Bill Scannell Set To Lead Dell’s New Combined Sales Organization

'How can this not be a great thing for partners? The EMC and Dell channel has seen incredible growth under Billy Scannell’s leadership,' says Joe Staiber, vice president of sales for Dell Platinum partner Melillo Consulting.

Thirty-three-year Dell EMC veteran Bill Scannell is poised to lead Dell Technologies’ new combined sales organization, which will merge the company’s commercial and enterprise as well as channel sales organizations.

“Billy Scannell has built and run the most successful IT selling organization in history,” said Joe Staiber, vice president of sales for Somerset, N.J.-based Melillo Consulting, a Dell Platinum partner that has experienced exponential sales growth over the past five years. “How can this not be a great thing for partners? The EMC and Dell channel has seen incredible growth under Billy Scannell’s leadership.”

With the upcoming departure of Dell Technologies President and Chief Commercial Officer Marius Haas, Dell CEO Michael Dell said his company is paving the way for Scannell to lead the new consolidated sales organization. Scannell, president of enterprise sales and customer operations for Dell, will add worldwide commercial and partner sales to his responsibilities as he is set to become president of the Round Rock, Texas-based infrastructure giant’s newly created “combined sales organization,” according to Dell.

“Given this change, we have the perfect opportunity to consolidate our sales organizations under the leadership of Bill Scannell,” said Michael Dell in a statement. “Bill is an outstanding leader, known for his customer-first mindset, who will ensure the best experience for our customers and team as we make this transition."

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When contacted by CRN, Dell said Scannell was not available for comment at this time.

Scannell currently leads Dell’s global go-to-market organization serving enterprise customers and is responsible for driving enterprise growth globally.

Most recently, Scannell led Dell’s Enterprise Partner Preferred Program, which handed over 2,000 under-penetrated enterprise accounts to channel partners to find net-new opportunities with the full backing of Dell EMC sales representatives. “We’ll win or lose with our partners,” Scannell told CRN at the time.

Scannell began his career as an EMC sales representative in 1986, then moved to London in 1999 to oversee EMC’s business across all of EMEA. He later managed worldwide sales for two years before being appointed executive vice president in 2007 for EMC. Under his leadership, EMC became the most successful storage organization in the world.

He was appointed president of global sales and customer operations at EMC in 2012, focusing on driving coordination and teamwork among EMC's business unit sales forces, as well as building and maintaining relationships with EMC's largest global accounts, global alliance partners and global channel partners. After Dell acquired EMC for $67 billion in 2016, he led enterprise sales for the combined entity now known as Dell Technologies.

One of Scannell’s biggest accomplishments, Staiber said, is his consistent ability to get the Dell and EMC sales forces and channel to quickly anticipate industry changes. “Billy is the consummate sales leader,” he said. “I am looking forward to our continued success with Dell.”

Rick Gouin, chief technology officer for Winslow Technology Group, a Waltham, Mass.-based top Dell partner and 2019 CRN Triple Crown award winner, said Scannell’s longtime sales experience bodes well for channel partners in 2020.

“We’re hopeful in Bill’s new role,” said Gouin. “When our partnership is strong, both of us benefit. We hope that Bill can continue to build on all the work that Marius did so that we can continue to be successful together.”

Dell’s new combined sales organization, which has yet to have an official name, is slated to take effect Feb. 3, 2020, the end of the company’s fiscal year.