MIP Management in Practice

Summer Internship Project Report

Pathway to Gold Gartners Value Proposition

Industry Guide: Atul Bhat

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the post graduate programme in
Management at TAPMI, Manipal by

Name: Ashish Malhotra

Roll No: 15S709
Name: Sourabh Shetty
Roll No: 15F152

Batch: 2015-2017
Date: 13th July, 2016

TAPMI, MANIPAL, KARNATAKA 576104

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The project has been a great learning experience for us. We take this opportunity to
thank our mentor Mr Atul Bhat for his valuable guidance and constant support.
Despite his busy schedule and hectic work load he always managed to address our
concerns and provide timely guidance. We would like to express our gratitude to
Gartner India Research & Advisory Services Pvt Ltd for giving us this opportunity and
showing the confidence in us to achieve the desired results.

We owe profound gratitude to the entire Gartner team for their valued co-operation
and assistance.
We would also like to thank the TAPMI faculty for their continuous support and
counsel throughout the course of the project.

During the project we interacted with various Industry corporates. We would like to
thank each and every one of them for their time and giving the required
information.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pathway to gold
Gartner
DATE: 20th June, 2016

Company Background
Gartner is the world's leading information technology research and advisory
company. They deliver technology-related insight necessary for their clients to make
the right decisions, every day. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner
Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, they work with every
client to research, analyse and interpret the business of IT within the context of their
individual role.
Objective
The main objective of the project was to understand the wide range of services that
Gartner provides to its clients and align these services to the mission critical priorities
of the prospective clients.
To comprehend the plethora of services, we had received training for a week,
attended Gartner analyst one on one, participated in webinars and were a part of the
knowledge sharing sessions. Eventually we were incorporated into the sales team,
where we were placed as Business development coordinators.
Procedure
The first phase of the project was to discover contacts corresponding to a particular
location or a vertical through various sites example: Zoominfo.com, linkedin.com,
company website and orgbase (Gartner website) and acquire complete information
about them. Then the project required us to make a sales pitch to these contacts and
generate warm leads for Gartner. The sales pitch involved a 5 touch standardised
process called Five Touch Campaign which includes (initial mail, follow up mail, cold
call, connecting with the client on LinkedIn) in order to set up telephonic conversation
with the CEO to understand the mission critical priority of the client. Accordingly a
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value proposition was sent to the client to explain the benefits of a partnership with
Gartner. The next steps of the sales process is outlined by The Pathway to gold
The Pathway to gold was sales process that McKinsey designed for Gartner. This
process involved 8 steps:

Engage Seat holders

Ask and Act at 90
Seize high-leverage situations
Build TBVA and sell to C-level first
Sell team solutions
Drive high activity
Convert all event prospects
Leverage the rules

These steps had to be followed meticulously over the period of the internship.
Key Understanding

We need to collect data about a prospective client in a very vast and efficient

way.
The initial mail that we sent to the CXOs should be appealing.
We should be very confident and innovative in reaching the CXOs in order to

set up the discovery calls.

Talk to the point with the CXOs since they dont have a lot of time.
Apart from having excellent communication skills, salesperson should be a
good listener.

Conclusion

Sales in Gartner is one of the best sales that one can do since it allows you to

pitch to the top notch of the company.

While approaching our client we should always be well versed with the clients

business.
Five touch campaign is not necessarily to be followed in the same sequence.
Working with the clients which are working in niche technology domains, one
gets the hang of all the new technologies which are in the market.

LIST OF ABBREVATIONS
MCP
TBVA
CV
NCVI
VMD
SMB

Mission Critical Priority

Trust Based Value Approach
Contract Value
Net Contract Value Increase
Vision Match Differentiated
Small Medium Business

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 1
1.1 Introduction of Gartner.........................................................................1
1.2 Business Model.................................................................................... 1
4

1.3 Type of Clients..................................................................................... 3

1.4 Industries Catered To............................................................................5
1.5 Gartner Research................................................................................. 5
1.6. Gartner Pathway to Gold....................................................................12
2. PROJECT OBJECTIVES...........................................................................15
3. SCOPE.................................................................................................... 16
4. PROCEDURE.......................................................................................... 18
4.1 Understand Territory...........................................................................18
4.2 Understand Gartner Offerings.............................................................20
4.3 BASHO.............................................................................................. 21
4.4 Reminder Mails..................................................................................24
4.5 Connecting with organizations on social networking sites....................25
4.6 Cold Calling....................................................................................... 27
4.7 Discovery Calls.................................................................................. 34
5. ANALYSIS............................................................................................... 43
6. LIMITATIONS........................................................................................... 47
7. CONCLUSION......................................................................................... 48
8. APPENDIX............................................................................................... 49
9. REFERENCES......................................................................................... 51
1. INTRODUCTION
Information is traveling faster and being shared by more individuals than ever before.
In addition to becoming faster, IT also has become more convenient and efficient. In
the business field, an increasing number of companies are realizing the importance
of employing IT in their operations. IT consulting is a field that focuses on advising
businesses on how best to use information technology to meet their business
objectives. Worldwide IT spending for 2016 is now projected to be $2.77 trillion, with
a 1.9% annual growth rate in U.S. dollars. The worldwide IT research, advisory and
services market will reach $929 billion in 2016, growing 3.8% in constant currency in
2016, or 2.1% in U.S. dollars.

