Business used to be a cut-throat environment where beating the competition to market share was the primary goal. While customer numbers are clearly still important, companies that were rivals are now making pacts and sharing technology in a win-win for everyone. Instead of dog-eat-dog, it is the power of partnership that rules.

King of the partner ecosystem is Dell Technologies. It’s not surprising. With a list of subsidiaries that runs to 11 pages and spans the globe, the company has an umbrella so big that those sheltering underneath it stand very little chance of getting wet. And with the current economic climate, protection is a good thing.

“In this dynamic of everything’s gone digital … our partners have been asking how can we help them be more effective and successful in their digital marketing efforts and activities. How can we assist them in virtual selling,”  said Cheryl Cook (pictured), senior vice president of global channel at Dell Technologies. [They] are leaning into some of our services and tools … like remote capabilities so that you don’t have to go on the data center floor but you can still be doing assessments and provisioning and orchestration and deployment for your customers in this time.”

Cook spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the Dell Technologies World Digital Experience event. They discussed how COVID-19 has changed Dell and VMware’s operations, the company’s vast partner network, and customer outreach during the pandemic. (* Disclosure below.)

Dell provides the umbrella, VMware forms the spokes

A major benefit of partnership is, of course, the ability for partner companies to cross-sell and upsell products that complement their offerings in a win-win for everyone. Dell partners that sell two and three lines of business experience revenues “multiples higher than partners that don’t,” according to Cook.

Adding VMware into the mix makes the returns skyrocket: “Partners that sell three lines of business and sell VMware are selling 148 times the revenue,” she said. “To be candid, the breadth of our portfolio and a lot of the infrastructure solutions, our partnership with VMware, has never been more relevant. And a lot of those capabilities our partners are leveraging to be able to support their customers’ needs and demands.”

The economic slowdown hasn’t affected Dell’s product release cycle. Despite having taken its 165,000 employees remote, the company just released nine products over nine weeks, all of them focused on assisting partners with digital transformation. As Dell helps its partners, they in turn can help their customers, creating a chain of support that brings benefits to everyone.

Marketing and sales become BFFs

In another example of bitterness becoming goodwill, the move to digital has merged interdepartmental rivals’ sales and marketing.

“The handshake between marketing and sales has never been tighter,” Cook said.

As data makes marketing more targeted, the department’s role has changed from creating leads for the sellers to follow to creating the best possible customer experience. “That experience needs to be a rich, personalized one that transcends over marketing and sales,” Cook explained.

Part of this is creating content that is “snackable” so that the marketing department can modify the message fast in accordance with customer response. “The handshake between marketing and sales it’s all about staying customer centric, listening to what the customers are telling you their interests and preferences are,” Cook stated.

Done well, this means an accelerated cycle for marketing and sales and a positive experience for the customer. “As long as we get to the answer faster, that’s what the customer is looking for,” Cook said. “Then it’s a win, win for everybody.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Dell Technologies World Digital Experience event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell Technologies World. Neither Dell Technologies, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE