A Dell Marketing Plan that Deals with Dell Direct

Different computer vendors embrace direct sales to different degrees. For a long time, direct sales were all that Dell did, until it finally decided that indirect sales had something to offer as well. However, the idea of Dell only selling directly lingers on in some customers’ minds. Your Dell marketing plan should take this into account.

Why Should They Buy from You?

If you sell the same products as the ones Dell sells directly, it may be difficult to avoid prospective customers from comparing. At best, it will come down to your proximity to a customer versus the vendor’s reputation and size, which is not necessarily a fair fight.

Add Value that Dell Cannot

To stack the odds in your favor that your customer will buy from you, add in further relevant services that you provide and that Dell dos not. Possible examples are:

• Knowing Your Customer’s Business. By knowing this, you can match business objectives with product functionality and prove your added value in terms of business-oriented advice.

• Providing wrap-around services including for instance installation, configuration, training of the customer’s staff, and managed services.

• Helping Your Customer’s Business. Some resellers compile non-IT-related information to help in their customer’s field of activity. Examples include best practices for the customer’s sector, and market research data and reports as available.

What Happens if the Customer Buys Dell Products Elsewhere?

It can happen. However, the more your Dell marketing plan includes a strong component of added-value services, the more likely you are to still make money out of that project and get involved in additional ones. 

Have you ever found you do better by letting customers source hardware elsewhere, as long as they buy the services from you? Tell us what you’ve found in the space below for Comments.