Steven Dahlin Director of EMEA Sales for Compellent

Compellent Technologies announced the appointment of Steven Dahlin as director of EMEA sales to support the company’s rapid European expansion.

 Dahlin has been with Compellent since 2005 and most recently held the position of Business Development Manager (BDM) for the Benelux and Nordic regions. Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, he reports to Andy Hardy, managing director of international sales.

In his new role Dahlin will be responsible for building and growing Compellent’s European sales channel for the company’s award-winning storage area network (SAN) solution, exclusively through a network of channel partners. He will also manage the company’s internal, pan-European team of partner-focused business development managers and storage architects who support the company’s 100 percent channel-only sales model.

His appointment follows continued significant growth by Compellent. The company has channel partners in 34 countries and was recently recognised for the third consecutive year as the fastest growing block-based, external storage company in the world by analyst firm Gartner.

Dahlin’s 14-year career has focused heavily on international sales and channel development. He has previously held senior roles building multi-national distribution channels in Europe for a variety of technology vendors including Multi-Tech Systems and Shavlik Technologies.

Commenting on this appointment Andy Hardy said: “Steven’s extensive experience of the European channel, and deep knowledge of the storage industry, will play a key role in driving our European sales. Enterprises of all sizes and from all industries are approaching IT differently in the current economy. They have been quick to embrace solutions that virtualise the data center, reduce hardware and power consumption and automate data management. With demand for our storage solution continuing to grow we are expanding our sales and technical teams to help our channel partners continue to win business.”

Over the past three years Compellent has recruited dozens of business partners across the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland. Compellent’s business partners benefit from Compellent’s unique all-channel ‘assisted sales’ model and single, scalable storage product, which gives a major advantage over the competition when it comes to selling to, and servicing, its clients.

Andy Hardy explains: “Unlike other storage vendors, who use resellers for distribution but ultimately compete with them via direct sales, Compellent has no direct sales force and focuses all of its resources on helping partners sell and close deals. Our unique architecture also allows partners to help customers easily upgrade and grow their storage over time, representing additional revenue opportunities.”

Compellent partners also gain access to Compellent’s secure online partner portal, which features fast lead registration, rapid custom quote generation and a host of other online resources.