Industry watchers, were truly skeptical about Lenovo’s future success when they launched back in 2005; sold off partly by IBM. Late in 2011, IDC announced Lenovo had surpassed Dell to claim the number two position in worldwide PC shipments.
Highlighting the year was the extra thin X1 notebook. For Canada, the X1 came with a new customer bonus offer of eight points for solution providers that bring in new business. Also part of this bonus plan is 50 per cent off demo units.
Lenovo in 2011 made a concerted effort to increase investments in channel programs, training and marketing. Lenovo Canada director of channel sales Stefan Bockhop lead this charge in an attempt to go deeper with solution providers. From last year to this year, Lenovo has gained 3,600 new solution providers and has grown 25 per cent in units in Canada, with a year-over-year revenue growth rate that reached 40 per cent.
Related story: Lenovo passes Dell in disappointing PC market
As Lenovo battled the market perception that the PC is dying, the hardware maker announced at its first ever channel conference a two part cloud strategy intended to enhance the computing experience.
In an attempt to strengthen channel sales in Canada, Bockhop developed a strategy to enter the retail space in Canada.
Finally, Lenovo launched the three-part “Do!” marketing campaign. The first is a declaration of what Lenovo is. The second is about products and the third is called people proof, aimed at showing the market what people can do utilizing Lenovo products.
Bockhop said the subsidiary has laid the foundation for this effort for Canadian partners with enablement tools inside the partner portal.
“Partners can deliver against them in any one of these campaigns. The ‘For those you do’ theme can be used in data sheets or in an HTML newsletter. We’re not kidding about this. It has to resonate and be core to how we see ourselves. This is a campaign that you can get the sales force easily behind and be passionate about,” Bockhop said.