Free Newsletters for the Channel
Register for Your Free Newsletter Now
HPE Balances Direct, Indirect Sales Teams with Pro Series Communities
HPE says this will further its partner-first philosophy and global “one team" approach.
Lynn Haber
June 17, 2019
7 Min Read
Shutterstock
HPE GLOBAL PARTNER SUMMIT — HPE, in a move to equal the footing between its indirect and direct sales teams, on Monday announced the Pro Series, a strategic set of collaborative communities that include the new HPE Sales Pro Community and enhancements to two existing communities — HPE Tech Pro Community and HPE Marketing Pro Academy.
The news was revealed at the kickoff of HPE Global Partner Summit (GPS) 2019 in Las Vegas.
Touted as an initiative to promote uniform partner tools, training, resources and support mechanisms that provides partners equal access to resources, this latest effort is designed to fuel HPE’s partner-first philosophy and global “one team” approach across technical, marketing and sales teams at HPE and in the channel.
HPE’s Paul Hunter at Global Partner Summit 2019 in Las Vegas.
“What we’re doing this year is laying the foundations for how we land in the proper positions [with partners] and enable our partners to take those positions to their customers from both a systemic standpoint and from a community standpoint,” Paul Hunter, vice president, global channel chief at HPE, shared at a press and analyst briefing. “There are three aspects to what we’re doing — how we invest together in our programs; how we win together, collaborate and turn up together in front of the customer; and your partner experience with us.”
The Pro Series addresses how HPE works together with partners. Here’s a snapshot:
The HPE Sales Pro Community is a new global approach to driving sales excellence for HPE and partner sellers through effective sales communications and sales enablement initiatives.
HPE Tech Pro Community, the recently announced initiative for solution architects, is introducing a new reward and recognition program as well as two new industry leading certifications and a full suite of continuous learning paths for technical expertise.
The HPE Marketing Pro Academy is expanding its offerings through a new online Digital Marketing Partner Learning Center and new Accreditation Program.
The new HPE Sales Pro Community is for HPE and partner sellers, focusing on driving effective sales communications and sales enablement initiatives in a way that’s simple and easy to understand. This community provides information and expertise for partners to serve their customers and grow their business. It falls into three buckets: connect, learn and grow, like the approach with HPE Tech Pro Community.
Connect: The HPE Sales Pro Community will offer an interactive and collaborative space for HPE and partner sales to communicate, and successfully cascade prioritized news and product updates directly to sales professionals. Partners will also have seamless access, via a chat function, to expert to support deals and secure business. This function was recently turned in Seismic, a familiar partner tool. In alignment with the continuous learning paths also established in HPE Tech Pro Community, HPE Sales Pro Community will now utilize modules from multiple existing and new sources including HPE Partner Ready sales certification; HPE’s internal sales accreditation program; License to Drive – Value, New Product Introductions; and other virtual sources to create a globally consistent, ongoing role-based learning experience for HPE and partner sales professionals.
“If a partner is looking at the sales cycle and isn’t sure what questions to ask, we’re building out something that is …
… meant to be interactive and conversation based,” said Steven Hagler, vice president, worldwide partner enablement at HPE.
Think of this as custom on-demand sales coaching with an interactive conversation guide. Stay tuned.
HPE and partner sales teams will have equal access to enablement materials, enhancing the ability to sell and grow together. HPE Sales Pro Community will deliver industry recognized certificates and digital badges in a single globally standard reward program. Simplified and harmonized global pricing and deal registration processes will ensure partners benefit from an improved user experience and use of a new global pricing tool. Additionally, alignment of the HPE Partner Demo Program across all geographies will provide partners discounts that are more competitive.
While the HPE Sales Pro Community is new, the vendor launched the HPE Tech Pro Community globally in March after an initial two-year pilot program in Asia Pacific. When HPE announced the global rollout of the program at its Technical Solutions Summit in Paris earlier this year and highlighted “insider access” for partners, the company said that HPE Tech Pro was the umbrella brand for everything it does around technical enablement.
Initially called an elite community for partner solution architects and HPE sales professionals to work as one team, the HPE Tech Pro Community enhancements, announced Monday, focus on developing and deepening these tech pros’ skills as follows:
The introduction of two new Hybrid IT Architect certifications with training that enable solution architects to deliver industry-leading business outcome driven solutions. HPE Tech Pro Community is launching a new ASE Hybrid IT Architect certification and Master certification. These certifications enable IT Architects to develop and validate their skills to architect and deploy an optimized hybrid IT infrastructure for key industry solution workloads aligned to the HPE Partner Ready Competencies. The new Master ASE certification will be available Nov. 1.
A suite of concise continuous learning paths that help keep technical professionals on the cutting edge of HPE and industry innovation. Effective immediately, HPE is offering a full suite of continuous learning paths which provide job-role-based learning on the latest HPE and industry technologies. Solution architects will have access to concise and powerful collections of learning activities with prioritized and curated technical content — everything they need to stay up to date with HPE’s entire portfolio to quickly configure and quote HPE solutions. On Nov. 1, HPE will launch continuous learning digital badges to recognize the completion of each learning path.
A reward and recognition program that incentivizes solution architects to engage and grow with HPE for HPE Tech Pro Community members will provide additional benefits, higher recognition and deeper levels of access to content and resources based on their investment in enablement with HPE. This program also will launch on Nov. 1.
At last year’s HPE Global Partner Summit, the company announced the HPE Marketing Pro Academy. This year, partners will see …
… the following enhancements:
There’s a new HPE Digital Marketing Partner Learning Center and Accreditation Program beginning in November. Selected partners today take part pilot of the new online Learning Center that provides them with access to educational videos and resources on digital marketing topics. To support the success of HPE partners, the center will help enhance their skills and capabilities in digital marketing and developing more impactful, cost-effective digital marketing campaigns to win more business.
Also new is the launch of the HPE Digital Marketing Partner Accreditation Program. The program, set to be available to partners Nov. 1, recognizes and acknowledges the successful completion of a structured digital marketing curriculum. The HPE Digital Marketing Accreditation will be awarded following the completion of a curriculum of online learning courses published within the HPE Digital Marketing Partner Learning Center, plus the completion of the HPE Digital Marketing Maturity Assessment. Partner marketers will earn an accreditation badge that validates their proficiency in digital marketing.
The HPE Digital Marketing Maturity Assessment launched about a year ago, and more than 750 HPE channel partners have completed the assessment and had the opportunity to assess their digital marketing capabilities for free. HPE on Monday announced enhancements including more personalization of the recommendations provided in the assessment reports and updated some question and answer options.
The HPE Social Media Center now has some new content for partners to access and share across their social channels. HPE is aggregating influencers and curating their most relevant content for partners to quickly and easily share to their Twitter and LinkedIn channels. HPE is developing a pilot program with a group of key partners to give them access to a new and unique opportunity to license and share Enterprise.nxt thought leadership content, without charge.
About the Author
You May Also Like
Mar 24 - Mar 27, 2025
Mar 24 - Mar 27, 2025
The Channel Partners Conference & Expo, co-located with MSP Summit, is the gathering place for the technology services community. Agents, VARs, MSPs, integrators and service providers will converge to share ideas and drive discussion on the topics shaping our industry.
REGISTER NOW