Ex-Dell Telemarketers Fuel VAR's HP Business

One Hewlett-Packard solution provider has found what he believes to be a dynamic new business model: HP enterprise solutions coupled with Dell telemarketing acumen.

Don Richie, president of Sequel Data Systems, a $30 million HP-only solution provider in Austin, Texas, just launched a new in-house telemarketing center to drive demand for his products and services. To do that, he hired away six telemarketers from Dell.

"The Dell people understand the phone business," he explained. "I don't understand it and I don't come from that background. My background is that you go out and sell, then you service, and then you go find more customers. Dell's business is just constantly calling out and generating new business."

Richie came upon the idea to hire telesales people from nearby Dell in part from his local HP reps. "HP had hired a couple Dell guys in my region and they gave me some advice on the type of people to go after, and I did."

Richie then used his own sales people and engineers to educate the new employees on the products and solutions Sequel sells. And he leveraged the new employees expertise in selling lower end products to help get him into new accounts.

"The idea wasn't to get the low-end business. The idea was to get established into a customer," he said. "Once we are established into a customer, then we can go after the high-end solutions that we do best."

Richie said his new team of ex-Dell telesales people makes a minimum of 20 customer calls per day, which result in two to three solid leads each day. While its too early to calculate the success of his new venture, he says that in the first six weeks of operation, the call center yielded three new accounts worth initially $2.5 million in new business.

"I'm absolutely convinced this is the right model," Richie said.

Tweet

   

More Channel Programs