Role of Research and Advisory companies in IT consulting

Research and advisory helps the IT vendors and end users to cut through
information overload, decipher multiple viewpoints and develop insights that allow
5

them to perceive their business landscape more clearly. They get the information
they need, in the context necessary to make both large-scale and everyday decisions
with confidence for their enterprise.

1.1 Introduction of Gartner

Gartner is the world's leading information technology research and advisory
company. It delivers the technology-related insight necessary for their clients to make
the right decisions, every day.
From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to
business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services
firms, to technology investors, they are the valuable partner to clients in
approximately 10,000 distinct enterprises worldwide.

A truly global (and local) perspective, with employee strength of above 7600

and clients in more than 90 countries around the world.

More than 1,100 expert analysts cover 1,304 IT topics.
Gartner analysts are based in 26 countries and speak 50 languages.

1.2 Business Model

Gartner has a revenue turnover of USD 2.163 billion. It is expected to grow to USD
60.83 billion by 2020. It generates revenue from the following sources:-

Fig 1.2a
Main competitors of Gartner are Forrester, Yankee Group, International Data Group
(IDG). This is a very competitive landscape since the CEOs around the world are
now realising the importance of IT in their business hence there is lot of demand for
consulting.
Organization

Revenue

Gartner Inc.

2.163 billion USD

Forrester

313.7 million USD

IDC

400 million USD

Clearly Gartner is the market leader in IT consulting, advisory domain. This is mainly
possible because of the high credibility of Gartner analysts.
80% of the Fortune 500 use Gartner for their key technology initiatives. Gartner is in
steady contact with 60,000 clients, representing 10,000 distinct organizations
worldwide.

1.3 Type of Clients

Fig1.3a

Gartner has divided its client base into two broad categories: End Users
(technology users) and High Tech Telecom Providers (HTTP) are the

technology providers.
Gartners 70% business is drawn from End Users and 25% business is drawn
from the HTTP.
For EU IT Orgs put CIO at top
For HT Orgs put CEO at top.
Common Problems of End Users
o Concerned about making the wrong vendor or technology selection
o Lacking objective/fact-based best practices around
o creating IT strategic plans
o negotiating pricing & terms with vendors
o implementing technology
o Unsure how their IT organization's structure, operations and
o

efficiencies compare to peer IT organizations

Struggling to execute on/implement IT infrastructure and applications

to meet the business goals

Find it difficult to validate and/or justify an IT investment with

confidence to business unit stakeholders

Values offered to the End Users:o Save money: Making the enterprise understand the best price for
o

buying the software.

Save Time: By making the End User understand the best practices,

o
o

frameworks for using the technology.

Mitigating Risk
Validate Decisions

Extend Resource: Gartner Analysts work closely with the End Users to

help them take an informed decision.

Educate Staff.

Common problems of HTTP

o Concerned about innovating new products to meet market needs and
o

drive growth and revenue (i.e., ensuring their vision is sound)

Unsure about go-to-market strategy, or which markets are best to

o
o

target/prioritize
Don't fully understand their competitors' strategies
Lack of insight around customers' and prospects' perceptions, which

hampers their ability to create most effective marketing strategies

o Unable to substantially improve sales effectiveness
o Concerned with visibility against larger competitors
Values offered to the HTTP users:o Trends: What sort of technology the End users are looking for.
o Competition
o Needs and wants of the End Users.
o Market Awareness

1.4 Industries Catered To

Banking
and
Investment
Services

Education

Energy and
utilities

Governmen
t and public
sector

Healthcare

Insurance

Media

Retail

Manufacturi
ng

1.5 Gartner Research

Gartner is the IT professional's best first source for addressing virtually any IT issue
because of our world-class, objective insight, the rapid access to that insight, and the
low cost compared to the impact and other alternatives.
With an unparalleled number of analysts worldwide, Gartner is able to study every
aspect of technology, from silicon to services to management. Rigorous research
processes make Gartner the global leader in technology-related research and advice.
1.5.1 Methodologies
Gartner proprietary research processes allow them to see IT as it pertains to the
evolving business landscape. Their research methodologies are based on our years
of experience observing trends and scientifically mapping technology's progress
against true delivery.
Gartner clients make important multi-year technology investments in the face of
uncertainty and risk. These methodologies help clients reduce and manage that risk,
and enable them to succeed in their roles as they mobilize IT to contribute to their
organization's business objectives.

Gartner Proprietary Methodologies

Gartner Magic Quadrant
Positioning Technology players within a specific market. This is one of the most
popular methodologies of Gartner which is extensively used by Gartner clients to
identify and understand their current positioning or the position they would want to
achieve.

Fig1.5.1a
Gartner Critical Capabilities
Gain deeper insight and a broader perspective into vendor products and services.

Fig1.5.1b

Gartner Hype Cycle

A Gartner Hype Cycle provides a graphical representation of the maturity and
adoption of a particular technology or application,

Fig1.5.1c
Gartner IT Market Clock
A Gartner IT Market Clock is a decision framework that helps you evaluate and
prioritize IT investments.

Fig1.5.1d

Gartner Toolkits
Actionable research that clients customize for their individual business needs
Save time, improve your execution, and make better decisions through a set of
tactical resources and frameworks.

Fig1.5.1e

Gartner Vendor Rating

A Gartner Vendor Rating assesses a technology providers areas of strength such
as strategy, organization, products, technology, marketing, financials and support
and how they align with your business objectives for a balanced portfolio.

Fig1.5.1f
Gartner ITScore
Gartner ITScore helps you quantify the maturity of both the IT organization (as a
provider of technology) and the enterprise (as a consumer of technology).

Fig1.5.1g

10

Gartner Market Guide

A Gartner Market Guide highlights significant attributes, trends and providers in a
market, particularly for early, dynamic markets.

Fig1.5.1h
Gartner Key Metrics Data
Gartner IT Key Metrics Data series provides insight into the latest industry trends to
help enterprises change, make fact-based decisions and help answer key questions.

Fig1.5.1i

11

The pool of 1100 plus analysts with an average experience of 1th helps the business
leaders to understand the technology and market landscape, the GOTO market
strategy and how the Gartner reports can be leveraged upon.
1.5.2 Gartner Events

This is one of the most productive ways of bringing new business and maintaining
good reputation with the repeat customers. Clients and prospective clients come to
these event to understand the new technology and market landscape, network with
their prospective clients and understand what their peers are up to. They also get to
have one on one interaction with one of the analysts of their choice. Plenty of
technology related case studies and sessions are also held during these events.
These events equips CIOs and senior technology executives with the tools and
insights they need to deliver exceptional business results for their organizations and
develop themselves as successful business leaders.
1.5.3 Gartner Consulting
The pool of 1100 plus analysts with an average experience of 1th helps the business
leaders to understand the technology and market landscape, the GOTO market
strategy and how the Gartner reports can be leveraged upon.

1.6. Gartner Pathway to Gold

These are the main principles that are followed by the Gartner Associates.
12

Fig1.4a
Engage Seatholders

Build relationship with clients to understand their utilization of Gartner and

adapt to their changing needs.

Ask at 90

Once understanding the seatholders needs, present a quality impact

assessment to decision makers and ask for renewal. This gains the
agreement with the decision maker and sets up for the next steps.

Seize High Leverage Situations

Using practice to convert problematic situations into opportunities

Build TBVA and Sell to the C Level First

Gaining trust with C-level people to be able to grow account and maintain

relationships
Resources: Activity Prep Calls and Vertical excellence Communities.
Conviction: a strong belief in what Gartner does, can affect the client and give
them the confidence to trust us.

13

Interpersonal skills: use active listening skills and effective communication to

make sure that client trust and respect us for being able to understand them

and their business needs.

Processes: makes up of: Prepare, Conduct, Follow-up and Build

Sell Team Solutions

State from the top down (C-level down) to align the way out clients work with

integrated client driven team options.

Resources: client presentation and team solution overview

Drive High Activity

Prospecting, leading and adding; spending time to prospect the client, leading
to more to meetings with the clients and in the end you will add more

opportunity to your pipeline.

Resources: Hoovers (to get a better look on an account) and effective
prospecting basics

Convert All Event Prospects

Work with prospects before, during and after the events.

Growing business (NVCI): events increase win rates and retention.
Resources: event campaign timeline and best practice checklist

Leverage the Rules

Make sure the client understand and follows the rules (terms and
conditions).This builds trust with communication and make sure that the
growth isn't lost.

Training on Gartner culture, methodologies, and sales.

Thibaut Gabrion, Sales Learning and Development Manager at Egham England
came down to Mumbai and conducted first week of training for us. Following things
were covered during the first week of training:

Gartner Business Model & Value Proposition

Gartner Research & Analysts
Client Organizations, Roles, Problems & Initiatives
Gartner Unique Capabilities
Build TBVA and Sell to the CxO.
Gartner Prospecting
14

Value Selling Overview

Group Presentations and Role Plays

15

2. PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Understanding and implementing the approach to be more effective in organizing

territory and effectively executing campaigns that accelerate deals through the
pipeline and ultimately increase NCVI.

Accurately identify and describe the foundational components of Value Selling,

why each is important, and how uncovering each in every sales cycle benefits
you, your buyers and Gartner.

Create differentiation for Gartner offerings by correctly using Value Selling's

questioning process.

Demonstrate the proper use of Value Selling in qualifying, managing, and closing
opportunities.

Act as the link between CXO's/ Executives and our analyst community and help
our clients understand their agenda, competitive landscape, technology roadmap
and the future of their marketplace.

16

3. SCOPE
We were a part of Team Gladiator which catered to HTTP clients. The target
enterprise segment for this team was Small and Medium Business (SMBs). The
revenue of these organizations was anything less than $50 million USD with
employee strength of less than 2000. My team worked with clients from Hyderabad,
Pune, Mumbai and Chennai.
Sales at Gartner consists of the following functions:-

Fig 3a
Our scope was limited to Sales support where we worked on Territory white spacing,
cold calling, discovery calls and working on value proposition.
In the principles of Pathway to Gold we had to work on Drive High Activity
Framework.

17

Fig3b

18

4. PROCEDURE

4.1 Understand Territory

Fig 4.1a
Fig 4.1a shows the pre calling part of Gartner Sales.
Understanding Territory is the approach to understand and prioritize the territory.
There was a set procedure to be followed while Territory white spacing.

