Lenovo Battles HP, Dell, Acer With New SMB Sales Strategy

Page 1 of 2

Lenovo is taking its battle to win share against rivals Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer into the sales trenches with a new dedicated team of inside and outside SMB sales reps focused on helping VARs win deals against the competition.

The new coverage model, which went into effect July 1, is a "huge" structural change aimed at driving more business in the SMB channel with partners, said David Bankemper, a distribution sales executive for the China-based computer giant.

"While all of us have talked about this SMB market for the last five to seven years and how important it is, for us getting the dedication there [with the new coverage model] and staying focused on it with people that care about that marketplace is a huge change for us and for our commitment to the channel," he said. "These [Lenovo sales reps] are dealing in this space day in and day out, and they are not worried about the next big deal that is going to pop in their territory."

Bankemper said he did not want to reveal how many of those sales reps are in the field for competitive reasons, but he stressed that it is absolutely a critical differentiator since it marks the first time Lenovo has compensated its sales reps to work with partners to grow SMB sales in the U.S. market. Those sales reps are compensated specifically for sales of Lenovo's 3000 value notebook and desktop models and its Top Seller ThinkPad and ThinkCentre desktop models, said Bankemper.

The new sales coverage model is already starting to pay off in increased sales in the U.S. market, he said.

Another sign that the Lenovo SMB model is taking hold is an expanded agreement with SMB distribution kingpin D&H Distributing. Under the extended pact, the Harrisburg, Pa-based distributor, which has already been wildly successful with the Lenovo 3000 line, has begun distributing the Top Seller line of ThinkPad notebooks. The expanded partnership, which includes distribution of ThinkPad Top Seller models that range in price from $1,049 to $1,599, pits D&H directly against larger rivals Ingram, Tech Data and Synnex, who already are carrying the ThinkPad Top Seller line.

The deal comes as D&H is already generating more than $1 million per month in bread-and-butter SMB sales through 1,000 new VAR partners for the Lenovo 3000 line, smashing expectations of somewhat skeptical Lenovo executives. The big question for the Lenovo team, which had not added a distributor in more than 20 years, was whether D&H could bring incremental sales to the table, said Bankemper. "When we walked into this we were somewhat questionable about what we would see," he said. "D&H just blew us away. Candidly D&H has just led the way in that [Lenovo 3000 value] space."

Eighty-percent of the 1,000 resellers D&H brought to the table are "net new partners that we had never seen, heard of or touched," said Bankemper. D&H will celebrate the one year mark of the Lenovo partnership at its New England regional show on Aug. 14 at the Quincy Marriott Hotel. The event, the longest running of D&H's trade shows, will celebrate its 17th year, bringing together more than 60 vendors -- including Lenovo -- and an estimated 750 VARs. D&H will feature a session titled "Increase Your Revenue with Lenovo Products and Programs" at the Quincy, Mass., show.

NEXT: Why VARs like Lenovo better than HP, Dell and Acer

1 | 2 | Next >>

Tweet

   

More