Trade News | 23 Mar 2009 :
"The day I started was a very daunting day - I was given the keys to my car and told to get out there. So I got into my car and drove to Carlow with a view to hitting some industrial estates. I had created some complimentary slips and I rang individuals from their car parks. It was a fantastic learning experience. I spent over a year on my own, it was like being a sole trader."
That's how Martin Cullen describes the start of his time as Ireland's sole representative for global print company Moore Paragon Ireland. Although it was not his first job - he had spent a few months in telesales at Bord na Mona selling coal, briquettes and turf - Cullen says it played a significant part in getting him to where he is today as head of HP's personal systems group (PSG) in Ireland.
"It added to my mental toughness. It's not for everybody; it was very, very tough graft but I won some significant contracts," he recalls. "My time at Moore Paragon was probably what taught me the most. I was literally on my own. My manager - who was a major inspiration to me - was based in Belfast. He was a hard-working and driven man, and he said to me: ‘Go for it and give it all you've got'. There was a very aggressive sales culture at Moore Paragon. I was making 16 calls a week."
The print connection also brought him to the attention of HP. Not much more than a year after he got into his car and headed for Carlow on 2 January 1997, Cullen was contacted by HP and asked if he would be interested in talking to someone there. He was interviewed by Eleanor Murphy - who later went on to become HP country manager for Ireland - and then it all went quiet. Unversed in the ways of big multinationals, Cullen rang every day for two months to see what was happening but without reply. Unbeknown to Cullen, there was a headcount freeze on at the time.
The saga concluded happily when Cullen joined HP in February 1998, working for Martin Murphy selling printing solutions.
Working at HP was very different from Moore Paragon. For a start, Cullen was no longer working in splendid isolation but was part of a team. "No longer
was I the lone guy out there on his own. There was a young workforce with a lot of the same people still there now. There was a really good atmosphere and a really strong team spirit."
Culturally, HP had a much softer attitude with a less aggressive sales approach. "I saw the interest HP had in its employees and the value put on them by the corporation. I don't think I quite got it before I joined; I had read about it, but I really got into it when I started there."
Cullen stayed in the print business for two years. "It was great area to be in," he says. "I was working with channels and starting to understand what they were looking for. There was a balance of understanding between corporate sales and channel management."
He must have understood things quite well because, in 2000, Cullen became enterprise channel manager for HP9000 and storage products. At the time, the business was largely selling direct. It had set up a channel a couple of years before Cullen joined but "it was not progressing. I was given the opportunity to go in and make my mark. I did pretty well and the business grew quite aggressively over the next couple of years".
A couple of years later he was promoted to sales manager in corporate sales, managing 250 accounts in commercial sales and, 18 months later, he moved into the role of general manager for PSG. Despite spending over 10 years at HP, Cullen argues "it's been like working for three or four different companies". The scale and types of technology he's been involved with over the years have varied tremendously with different sales motions and types of pressures. Not that he's complaining. "I still love it and I still try to give 150% a day."
These are interesting times for the PSG channel. At the end of this month, the vendor's distribution contract with longstanding indigenous partner Sharptext will end after 15 years. HP has already formally appointed Computer 2000 as its second partner in Ireland, alongside Clarity. Computer 2000 has been selling HP product into the Irish market for the past two years or so and growing very aggressively.
Cullen is in no doubt that the recent changes are the best way forward for HP and its channel in Ireland. Using Computer 2000 and Clarity (supplied by its UK parent, Westcoast) has "massively increased the availability of HP products into the Irish market", he argues. Previously, resellers would not have had the availability and breadth of SKUs, he claims, as well as 24 to 48 hours delivery times.
"It's difficult for a distributor to deliver on the breadth of the HP platform (notebooks, PCs and printers)," Cullen says. "We've seen a massive swing in the number of resellers buying from Computer 2000 and Westcoast over the last number of months. The execution time from the reseller receiving an order to invoicing has shortened dramatically. A lot of resellers are small businesses looking for fast execution, fast turnaround and fast payment."
He is also anxious to dispel any suggestions that the withdrawal of Sharptext could lead to a potential credit shortfall on HP products in the Irish market. He points to Clarity, which is offering €10,000 of credit pre-approved to resellers, describing it as "a significant offer to be putting into the reseller channel. Clarity is driving very aggressively to extend a significant amount of credit into the market". Cullen estimates Clarity has around 600 or 700 active resellers at any one time and the distributor is in the process of writing to those resellers and offering them credit.
Computer 2000 is also actively addressing the credit issue. Product marketing director Alice Smitheman told Irish Computer in March that it was reviewing credit lines of its existing customers in Ireland, and Cullen anticipates dramatic increases in credit lines from the distributor: "Westcoast and Computer 2000 realise they can take up a lot of opportunity sitting out there [by increasing credit]. Obviously it's a bit of a gamble, but both of them believe it's worth doing."
As for 2009, Cullen says HP is seeking to continue its position in the market and it's key that the channel is as efficient as possible in a tougher market climate. It's no secret that unit numbers in the fourth quarter of 2008 "were way down on expectations and on the previous year" as a result of lower public sector and corporate spending.
HP saw units shipped decline by just under 18% year on year for Q4 in a market that fell by 38%, but a drop of nearly 50% by Dell helped propel HP to top spot in the commercial desktop market. "It's ironic," Cullen observes. "I would have liked to see our numbers growing to take the top spot."
He does not miss the chance to use the tough market to accentuate the positives from the changes in HP's distribution strategy. Cullen argues that resellers want to execute and turnaround an order as soon as possible to boost their cash flow.
Outside of work, Cullen is passionate about football, although he no longer plays. As a Liverpool supporter (and a Dublin GAA supporter), Cullen says the parallels between the two teams - who had their heyday in the 70s and 80s and who have struggled to live up to their glory days ever since - are fairly clear.
He has a very young family, which also keeps him busy. "I didn't realise just how significant children would become in my life. I'm 35 years old and not even five years married. I have three beautiful girls - aged three, two and one. A lot has happened. They've been an interesting few years for me."
He admits his children may be brainwashed when it comes to choosing brands for notebooks in the future, and jokes that they also know to stay quiet when Liverpool are playing. Perhaps he could pass on that trick to Eamon Dunphy.