We were given the task to find out prospective clients from Hyderabad, Pune,
Mumbai and Ahmedabad. We created a list of companies by searching or
companies on Web which are based out of cities which are assigned to us

and which are in the field of Information Technology.

Gartner has an inhouse tool called OrgBase. It consists of records of
companies that Gartner has done business with or engaged in talks. It
consists of following details:
o Company Name
o Clients name/Designation/Phone Number/Email Address
o Contract Value (CV): This is the subscription amount (in dollars) given
o

by the client. In case of prospective client CV is zero.

Gartner Associate in Contact/ Designation/ Phone Number/ Email

Address.
Through OrgBase we checked whether the company is already a Gartner
client or not.

19

ZoomInfo: This website contains high quality company and contact database.
We used it to know the company revenue (round about) and employee
strength. Most importantly this website contains contact information of
Director/Managers/CXOs of an organization. The disadvantage of ZoomInfo
is- most of the times the contact information is not available or if available, the
information isnt full proof.

Fig 4.1b

LinkedIn: Professional social networking site. Searchable database of selfmaintained Senior IT Leaders and Business Executives. This is used to
validate information which is available on ZoomInfo. This is an excellent tool

for whitespace analysis and identifying referral opportunities.

Benefits of leveraging Advanced Search Option on LinkedIn
o Identifying whitespace within your client accounts:
Company Name
Title (i.e. Director of Infrastructure, etc.)
Keyword (i.e. Security, Applications, etc.)
o Identify new organizations/contacts for net new prospecting:
Geography (i.e. Country, Postal Code)
Industry (i.e. Healthcare, Education, Banking, etc.)
Title (i.e. CIO, CEO, etc.)
o Leverage the Save Search Option to save 3 searches and receive
automatic alerts for new prospects based on your custom search

criteria in the free version

Company Website: This is an essential tool for understanding the following
things:
20

o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Geographies in which they are working.

Technology they are working on.
Subsidiary or not.
Revenue of the company.
Management Team.
Board line Number.
Influencers: These people influence the decisions taken by the top

notch of an organization.
Information collected from all these sources were captured in an excel sheet
in a specific format.

Fig 4.1c
4.2 Understand Gartner Offerings

Next step in the sales cycle was to align Gartner offerings to the priorities of

prospective clients.
While going through the prospective clients company website, we always
looked for the core business of that enterprise and tried to align Gartner

offerings to their core business.

I went through Gartner research papers, webinars, analyst profile,
peerConnect (what the peers of my prospective client are talking about a
particular technology), methodologies (Magic Quadrants, Hype Cycle etc.). All

this information was made available to us through accessing Gartner.com.

After filtering valuable information from Gartner.com We stored this
information in the same excel sheet as shown in Fig 4.1c.

Fig 4.2a

21

4.3 BASHO
After collecting information about the organizations and aligning Gartners offerings to
the company we were all set to draft an email to the concerned person in the
organization.
The top executives of any organization do not have a lot of time to go through each
email in their inbox. They generally go through the email if they find the subject of the
email is relevant to them. For that matter the subject line should be crisp, informative
and compelling at the same time. We personally followed my own template which
was based on Sandwich approach. This was particularly done in order to grab
attention of the top executives in the company and increase the probability of
receiving a reply. We went through the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn and saw what my prospective clients are talking about predominantly in the
field of Information Technology. We did this to understand their outlook towards
technology and what new things they are talking about, so that we can align Gartner
resources to them as per their liking.

The BASHO format that we followed is shown in the Fig4.3a:{First name},

While researching your company, I read where you said {Insert quote or
relevant content}, and was compelled to reach out to you.
As your point of contact for Gartner I often work with CIOs who are tasked
with
{Insert relevant pivot to Gartner; it should contain a strong, high-level
expression of our business value}.
Would it be possible to organize an introductory meeting this week?
Regards,
Name
Gartner
Primary Phone #

22

Fig 4.3a
Following observations were made while working on creating BASHOs.

Make it about THEM, not you.

Leverage professional sources vs. personal sources.
Not all professional events/news is fair game (i.e. Layoffs).
No attachments.
Ask for what you want.
Dont trigger conditioned responses.
Dont sound like the Herd.
In the HTTP side the mails are usually directed to the CEO so the mail has to

be more inclined towards strategy than technology.

Keep it short (<15 seconds).
When the CXOs are not using their laptop they read the emails on their
phone. Keeping this in mind, we should make sure that they dont have to
swipe on their phones screen a lot because this will make them loose their
interest. See Fig 4.3b

23

Fig 4,3b
Fig 4.3c shows a sample mail on which we used to build upon depending upon our
customers. It also shows the touch points that we need to concentrate.

Fig 4.3c

24

4.4 Reminder Mails

In a sales and marketing environment, usually you are asking for attention, time,
a response, information, etc. from people who don't owe you anything. Usually,
they are more senior than you, busier, and better paid. This is where reminder
mails come into picture.
Reminder mail comes with a problem. No matter how much you sugar-coated it
with niceties, you are pointing out that your recipient didn't do what he/she was
supposed to do. So the first thing they feel after opening your email is a strong
negative emotion. Now you, your product, and your company are in the same
mental emotional box. You don't want to be in that box.

