For someone who loves electronic gadgets as much as I do, I am still woefully dependent on a cute little paper organizer in which I scribble my to-dos. Something about copying them from one day to another makes me more aware of what items on my list really need my attention. Believe me, I’ve tried the electronic methods. Maybe when someone gets me a good iPhone app that also syncs with my computer, I’ll change my ways.

Anyway, I have never REALLY thought about what it must be like to be a technology sales person, out there working hot and cold prospects every day. I am horrible with rejection, and I admire anyone who has the backbone to get out there and expose yourself to it regularly. Certainly, I never even knew what “A, B and C” leads WERE until a couple months ago when someone posted a question about prioritizing them in the SWOT LinkedIn group.

Yet, I found myself deep into a discussion about the ABCs of picking A, B and C opportunities during a recent conversation with Matt McManus, vice president of channel sales for Fujitsu Computer Systems. Fujitsu’s lead-generation team is working on refining the way that it categorizes a particular prospect, to give less weight on things like projected time to close and more weight to considerations including geography and vertical market.

Intuitively speaking, at least in the past, it might have seemed better to jump opportunities that were going to close sooner up to the front of the queue. Yet, even though someone might be ready to sign a check or purchase order more quickly, that buyer also is more likely to have a preconceived notion about what product or brand he or she is ready to buy. Why on earth, then, would that be an “A” lead?

It seems to me that if you haven’t addressed your own lead generation and cataloguing strategy lately (although I’m SURE you must have given what’s going on right now in the world economy!), that you might want to take a fresh peek to see what metrics your team is using.

While having very objective measures is important for automating the process, it’s worth reassessing those allocation measures. For a company like Fujitsu, as an example, which has been closing plenty of business in healthcare and education lately, leads in those accounts might jump the queue even if they were smaller deals or longer lead-time opportunities.

Why not work your company’s strengths instead of going with conventional wisdom?

Chat me up: Do you have a channel strategy I should be writing about? E-mail me.

As promised in my blog post from earlier this week, I wanted to offer up a link to updates related to Hewlett-Packard’s SMB VAR initiative. This story comes from my colleague Barbara Darrow, senior news director for Tech Target’s channel news service.

There’s lots of information about new product, but the business gist of her article is HP’s decision to adopt a new SMB Elite designation, that will allow IT solution providers to position themselves as trusted advisors capable of meeting the specific needs of these companies.

The new specialization will be effective May 1. PLUS HP is now allowing ALL of its U.S. partners (roughly 25,000) to take advantage of deal registration. Too bad it took the rough economic climate for the company to realize that this just makes sense. Any partner that helps a company win a new account should be rewarded. Especially now. Although, sadly, it does technically mean that mega-retailers could also try to apply for winning deals, too, so HP’s channel managers need to be really careful about which deals they approve.

I really like the overall spirit of this move, because it reinforces what I’ve believed for a long time: that vendors should do a better job of helping partners that have high potential but don’t have a long track record or gazillions of sales. Because it is easy to do so, many high-tech companies overlook the hidden influence of these partners.

By opening up deal registration AND allowing partners to earn an SMB nod they can use to market themselves, HP also is providing more specific tools that will help the channel more deeply penetrate a market that has historically been underserved. A market that HP estimates at an astonishing $68 billion.

So far, so good, Ms. Kelly!

Fundamentally speaking, most execs think they have two choices when they take on a new job: They can either embrace and extend a winning strategy or they can choose to make their own mark. I personally don’t think those choices are mutually exclusive. One of the most disciplined, intelligent paths an incoming leader can take is to stick with something that is working.

This seems to be the intention of Meaghan Kelly, the months-old vice president of SMB Channel Sales and Strategy for Hewlett-Packard. As I know very well from my past life as an editor at Computer Reseller News, there are thousands of solution providers out there with an opinion about HP’s SMB intentions, and there are at least hundreds who would express that opinion very loudly if things were changed simply for the sake of change. You’ll hear more about the company’s specific new plans this (HP has a briefing planned that several of my friends in the channel media will cover, but that info is confidential for another couple of days). Suffice to say that what you hear will seem familiar. That’s because even though Kelly is actually very new to HP (she joined the company very recently after 16 years of experience with Quantum, Veritas and Motorola), you’ll see her emphasize these three themes:

1. Increasing HP’s coverage to market through distributors and high-growth resellers that can add profitable growth.
2. Growing HP’s depth of market share with high-growth resellers across all its product categories, which is another familiar mantra. HP absolutely will attempt to drive the point home for both customers and VARs that standardizing across a series of IT products from the same manufacturer rather than buying piecemeal from best-of-breed players is the most cost-effective way to go, especially for customer support.
3. Driving more market visibility for its SMB partners, especially in what she sees as several recession-proof sectors including healthcare, the legal profession (warning, stay away from real estate lawyers!), and discrete and wholesale manufacturing.

My guess is that many channel managers and sales leaders are tempted to change course right now because of the economy. Maybe a better tack to take would be to look at what has been working and invest more time there?

We’ll see what else HP has to say later this week.