At its Amplify partner conference, HP introduced a range of products spanning its PC, print, and collaboration categories. These offerings are unified by a common thread: artificial intelligence. HP aims to deliver enhanced integration, interoperability, and user experience across devices and platforms by embedding AI capabilities throughout its portfolio. The company is positioning these innovations to drive greater customer efficiency and productivity in increasingly complex hybrid environments.
To accelerate adoption, HP is incentivizing its partners to sell more holistically. Rather than focusing on individual product lines, the company encourages partners to promote cross-portfolio solutions that fully utilize the intelligent connectivity AI enables. This strategy is designed to deliver greater value to customers, increase average deal sizes, and deepen partner engagement.
However, executing a cross-portfolio sales strategy is not without its challenges. Even when partners have strong relationships within an account, those relationships often reside within a specific domain—such as IT infrastructure or procurement. Successfully expanding into adjacent categories requires partners to identify new stakeholders, understand different buying criteria, and align messaging to address varying priorities within the organization.
In this episode of In the Margins, Larry Walsh examines the opportunities and obstacles partners face in executing cross-sell and upsell motions. He discusses how vendors like HP can support these efforts through aligned incentives, integrated marketing, and tools that simplify solution positioning. As partners look to grow their businesses and deepen customer relationships, mastering cross-category selling is becoming an increasingly important capability that requires more than just product knowledge.