself to outrun it.
Posted by michael | May 29, 2008 3:15 PM
I ve been selling Equallogic since 2003
So far all of my experiences have been positive ones with the dell direct team
sean
Posted by sean shea | May 30, 2008 1:42 AM
Well this does not suprise me at all.
Dell won't deal with the channel in an open fashion
They will continue as allways.
Hey Greg,, Check this out.
We stopped supporting Dell systems a few years ago and now we are finally getting the benefits of that stand we made and customers we turned away because they run Dell hardware we can not offer support to you if you run dell we have no time for that. You want our support you buy our products.
We are the guys that are called when hell breaks loose and
Posted by Chris Montgomery | May 30, 2008 7:26 PM
Well this does not suprise me at all.
Dell won't deal with the channel in an open fashion
They will continue as allways.
Hey Greg Davis,, Check this out.
We stopped supporting Dell systems a few years ago and now we are finally getting the benefits of that stand we made and customers we turned away because they run Dell hardware we can not offer support to you if you run dell we have no time for that. You want our support you buy our products.
We are the guys that are called when hell breaks loose and we are the guys now getting the sales.
I just pulled 3 Dell servers and 25 desktops and get to replace with my hardware. Sweet ahh the margins i'm getting now are awesome.
Thanks Dell for the oppertunity to take your customers.We appreciate it.
Posted by Chris Montgomery | May 30, 2008 7:49 PM
Of course, John who posted above would be from Lefthand. John, you really ought to ID yourself.
Posted by marc farley | June 2, 2008 10:30 AM