Mimicking Dell, Compaq to sell its PCs directly

Though they might not like it, Compaq computer dealers and distributors understand the move the company is making toward selling directly to small- and medium-sized businesses in order to compete more effectively with Dell. Compaq Computers is the leader today because of those very dealers and now will use Internet and telephone sales to try to slow down Dell which just moved into 1st place in the 3rd quarter of 1998. Compaq is offering dealer incentives to get them to refer their customers to the company. Besides selling direct, Compaq is promising 5-day delivery on orders to beat Dell by 2 days.