Dell hails spike in deal registration activity

Number of deals registered by EMEA partners has more than quadrupled over the past 12 months

Kathy Schneider: This is a reflection of the increase in collaboration between our channel and direct sales teams

Dell has held up a spike in reseller deal registration activity as evidence that its direct sales force is finally gelling with its channel.

Talking to ChannelWeb, Kathy Schneider, channel marketing and programmes director at Dell EMEA, said the number of deals registered by EMEA partners has surged from 200 to 900 per week over the last year.

In Dell’s first quarter, 12,000 deals were registered in the region, compared with 8,000 in the previous quarter.

This follows on from Dell lowering the deal registration threshold twice last year.

But Schneider said the hike also reflected Dell’s efforts to ensure direct sales staff are funnelling deals to its 313-strong EMEA partner community.

“This is a reflection of the increase in collaboration between our channel sales team and our direct sales team and the fact they are working with each other on where they can bring partners in,” she said.

Conflict with direct sales staff had been a bugbear of Dell partners, even after the vendor made working with partners commission-neutral for sales staff last year.

However, Schneider said direct-selling staff had finally got the message.

She stressed that nearly three-quarters of registered deals were still being approved despite the rapid increase in the volume. “This tells you they are relevant, appropriate deals,” she said.

Dell now has 313 top-level Certified partners in EMEA, 250 of which are specialised in enterprise architecture.

"A year ago it was half enterprise and half SME. Our focus now is on enabling partners in the enterprise space," explained Schneider.

Adam Maurice, managing director of Dell Certified partner The Internet Group, said he felt Dell's channel strategy had turned a corner.

"Dell is now saying the right things and I feel a lot happier than I did," he said. "Through commission they are encouraging the transactional teams to work with partners. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating."