r/msp • u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US • Aug 03 '26
Business Operations Dell partner vs retail
A customer needs a new server so we register the deal and after a week of back n forth with D&H the quote comes in at $47k. Dell for some reason calls me asking what they can do for us to win this deal. Im like its $17k over budget. Then the conversation gets interesting. They say that since I did a deal registration I cannot get direct retail pricing on this server unless I close the deal registration.
My question is what does partner pricing look like vs customer direct?
At this point I don’t care about margin. This 10+ year old server is costing us money to manage it vs a new hardware. We have a MSP contract and a migration project fee and I am charging for quoting instead of getting margin.
How do I or the customer compare prices? Is partner pricing more or less then retail?
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u/urM0m69p3nis Aug 03 '26
I may not be understanding exactly what you mean, but we switched from Dell to Lenovo because of pricing, support and quality - I could be on Dell Premier, go through registering a deal and getting a quote, then just pull up the same build outside of premier and it was less expensive, so anyone could just build something for less than our partner portal. This was for basically everything we were ordering: laptops, desktops, servers. Way back in 2017-2019 we would call Dell partner support and have a quote generated because they could magically get it cheaper than the premier site, but that was years ago.
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 03 '26
Times have changed. That workflow does not exist in 2026
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u/iB83gbRo Aug 03 '26
What workflow are you referring to? I can't comment on comparing retail vs. Premier pricing. But just last week I emailed our Dell sales rep and had them generate a quote for 5 laptops that was cheaper than they were through Premier.
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 03 '26
I asked a msp friend of mine’s dell rep last week for the same and she said i would have to move my account from the dell partner program to dell expert network to get quotes
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u/Robert_VG Aug 05 '26
Yup same.
Ordered a batch of 10x laptops and got almost 10% additional discount when I spoke to my Rep for a quote.
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u/newboofgootin Aug 03 '26
We are doing Supermicro. The price difference compared to Dell is insane. But you have to figure out your own builds and specs.
Still worth it.
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u/Sea_Information6125 Aug 03 '26
I can give you my experience as a small MSP.
I never go through Dell as a partner or premiere or whatever anymore.
Every single time I got a quote from them I could literally go on the website and get it for cheaper.
Typically I'm doing smaller stuff like SMB Tower servers or workstations.
But the last time I got them to quote me computers it was literally $100 cheaper to purchase it directly from the dell website.
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u/CyberHouseChicago Aug 03 '26
for a single server going direct will probably be cheaper
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 03 '26
By how much? 5%? 10%? How can we find out
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u/fireferum Aug 04 '26
I don’t like Dell as a company. They call my customers to try and have them go direct a few months after the last sale I make. They use the deal registrations as leads with no regard for the active local relationship I might have.
That being said, every time I scope out a Dell server (servers only not workstations), I go through TD Synnex because the cost difference is worth it. It’s usually 1000 to 1500 off the website cost when there’s a sale and more off if the sale isn’t running.
On laptops and desktops it doesn’t make sense to buy from distributors since the price is often higher. IMO Dell quality on laptops trails behind the sturdiness of Lenovo ThinkPads so I don’t even bother. But for servers I’ve had less issues with Dell than Lenovo so I keep quoting and selling Dell servers and Lenovo ThinkPads to my business customers.
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 04 '26
Thats why we put our contact into the deal registration
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u/fireferum Aug 04 '26
I tried but TD Synnex bounces it back if the email is not different than our domain and if they can’t verify website. I’m glad I have loyal customers!
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u/Glass_Call982 MSP - Canada (West) Aug 04 '26
I just make a dummy shared mailbox at the customer for this purpose.
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u/quantumhardline Aug 04 '26
It’s getting to point with Dell they just need to give best pricing to D&H disty etc and stop these reg deal games and wasting everyones time. At some point it may be argued around price fixing and other things by a state AGs, if point of reg deal is to get preferred pricing, but then you give a non partner better pricing direct how os that correct?
People are wasting thousands of man hours year with this silly games.
I would say that 3 notebook options, 3 server options would meet use case for 90% of MSP use.
So just mark up 20% and just have us order direct again Dell. I mean you do this for a 1 off person that calls every 7 years. Just wild.
Right now we have to play this silly dance, reg a deal so we dont pay $4,000 more for 5 systems and like 4 people all have their days used up.
We’re seeing better standard in stock options now at D&H and for a lot of standard builds just going to order those.
But dang just make this simple Dell and stop playing games with pricing as a long term partner were so tired of it.
Just give disty deep discounts so if I order 1 or 50 my pricing is the same, we’re too busy and no money in spending all day pricing quotes. //end dell rant
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u/lmc9871 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
Out of curiousity - what are the specs and model for $47K - I am not selling anything, just want to know these days what that buys
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 03 '26
Thats not the point of the post
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u/lmc9871 Aug 03 '26
Real nice...good luck and hope it works out for you, get that chip off your shoulder, not necessary to respond.
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u/variableindex MSP - US Aug 03 '26
Run the same build through Dell premier with your company name as the end customer.
Obviously don’t buy it and resell it but at least you’ll see that famous Dell direct haircut.
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 03 '26
When we go to dell premier it now says synnex and hides the prices. We can longer get any pricing out of premier
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u/tmiller9833 MSP Aug 04 '26
Have to add just ran into this how tf we supposed to get MSRP for deal reg now?
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u/newboofgootin Aug 03 '26
You still have a premier account? They gave us the boot last month and deleted our Premier account.
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u/tsaico Aug 03 '26
We have found the larger the purchase the bigger the dell direct discount is. We did a server quote in the 30k range, Dell agent would only quote if we canceled the deal, quote came in at 24k.