Jump straight to the point: Without playing with the words, we should
come straight to the business by giving reference of the mail which was

sent earlier.
Watch the wording carefully because e-mail has no tone and words can be

misconstrued. The tone should be polite and very optimistic.

Read it out loud before you send and hear it in your mind. How would you
feel if you received it?

Template for reminder mail is shown in Fig 4.4a

Hi XYZ,
Couple of weeks ago <<time when the last mail was sent>> I had sent you an email
asking for a discussion with Gartner. You may not have had a chance to look at it yet,
so I apologize if my timing isn't right, but it would be great if you could find some time
to review my note and schedule a time where we could come on a call and discuss it
further.
Thanks and Regards
Ashish

Fig 4.4.a

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4.5 Connecting with organizations on social networking sites

Almost all the business people are active on the social networking sites like LinkedIn,
twitter, Facebook. Connecting with our prospective clients on these platforms have
following advantages:

Follow the audience interests on social media

o Understanding the current technology and market landscape of the
enterprise.
o New technologies they are going to venture into.
o New geographies they are going to enter into.
o
Send the BASHO
o Vinod is the CEO at one of my prospect accounts. We tried reaching
out to him via phone and an e-mail for the 3 weeks. My manager has
o

also sent an e-mail, all with no response.

I invited Vinod to connect through LinkedIn and he accepted within a
few hours. The text we used to garner a response is shown in Fig
4.5a. It was simple, to the point and stated my interest in connecting

Fig 4.5a

Understand the condition of the firm:

o Understanding the culture of the firm.
o What the employees of that firm think about their company.
o Understanding the mission of the company.
26

Making them understand Gartner

o 86% of consumers buying IT products use social media to help them
o

reach a decision.
Connecting with the prospect makes him realise that We belong to
Gartner. Gartner being extremely strong on social media will leave an
indelible and an optimistic mark in the minds of the prospect.

27

4.6 Cold Calling

Cold
Calling

L1:
Discover
y Call

L2:
Solution
Call

Fig 4.6a

Cold calling typically refers to the first telephone call made to a prospective
customer. Cold calling is an important stage and technique in the selling
process.

Cold calling is traditionally the most challenging part of the selling process.

Moreover, for most sales people cold calling is becoming increasingly difficult
- because the prospective customer's time is increasingly pressurised and
therefore increasingly protected, and so cold calling sales people are
increasingly resisted.

Prospects and decision-makers are increasingly difficult to reach, on their

guard, and very sensitive and resistant to obvious 'sales techniques'.

Consequently the sales person feels extra pressures, not helped by scripted
or contrived language, or an over-zealous sales management or system,
which understandably creates a feeling in the prospect of being pushed or

28

manipulated. In these circumstances any hope of forming vital trust is of

course lost at this point, and recovery is virtually impossible.

Making Cold Calls

Tackling Gatekeepers:
Often we dont get the direct contact number of the concerned person in the
organization. That is why we need to call on the board line number which is available
in the website of the companies.
When we call on the board line number either the Receptionist or the Security Guard
picks up the call. These people offer a lot of resistance for us to connect to the
highest authority hence we should not spend a lot of time conversing with these
people and should ask them to connect to somebody else.
I used several ways to talk to these people:

Make them the power: We asked them could you help me out-who should be
the right person who can connect me to Mr XYZ. At times we asked them to
connect me to somebody from the HR department or the Marketing

department. This way we had a smooth transition through the pipeline.

Sometimes the middle level people in the pipeline do not pass on the call to
the desired person and ask us to drop in an email. That time we made them
the power and asked them their email ID. We sent the BASHO to these

people and asked them to send it further their senior executives.

Talk with authority: Talking with authority represents a commanding position.
This way sometimes gatekeeper has connected me to the desired person or

connected me with somebody which is a part of the pipeline.

Know the person whom we are talking to: We always asked the name and the
role of the person whom we was talking to. This was helpful during follow up
calls since we directly talked to that particular person next time when we
called. Knowing the designation of the person is also very important since we
get to know if that particular person is important in the pipeline thus it helps

build TBVA with that person.

Have a referral: Telling the gatekeeper that we have a reference from an
important person in his organization fastens up the process of connecting with
the CxO.

29

Pitch to the right person. The person who can decide about using your
product or service is the person who should hear your pitch. Knowing the role
of the person whom we am talking to We can find out who makes the
decisions in the company.

Talking to the CxO

Gartner sales is all about pitching the consulting, advisory offerings of Gartner to the
top notch of the organizations. This requires a lot of understanding about the
business of prospective client and also our own offerings. We made following
observations while making the cold calls.

Making a strong introduction: Our audience receive a lot of sales call every
day. We need to make that our call should not sound like a normal sales
pitch. For that we need to make a cheerful and confident introduction which
involves greeting our audience and telling about you. For example: Hello MR
XYZ, thank you for taking my call. How are you doing? Instead of Is it a good
time to talk.

