HP Partners 'Fired Up' To Drive Sales Growth After Advisory Council Meetings

Hewlett-Packard SMB and public sector partner advisory council members see a renewed channel commitment and vigor from the $120 billion computer giant with the formal launch Friday of the revamped PartnerOne program.

The advisory council members, who met with the entire HP executive team this week including HP CEO Meg Whitman, Enterprise HP Executive Vice President of the Enterprise Group Bill Veghte, and HP Printing and Personal Systems Group Executive Vice President Dion Weisler, said they see a company poised for sales growth after two years of retrenchment.

"I have been on this council for over seven years, and I can't recall a time when the executive leadership, management and programs are aligned as well as they are today," said Henry Fleches, the co-founder and CEO of United Data Technologies, No. 256 on the SP500. "HP has done a fantastic job of setting a vision, driving the vision, crafting a program and executing on it. There has been a misalignment in the past."

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Fleches said he walked away from the three days of executive meetings -- hosted by HP Vice President, Printing and Personal Systems Americas Channels Scott Dunsire and Director of Americas Channel Partner Marketing Matt Smith -- fired up to drive sales growth. "This is an organization that has started to make the turn and is headed in the right direction," he said. "This is a good time for HP and its partners."

Fleches credits Whitman for charting a five-year plan and putting in place the right talent to execute the turnaround. "The momentum that HP has right now is because of the people in HP," he said. "I believe in HP again. It was a pretty impactful session."

Key to the channel momentum is a simplified and focused PartnerOne program with increased margin opportunities for HP partners, said Fleches. "The revised PartnerOne program exemplifies HP's commitment," he said. "It gives us an opportunity to scale our business with HP. I see a tremendous amount of commitment from HP at all levels and a tremendous amount of transparency. That transparency is huge."

Rick Chernick, CEO of Camera Corner Connecting Point, Green Bay, Wis., a member of HP's SMB partner advisory council for the more than a decade, said he is anticipating significant HP sales growth as a result of the changes that have been made by the company.

"I have already met with my sales team and my message to them was: HP is back and better than ever. There is no stress about what direction they are going in or what is going to happen. They have simplified the partner program and there is a channel commitment from the highest level."

NEXT: HP Partner Credits Whitman With Restoring Pride To HP

CCCP's Chernick credited HP's Whitman with restoring pride in the HP brand that was tarnished by missteps including a move two years ago to consider selling the PC business. "HP has its mojo back," he said. "The HP logo means something again. I can put my HP shirt on again and wear it with pride at the YMCA. Two years ago, I wasn't so sure about HP. They are definitely committed to the PPS [Printing and Personal Systems area]. The products they are going to come out with are extraordinarily cool, and they are going to be easy to sell. The customers are going to love them. I am pretty fired up."

One of the big takeaways from Whitman's address to partners: Sell the full HP portfolio to customers and knock on more customer doors. "Meg wants more at bats from partners so we can win, hit more balls out of the park," said Chernick. "What she has learned about this industry in the last two years blows me away.’

Arlin Sorensen, the head of the HP SMB Council and the founder and CEO of HTG peer groups, a consortium of 300 SMB partners, said he came out of the three-day meeting convinced HP is poised for a resurgence in the SMB market.

"I left home to attend the meeting wondering what I was going to find," he said. "I came home with a renewed focus on partnering with HP and an understanding of what HP is doing in the SMB channel with partners. They are putting their money where their mouth is with specific plans to help us win. By the end of the three days, every person on the council had a renewed vigor and understanding of where HP is going in the SMB market. It was refreshing to have an executive team all on the same page."

Sorensen said he is especially heartened with the new HP PartnerOne program that allows partners to earn rebates from dollar one. "That's a big deal for smaller partners," he said. "HP used to have gates you had to hit before you got some of the payments. HP is driving more and more of the business to the channel."

Sorensen said he was particularly impressed by Whitman's SMB channel prowess. "That was my first exposure to her," he said. "She won me over big time. She was very transparent with regard to the challenges but very clear on HP's direction."

The challenge for HP will be driving the stepped-up channel commitment from the top of the executive ranks to the sales trenches and throughout HP's 300,000-plus employees, said Sorensen. "HP needs to drive that into the field so that everybody is marching to the same set of music," he said. "That is going to spell good things for partners."

Dunsire said he sees the executive commitment and consistent message translating into tighter engagement between HP partners and field sales reps. "When you have that executive sponsorship like we do, it helps send a message to the teams in the field that the channel is an important piece of our business and one of our core strategies," he said. "We have really stepped up our field engagement. It's the boots on the ground that bring value to our partners."

PUBLISHED NOV. 1, 2013