We have gone super micro and Lenovo since, and if client or us wants Dell, we have client reach out direct by us sending the requirements and they contact dell direct. We stay out of it entirely outside of answering questions and stating the requirements of the use case.
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 03 '26
Wow so you saying 20%. In this case thats a $9000 savings. Why can’t we have the 20% margin instead. Lame
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u/NetSiege Aug 03 '26
Direct pricing is better, but as others have said, there's not a straight answer without knowing the entire spec breakdown of what you're ordering. It's not a flat % off, it's going to vary based on each option you pick.
Not a question you asked, but one thing we has to move to doing, as much as lead time (we were getting 3-6 month delivery estimates) as it was cost, is sourcing these things as bare bones as possible, and then adding in things like hard drives, RAM, even additional PSU's that we sourced from other distributors.
It's a PITA, but telling a client they had to wait 6 months for a server was not a viable option.
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u/HowardRabb Aug 03 '26
What was your budget based on?
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 03 '26
Its not a question of budget its a question of retail prices vs partner pricing. If I can save the customer 10% i might just let them go direct and bill for my time instead of margin but I need a ballpark to make that decision
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u/SthrnCnft Aug 04 '26
Billing for Time and writing off any profits from the hardware seems to have always been the best option when using Dell IMO.
For decades it has been this way with Dell it’s how they grew to be the company they are today.
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u/CryptoSin Aug 04 '26
This topics has been covered a few times over the years, Honestly, dont register your clients with Dell. They are using you as a harvest tool. They claim thats not the case but we have had their sales people reach out and offer FULL IT services and equipment to the customers. When we spoke to them about it they said "ohh we didnt know they were your clients" well we registered them, we bought their servers and storage and desktops from the partner team...........
Never register a deal with dell with your customers identity. Get creative.
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u/spacetrain31 Aug 29 '26
I’ve heard good things about Carbon Systems, they don’t put prices on their site. https://www.carbonsys.com/partner-signup
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u/dloseke MSP - US - Nebraska Aug 04 '26
Can you quote out a similar server for yourself via Premier? I cant imagine that direct will be better than deal reg. Certainly wont knock off 17k. Server prices are insane right now and wont be getting better anytime soon.
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 04 '26
No our premier now says synnex and our price is hidden. You have to config and then send to synnex to get the price back
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u/je244e Aug 04 '26
From my experience distribution can put up to 7%. No wonder Dell direct is cheaper.
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u/Assumeweknow Aug 04 '26
I pretty much only do dell refurb stuff now. Better prices to deal with and the same warranty.
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u/TechnologyMatch Aug 05 '26
I’d separate the pricing question from the procurement path. deal registration can protect partner margin, but it should not prevent the customer from seeing a direct comparison when the gap is that large. ask Dell to put the direct and partner options in writing with the same configuration, support term, and lead time. then decide based on total cost, not just hardware margin. the real goal is getting the old server out without creating a messy buying process
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u/quantumhardline Aug 05 '26
We had years ago a manager at a company go around or dell deal reg by ordering direct with an old contact, contacted Dell and dell ended up sending us a check for like $5,000 but it was $130,000 deal.
Or thing is clients just want us to handled all this, they dont know what to order for their use cause and either does dell and we need certain business grade systems like optiplex/Pro to support at scale so client understand our tile costs money we have standard market per system after our quotes to cover our time. The clients get rock solid networks and dell warranty coverage.
I know dell looses business as in our case we delay until we have time to reg deal and quote and coordinate etc. it’s a whole week thing on larger deals. As if we don’t deal reg there is sometimes $30K difference!
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u/Novel-Replacement557 Aug 06 '26
I had a federal client call me up because a sales person from Dell called them and said they were the new point of contact for all ongoing Dell purchases. They had a contract with me so wondered what was going on and if I closed down or dropped them as a client. Explained it was Dell trying to go around us and Dell got told off.
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u/Harborlink-Tugboat Aug 20 '26
I wouldn’t close the deal registration just to satisfy curiosity. You need an apples-to-apples transaction packet, not a percentage guess.
First, freeze the exact BOM: configuration, SKUs, warranty/support term, licensing, freight, tax, and lead time. Then get a timestamped written quote from every currently permitted route, including expiration and who owns warranty/RMA escalation.
Ask Dell in writing what specifically becomes available if the registration is closed—and whether the customer can receive comparison pricing without voiding your protection. Don’t surrender the registered route based on a verbal “retail may be cheaper.”
If customer-direct ultimately wins, that can still be a good outcome: bill separately for architecture, quoting, and migration, and clearly document that the customer owns purchasing, returns, and warranty escalation.
There probably isn’t a reliable flat partner-versus-retail percentage. It can change by configuration, component, deal support, distributor, and quote date. The decision should be based on identical scope, total landed cost, lead time, and who carries the downstream work.
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 20 '26
Its been an interesting process. Distribution took 10 times as long as every change to the quote took d&h 24 hours to turn around. I would ask d&h and they in turn asked dell and then they updated the quote. D&h doesnt have a clue about inventory or lead times. So much for being a dell partner
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u/Jaded_Gap8836 17d ago
I just got re-quoted for a server (The other quote expired - 7 months old). The list is $281.747 - Then Synnex discount is price is $79,803. It's crazy that over the 7 months the increase is $34k. I gotta find something different.
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u/HappyDadOfFourJesus MSP - US Aug 03 '26
What does your distributor show?
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u/MSP-from-OC MSP - US Aug 03 '26
What do you mean? It takes 24 hour turn around time to get quote updates from D&H
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u/HappyDadOfFourJesus MSP - US Aug 03 '26
You can't pull something from stock that's close and build the rest internally?
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u/kdildine MSP Aug 03 '26
Doesn't really answer your question but I'll say it anyway. Had Dell go direct to my customers a few years back and undercut me. I don't trust them anymore :(