Fig 4.6a

Know your product or service well: Before you even start crafting your pitch,
make sure you know all the facets of your product or service and how it can
be useful to a range of customers. What are the common problems that your
clients encounter, and how do you resolve these problems?
I prepared a document which is based on my understanding about Gartner.
We used this document to make our clients understand about Gartner.
30

Fig 4.6b

Avoid giving a canned pitch: A canned pitch is one that is generic and does
not take into account the customer. Instead, make your conversation unique
and tailored to your audience.
Same principle was also used while writing BASHO. An enterprise which
expertise in Business Intelligence will not be interested in knowing about
semiconductors. That is why our pitch has to be very specific to the area of
their expertise.

Use simple language. Strive to be clear and easy to understand. Take out
jargon from your conversation, unless its standard in your industry to use
certain terminology. Dont assume that your buyer will automatically know
what youre talking about, so using simple language is best.

Know how much time youve got for the pitch. We usually told customers It
will hardly take few moments of your time and then you can get back to your
busy schedule. Normally these people dont have a lot of time on their hands
so making it certain to them that you wont take a lot of time will also keep
them interested.

Keep it short. Be able to get the most important points across in the first
minute. After this point, buyers might start to lose interest if they have already
decided against your product. Your pitch will likely last much longer than 60
seconds. Make sure you build in the most important points
immediately. These include:

31

The name of your company (or your name if you are working as an
individual)

The products or services you provide.

The Whats In It For Me aspect: tell your buyer what they will gain by
buying your product.

Describe how your customer will benefit. Sometimes during cold calling
customers can ask what is in it for them. For these situations we need to keep
answer ready which cater to his critical priorities. This is one of the key factors
in a good sales pitch. Your customer isnt always interested in how big your
firm is or what sort of customer base it has. They want to know how your
product or service will improve their business and make their life easier.

Differentiate yourself from your competitor. Describe how your product or

service is different from others who offer similar products. Focus on how your
product is unique or how you give personalized service.
We should tell our clients about our unique services only if they ask about it.
Since its a cold call we dont have to mention about our PODs.

Treat your pitch as a conversation: An important feature of the pitch is to have

two-way communication with your audience. You might already know their
needs, since youve done your research. But you should give them an
opportunity to tell their story and to describe what makes their situation
unique.[5]

Prepare answers to objections or avoidance. Your customer may find reasons

to decline your sales pitch. Be prepared with answers to these objections.
Make a list of the reasons why someone might say they dont need or want
your product. Craft responses to each of these. Some of the questions that I
faced during cold calling are mentioned in the Table 4.6a

Question

Answer

I am flying out of India.

What would be the best time to connect with

you again?

I am in the USA. It will be difficult for you to

We work across time zones. It wont be a

32

connect.

problem for me to connect. What can be the

best time to connect to you.

Is this a sales pitch?

As a Gartner associate let me assure you

this is not just a normal sale pitch. We am
talking about a much broader engagement
beneficial for our organizations.

We have a budget constraint. Gartner is too

Association with Gartner is all about refining

expensive for us.

your processes which has been bottleneck

for you in the past. Doing this, you will be
reducing a lot of your expenses.
However we can always strike a bargain.

Gartner works with big organizations. We am

We see a lot of potential in the Small and

just a small company, why is Gartner

Medium businesses. In India the SMB

interested in me.

business growth is expected to be 30% YoY.

Predominantly in India our major business
comes from SMBs.
Table 4.6a

Make an appointment with your customer. Once youve identified the most
appropriate person to listen to your pitch, schedule an appointment with them.
Find out when it is most convenient for them. Check your calendar for your
availability at a particular time and ask your audience if he is available at the
same time.

Send them a meeting invite and the agenda of the meeting: Once you have
identified the time slot tell your audience that you will be sending the meeting
invite and the agenda of the meeting right away. This will ensure that you
have your time booked.

Template for Cold Calling

Good
MorningXYZ,
XYZ,
Good Morning
I am Ashish From Gartner. I was going through your companys profile and
I am Ashish
FromtoGartner.
We was
going
through your
companys
profile and
wanted
to talk
you about
your
companys
goals
and strategies
forwanted
2016. I
want
see about
if Gartner
can be right
fit and
for strategies
you and ifforwe
canWe
work
in to
synergy.
to talk to
to you
your companys
goals
2016.
want
see if
Gartner
canI be
right think
fit for you
if we
can work
in synergy.
Oh
Great,
surely
we and
have
things
in common,
I would like to know more
about your business, strategies, and challenges. What can be the best 30min
to talk to you?
Will Thursday 2:00 PM work for you.
Nice!! I will send a calendar invite to you, Have a good day.

33

Oh Great, We surely think we have things in common, We would like to know more
about your business, strategies, and challenges. What can be the best 30min to talk
to you?
Will Thursday 2:00 PM work for you.
Template for Calendar Invite
<<Mention the time of the meeting>>
Hi <<Name>>,

It was a pleasure speaking with you today. Further to our discussion please
find below the agenda for our meeting.
Agenda:

<<Organization Name>> goals for 2016 and your key initiatives to

achieve it.
The challenges you face in this journey.
Gartners value proposition and the next step for <<Organization
Name>>.

Do let me know if there is anything you would like to add or change in the
agenda.
To join the conference please dial in on our toll free number <<Toll Free
Number>>. Following this use the conference code: <<Conference Code>>.
We will also be joined on the call by my colleague, <<Name of your
Colleague>>.
Looking forward to connecting with you.
Regards
Maintaining a Tracker
Fig 4.6c shows a tracker shows the Company Name, the account executive who is
tagged to this company, BASHO, L1 status, date on which they were set up, Any
Information about the present status of the sales pipeline with respect to the
company.

