Dell Clarifies Pricing to Partners

Is Dell facing a partner revolt? Not really. But a few VARs allege that customers who buy direct from Dell receive better pricing than solutions providers. Now, Dell has a memo to help communicate its pricing policies to partners. Here’s a look.

First, let’s keep the Dell backlash in perspective. Even as a few partners voice some pricing complaints on Dell’s PartnerStorm web site, thousands more are signing up to work with Dell. And this isn’t just a US trend. More than 10,000 resellers have signed up for PartnerDirect in Europe in a mere four months, claims TechCentralIE.

Of course, The VAR Guy isn’t suggesting that Dell is perfect. Faced with the latest pricing debate, Dell has offered the following statement to partners. The statement is long-winded and thorough — two traits that The VAR Guy lacks. Take a look:

Partner Portal Pricing Clarification

We have recently received a number of questions around pricing variations on prices quoted to Dell PartnerDirect registered partners.

Partners registered with Dell’s PartnerDirect program (registered partners) have access to the PartnerDirect portal.

The Dell PartnerDirect portal store is linked to the SMB online store and provides an additional discount to partners. Prices within the PartnerDirect store match those in SMB on dell.com. You will see your additional partner discount clearly in checkout.

On top of the already discounted pricing customers receive on the SMB online store, Dell registered partners get an additional discount of three percent on all items except OptiPlex desktops and Latitude notebooks. On OptiPlexs and Latitudes, registered partners receive a six percent discount.

SMB does offer online promotions (promos). These promos vary in duration. Because we want to offer partners better pricing than end users, we provide a discount on these promos. So in order to take advantage of the promo price + partner discount you must purchase within that promo timeframe.

Some other points about promos– Promos are only available for a short period of time, generally five to seven days. Once the promo is finished, partners/customers cannot avail of the promo price. Promos are limited to a quantity of five per offer. In addition, promos vary daily, so the same product is not on promo consistently.

There is also some confusion around e-quotes. E-quotes note that they are “good for 30 days.” This means that you can save your configurations online for 30 days, but the pricing does change. This is because Dell runs just-in-time inventory, and pricing on component parts vary from day to day, which impacts product pricing.

Online ordering is often the most convenient, but for larger deals please engage your account rep and remember to register deals over $50K.

Bottom line is that as a Dell registered partner, you get the best possible price, with an additional three percent discount on top of that.

Wow. That’s a mouthful. But The VAR Guy hopes this helps to clarify Dell’s pricing strategy for partners. If additional confusion remains, The VAR Guy is all ears.