Murmurs of dissatisfaction heard in Compaq channel

Compaq’s channel partners are a bit miffed with the giant. And this is largely because of company’s direct selling model. This is interfering with the sales of channel partners who feel that the best way out of this situation for Compaq is to chart out a clear direct selling strategy.

This does not mean that partners want Compaq to wind up its direct selling model. What they want from Compaq is a clear-cut plan, which will segregate the various sections that Compaq would like to address directly.

However, Rajiv Srivastava, Country Manager, Channel Sales, Compaq says that this perception is not borne by reality. He points out that Compaq began this year with 75 percent indirect sales while today over 83 percent of the sales is done through the channel. This shows that the company’s dependency on their channel partners has increased.

Says one Compaq authorized reseller, "We do not grudge Compaq’s direct sales. What we want is that Compaq should decide which segments of the market it would like to address directly, for example, the government sector where there is a good chance for bulk orders." This would allow channel partners to concentrate on other segments of the market.

Compaq’s channel has already given this suggestion to Balu Doraisamy, Managing Director, and Neelam Dhawan, Marketing Director. But so far no decision has been taken on the issue.

Rajiv says that direct business is undertaken only in certain cases like governmental institutions where significant skills are required to execute multi-locational orders. However, channel partners are ignorant of this situation and Rajiv conceded that there was a need to reassure the channel about their importance and inform them of the direct selling policy.