34

Fig 4.6c

4.7 Discovery Calls

In many cases, the discovery call -- the first call after connecting with a prospect -- is
actually the most important in the sales process. It sets the tone for the entire
relationship, both pre- and post-sale. Either youll be able to establish an authoritative
relationship or youll be stuck playing catch up.
Discovery calls are crucial for sales professionals to understand the details of a
prospects situation. On the other side, prospects want to leave a discovery call
knowing who you are and what your companys all about. They might have specific
questions about a product feature or a term. Most importantly, they need to be
assured that you understand their problem and that you will make a professional
assessment to determine if you can help them or not.
A discovery call will either clearly surface a sales opportunity or definitively disqualify
a prospect. You should come out of your calls with an understanding of your
prospects needs and how you can help solve them.
Certain key points to be followed during discovery calls

Research the people you will be calling ahead of time. You need to know
more than just how the company works learn who the decision-makers are,
how long they have been with the company and what they like to do. This will
help you create a bond with them and understand how to better help them.

35

Introduce yourself to the client. Although you have already spoken to this
client before, but that way only during the cold call. They do not know a lot
about you. Tell them about your role in the organization and the kind of
cliental you have. This will make him feel comfortable and it is obviously a
good ice breaker.

Listen more than you talk. Your prospects will give you many of the
answers you are looking for if you let them do the talking.

Ask questions based on their outlook of the business, personal goals,

organizations strength and weakness, employee strength, revenue, corporate
objective. This will keep you from wasting both your time and the prospects.

Evaluate the MCP they have rather than selling features. The prospect is
interested in a solution, not a product. Identify a problem or pain that is
plaguing them and show, in detail, how your product/ services can solve it.

Schedule the next meeting with your prospect. Once you have sparked their
interest, dont let them get away. Stay focused and move them down your
sales funnel into the next selling stage start planning for the next step as
soon as you can.

Value Selling

36

Value added selling is one of several sales techniques that rely on building on the
inherent value of a product or service. By its nature the value add technique is a
more flexible and customized selling approach that requires input from a defined
range of average customers.

Gartners way to execute value selling process

Qualified Prospect is the product of VMD, Value, power and plan.

Qualified Prospect = VMD x Value x Power x Plan
VMD

A confirmation between buyer and seller of the buyers unresolved Business

Issues / Problems and that the seller has the best Solution to resolve them.

Value

The buyer's perception of the impact or worth of resolving their Business

Issue(s). Includes the buyers perspective on the business and personal
impact.

Power

Understanding of and access to the actual decision maker person who can
say yes or no to the decision.

Plan

The steps necessary to evaluate, close the sale, and implement the Solution
in order to resolve the Business Issue.

Value Prompter
Sales organizations have come to rely on the ValuePrompter as an integral tool for
sales professionals to qualify prospects, manage the details of their opportunities,
accurately forecast and close more deals. It synchronizes the overall vision and
methodology on how to conduct a successful sale. Fig 4.7a shows a value prompter.

37

Fig 4.7a
Corporate Objective

The objective of the enterprise as a whole.

Business Issue

Buyers #1 challenge; often expressed in financial terms; buyers high-level

impediment to contributing to corporate objective/top or bottom line.

What an individual needs to resolve to contribute to overall corporate

objective(s)
A high level impediment to contributing to top or bottom line; often stated in

financial terms
Often the most important metric for individuals success
Needs to have a struggle associated with it
Four most common Business Issues:
o Increased revenue or market share
o Increased efficiencies, productivity or cost management
o Quality/reliability
o Security/government/regulatory compliance

Anxiety Question
38

Aimed at getting buyer to momentarily experience what their world will be like

without specific Gartner capability or service

May be only way some prospects will respond emotionally to you, your

product or service
Should create an emotional impact or an emotional response buyer: tune into
their motivation, their Whats In It-For Me!

When to use anxiety questions

Surface a BI with an overconfident buyer

Break a competitive Vision Match.
Uncover Value and create urgency
Gain an appointment when there is a lack of interest
Create anxiousness when a buyer is stalling a contract

Phrases that evoke anxiety:

Are you concerned?

Are you confident that?
What happens if?

Problem

What gets in the way of achieving the Business Issue.

Struggle, lack, challenged, concerned, dont know, cant get

Solution

The buyers view of the capabilities that will enable them to resolve their

Business Issue
Need, want, what were looking for

Value

The Solutions impact on the buyer, both business and personal

Power

Knowing the decision process;

Access to the Power source

Plan

Mutually agreed upon and written next steps

39

Fig 4.7b shows the pathway to be followed during the discovery call. We start with
identifying the business issue then the problems and then give our solutions which
are aligned with both the problem and the business issue.

Fig 4.7b
Type of Questions:
Open-ended Questions:

Surface prospects or clients view of current conditions.

What stands in the way of lowering TCO by 10%?

Probing Questions

Raise issues that did not surface on their own. Used to differentiate and
create need for your products and services. Used to grow prospects/clients
perception of the value they will receive with our solution. Almost always

answered with a yes, no, or other binary response.

