Lenovo Targets SMB Partners With Refreshed Programs

Lenovo realizes that the rain is falling. The economic picture continues to look gloomy, but some vendors still don't seem to realize that the channel is holding the umbrella. And these days, friends with umbrellas are good to have.

But even the world's No. 4 computer maker can't expect immediate shelter from the storm. Instead, Lenovo is renewing and rejuvenating its SMB channel program, looking to partners to secure itself a dry spot in the wet weather.

In January, the computer manufacturer made its intentions clear that its channel strategy would focus, at least in part, on capturing the SMB market. That strategy has come to fruition with the company launching an SMB strategy that highlights products and a real desire to grow its channel.

Jay McBain, SMB director for Lenovo's North American channel sales, was brought in by Lenovo to shepherd the growth of the company in the SMB space by managing product teams, products and an aggressive solution provider recruitment campaign.

McBain began his work in the newly created role on April 1 and already sees the emphasis that the computer manufacturer is putting on the SMB space.

"From the top down here at Lenovo, the SMB space has been declared as an absolutely critical market," McBain said. "We've reorganized our strategy to make a hard run at it."

In order to win over solution providers, McBain knows that the first step Lenovo has to take is to make its focused channel program visible to current and potential partners. Calling SMB visibility his "biggest personal challenge," McBain and Lenovo feel the first step to winning the market comes by providing products solution providers can sell to SMB customers.

While that may seem like a no-brainer, Lenovo has traditionally performed strongly in enterprise situations with legacy products such as the ThinkPad. But the price tag associated with a Think product may not necessarily work with smaller customers, which is why the company has developed products that work at a larger range of more inexpensive prices.

"The Lenovo G530 product line starts at the $400 price and moves up through the $500 and $600 range," McBain said. "The G530 marks the product portfolio we've developed that can be successful at every price point."

In order to compete at these price points in the past, McBain admits that Lenovo would often strip down a ThinkPad, removing some of the features and specifications, in order to give solution providers and customers a product that would sell at the price point a customer would specify.

Now, as part of its push to the SMB market, Lenovo has products such as the G530, which is designed for solution providers to sell at price points that make the notebook more competitive.

Rather than dredging up a ThinkPad for these customers, Lenovo has built products with Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo processors, 3 GB of memory and 250 GB of storage for about $599. If the keyboard on the notebooks looks familiar, it should come as no surprise -- the G530 cribbed it from the ThinkPad.

"In the past, we haven't given the channel the ammo it needs to win with customers in the SMB markets," McBain said. "Now that's changing. We're building products with configurations that can be laddered up, depending on the solution that's required."

With an SMB product in place, the next step of the SMB blitz involves a more active courtship of channel partners working in the space, improved communication and easier interaction with the company.

Next: Going After Partners

Shortly after McBain's arrival, Lenovo hired a third-party firm to further develop the company's SMB channel. That team -- which focuses only on reaching out to and recruiting SMB partners -- has the mandate to tap the larger ecosystem in order to create relationships with solution providers that have an SMB component of its business that may have, until now, largely been ignored by Lenovo.

Part of that outreach includes a freshly redesigned Lenovo partner portal, which McBain says will simplify things for current and potential partners. He points out that in the past, the Lenovo partner portal was clogged down with links and too many SKUs.

"We listened to feedback from smaller partners about the Web site redesign," McBain said. "They said it might have been too complicated. Now it's simple and graphical and the whole portfolio -- from low price point products to desktops and servers and workstations -- is designed to fit on one piece of paper."

Streamlining the portal is part of a "keep it simple" philosophy that the company believes will be attractive to smaller solution providers. Partners, according to McBain, don't want to sift through 20 pages of terms and conditions in order to determine if they are eligible for a promotion.

"When I read about our programs, and some of our competitors' programs, I think partners get the sense that if they're not wearing orange socks on a Tuesday, they don't qualify," McBain said.

To that end, Lenovo is making it easier for partners to become authorized, removing what it hopes is a major pain point for potential solution providers. McBain realizes that in many cases, channel partners going after the SMB market don't have the staff or time to figure out whether or not they can register with any vendor to become a partner.

"We took a long form and made it short," McBain said. "Now all we ask for is a name, address and business number and Lenovo will authorize you quickly. Partners aren't even asked for a Web site anymore."

Another recruiting tool that the company hopes will ensnare new partners is a freshly minted incentive promotion that helps ensure 20 percent margins on every sale up to a certain dollar amount.

Now, when partners spend $500 with Lenovo, the company cuts them a check for $100; a sale of $1,000 brings back $200. The promotion also has tiers at $5,000 and $10,000, which bring back $400 and $600, respectively. And that money, which is issued once quarterly by the company, is added onto the points that solution providers are making on the front end.

But for McBain, these changes to Lenovo's channel program are just the start. He knows that revisions will have to be made. But he and the company are willing to listen.

"The great thing about the channel is that they're not shy when it comes to giving feedback," McBain said. "I'm going to take that feedback every day and make revisions. Solution partners are going to see that as we evolve."