Have you seen any alternatives that offer proven cost reduction strategies?

Confirming Questions

Verify shared understanding and confirm what we heard prospect/client say.

So what I've captured is; Have we missed anything?
Table 4.7a shows some of the different types of questions that we ask during
discovery call.

40

Table 4.7a

Common problem of HTTP users

Concerned about innovating new products to meet market needs and drive

growth and revenue (i.e., ensuring their vision is sound)

Unsure about go-to-market strategy, or which markets are best to

target/prioritize
Don't fully understand their competitors' strategies.
Lack of insight around customers' and prospects' perceptions, which hampers

their ability to create most effective marketing strategies

Unable to substantially improve sales effectiveness
Concerned with visibility against larger competitors

Uncovering Value

We dont create value.

We uncover value and connect to it.
Value is customer-specific.
There are 2 types of value: Business and Personal.
Value is the energy that fuels change.
Value accrues to the Business Issue.

Components of Value

41

Busine
ss
Value

Valu
e

Person
al
Value

Fig 4.7b
BV = Business Value (ROI and cost justification)
PV = Personal Value (WII-FM)
You can make a sale if you:
Satisfy PV and BV or
Satisfy PV and BV is not fully defined.

Uncovering Personal Value

How many today having Personal Value discussion with buyers?

Why or why not?
Do we know what to ask?
How to approach it?
Think its too intrusive?
Monterey
Status
Self-perception
Security
Other

Uncovering Business Value

An increase in revenue/ market share

An increase in efficiencies/ productivity
The opportunity cost of not resolving the business issue.
An increase in quantity and reliability.
A reduction in operating expenses/COGS.

42

43

5. ANALYSIS

During the course of six weeks of on the floor working, we have worked on 52

organizations.
Number of BASHOs sent: 24
Number of L1 Setup: 17
Success Ratio: 70.83%
Fig 5a shows the activities done in the sales cycle.

Fig 5a

Percentage of L1's setup through the following methods

BASHO

LinkedIn Mail

Cold Calling

29%
13%

Reminder Mails

No Result

8% 4%

46%

Fig 5b
44

Based on L1s setup for 24 organizations, Fig 5.3 shows the number of companies
working in the following technologies.

#organizations working in the following fields

Number of organizations working in the following fields

#Organizations

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Fig 5.3
Based on prospecting of 52 organizations, Fig 5.4 shows the number of companies
belonging to the following regions.

45

#Companies in following cities

22
20
18
16
14
12
#Organizations

10
8
6
4
2
0
Hyderabad

Pune

Chennai

Mumbai

Indore

Bhopal

Fig 5.4
Since our target segment was SMB, Fig 5.5 clearly suggests the employee strength
in these SMBs is predominantly between 50 to 250 employees.

#Organizations with following employee strength

10
9
8
7
6
5
#Organizations 4
3
2
1
0

Employee Strength

Fig 5.5
Fig 5.6 shows the years in which these organizations were founded.
46

#Organizations founded in the following years

5
4
3

#Organizations founded
in the following years

2
1
0

Fig 5.6

47

6. LIMITATIONS

The training period was 50 days because of which we couldnt touch base the

last part of the sales cycle i.e. Solution call.

In the entire sales cycle we had worked till creating the value proposition for

the prospective client.

We did not take the solution call for the prospect since these are highly
sensitive accounts and any mistake during the solution call can call off future

association with the prospect.

We shadowed most of the discovery calls that happened to be with our

accounts and were made to understand the nuances of it.

We were only allowed to work on HTTP side of Gartner sales hence we dont
understand how the sales cycle really works on the End User side.

48

7. CONCLUSION

Sales in Gartner allows you to pitch to the top notch of the company. For the
HTTP side we had to pitch to the CEO of IT vendors and for the end user side

we had to pitch to the CIO of the End User organizations.

While approaching our client we should always be well versed with the clients
business. Knowing your customer during the initial calls instil confidence in

the prospective client and chances of converting increases.

Five touch campaign is not necessarily to be followed in the same sequence.
It depends upon the associate how he wants to set up the initial meeting. It

can either be through a direct mail or through a direct call.

We need to understand the MCP of the clients, because that is where they

can leverage upon the Gartner offerings.

The value proposition has to be directly aligned with the business value and
the personal value of the prospect. We need to make sure that the personal
value is strictly taken care of.

49

8. APPENDIX

E mail snapshot in fig is an example of TBVA build with Cheryl Dcosta (Assistant) to
Mr Sanjiv Tandon (MD Melstar Information Technology) of one the prospective client.

Fig 8.1
Fig 8.2 shows the reminder mail sent to Mr SenthilKumar Kandasamy (CFO,
Excelacom) and Fig8.3 shows the reply from Mr SenthilKumar on the reminder mail.

50

Fig 8.2

Fig 8.3

51

9. REFERENCES

http://www.gartner.com/technology/home.jsp
http://www.gartner.com/technology/consulting/
http://www.gartner.com/technology/research.jsp
http://www.gartner.com/technology/analysts.jsp
https://www.linkedin.com/
http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/intranet/
https://quizlet.com/41075708/pathway-to-gold-flash-cards/
http://www.zoominfo.com/
http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/knowledge-base/

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