Gartner reviews

Where do I start. Fear based sales environment. Weekly pipeline reviews to go over a non transactional sale. (If I had nothing closing last week for the month its highly unlikely I found $100k in revenue this week). Constantly being threatened with write ups and being put on plan. Total time I've been in this position is about 8 months and I've seen about 15 people quit or being fired, including 2 directors fired and 1 quit. There's only 5 directors in total and about 40 reps in total... Unrealistic quotas. You inherit a territory that has non renewals, that lost revenue you're responsible for while also growing that territory as well. So let's make these numbers easy. Let's say someone had a territory in 2016, $100 worth of business only $25 resigned and $75 walked. 2017 you get this territory then your quota is $150. So now you're chasing that $75 in lost revenue plus $50 in new business. Because the team had such a bad 2016, 2017 is causing for a lot of chasing lost revenue and everyone seems under plan. What they've done to replace this lost revenue is increased the pricing astronomically every year and it's basically out priced many of the clients. "The process", management has come up with this 3 call sales cycle that they refer to as the process. This is their way to say they are managing. Any time you are not closing business it's because you're not following the process. If you are following the process and not closing it's because you're not meeting people enough face to face. This is very circumstantial as far as the territory you get. Because the territories are based on the letters of companies... If that doesn't make you run I don't know what else will. There's absolutely no way to establish realistic and comparable territories based on the starting letter of a companies name. The morale, no one is happy. And I don't mean that as one or two disgruntled sales reps. I mean the entire floor is miserable. They're constantly hiring. This place is a sinking ship, there was a hay day when reps were making multiple 6 figure commission checks in a year, but those days are long gone. But they will tell you that the average rep is making 180k. 2016, 2 reps making winners circle and the rookie of the year was under plan. 2015 almost half the department made winners circle. Do yourself a favor and contact reps before taking this position and pick their brain. Last but not least, Gartner is an amazing company. People in every other division seem happy. If you're interviewing for an AE role in research ignore this comment completely, but the best advice I can give anyone is stay away from the events team. I will also admit, this is my first review I have ever written, yelp, IMDB, Glassdoor, I am not one to write a review... That's how bad I felt it was. Good luck!

I 100% agree with many of the reviews that cite a culture of deceit, dwindling opportunities, and poor leadership as reasons to avoid this channel/role at Gartner. I’d like to add my thoughts based on my experience during my 24+ months in the role Culture of Deception – Gartner’s #1 core value is integrity yet there are countless examples of the company and its leadership being less than honest. One primary example includes systemic deception of clients and prospects by sales reps and area managers. I have witnessed countless instances of sales reps and sales leadership flat out lying in order to “create urgency” and/or increase their numbers. False deadlines and inflated prices are commonplace and encouraged by area managers; it’s their only tool to get people to buy. Most AE’s don’t seem too concerned with this level of dishonesty. A large majority are fresh college grads so either they have been convinced by management that this is just the way business gets done, or they are more concerned with making money and not rocking the boat. Either way, you still compete against them so if you do not participate, you are at a disadvantage. Secondly, and perhaps more discouraging, is the deception of employees by Gartner. This is done through half-truths, misrepresentation of facts, and other subtle yet nefarious ways they take advantage of and manipulate people. One example that on the surface seems benign, but I believe has a serious negative impact on morale and employee retention, is the way management does recognition. If a deal comes in, it’s because the AE’s “limitless mindset”, “urgency” and “trusted business advisor” relationship that they were able to magically overcome all the obstacles. The reality is that it’s often just a matter of luck and timing - which is great if you are lucky or have friends in management who can make you lucky. But when you don’t get the good hops and start to realize the reality of this job (i.e. the SMB market is saturated and there is little opportunity to sell new business), you start to question your own abilities. If everyone else is getting all these great deals, what’s wrong with me? Am I not good at this? Turns out it’s just all smoke and mirrors and once people see that, they either fight like hell to get out of SMB or they quit. That’s why you will only find about 6 AE’s out of 200 on the HT side with more than 2 years of tenure. Finally, the deception of Gartner by employees. The best example of this is when AE’s feel the need to falsify opportunities or waste time talking to companies that could/should NEVER buy just to meet certain activity metrics. Reason being is that if you do not meet the metrics or if you express any level of concern (about how realistic the numbers are, for example) or frustration (about the quality of opportunities) you will be put on a performance plan. So AE’s understandably feel the need to misrepresent opportunities just to stay out of trouble in hopes of lasting two years, getting some timely bounces to go their way, and then getting the heck out of SMB. Poor Leadership – There are issues here, but I’m not going to spend a lot of time discussing them. At a high level, I see the issues as shortsighted hiring practices and a disconnect or lack of understanding between the product/pricing teams and sales leadership and the people they are trying to sell to. There is also a massive talent gap at mid-lower levels of management, since it’s made up exclusively of kids who are only a few years removed from college and most likely have never worked anywhere else and certainly have not managed a team. Yet that is who will be directly responsible for you, your development, your earnings, and your career if you come on as an SMB AE. Think about that. A 24 year old can make decisions about what prospects you get, what accounts you get, what (if any) opportunities you get exposed to, whether or not you get put on a performance plan, what your end of year evaluation is (getting anything less than an “S” essentially stalls your career for at least 6-12 months until your next review when, hopefully you get an “S”), etc. etc. I’m not an ageist – there are plenty of capable 24 year olds. But when the “culture” you’ve created more closely resembles a fraternity house rather than a world-class company, I’m not willing to bet my career that I’ll have a good leader to guide and support me. Lack of Opportunity They will try to convince you that there is limitless opportunity and that you are the sole factor determining your success. This is, in part, true. Certainly you control the amount of effort you put in, but what you do not control is basically EVERYTHING ELSE. For starters, you do not control anything about your book of business, your manager, or your prospecting territory. That’s like putting someone in charge of baking a delicious cake, but not allowing them to choose the ingredients. You also do not control when your clients get acquired (which is often their goal and what we are helping them to achieve), go bankrupt, stop receiving value and decide to not pay, etc. All of these examples are common (myself and many others have had one, if not all of these happen at least once) and in every one of them, the AE takes the hit in terms of metrics AND pay. Yes, Gartner will take thousands of dollars back from AE’s if/when any of those things happen, so even if you sell a deal and get paid on it you could end up returning that money many months later for any number of reasons - none of which can you control. Also, prospecting territories are incredibly stale and have been hammered repeatedly by previous reps. And they are shrinking so that further limits your opportunities. If you happen to hit Winners Circle, you will be rewarded the following year with a significantly higher quota with the same – if not smaller – territory and book of business. But hey, all you need is the “Gartner Growth Mindset” and people will be lining up to buy from you…..right? Wrong. Have you noticed all the reviews that tout “hard work” and “you get out of it what you put in, so it’s not for everyone”? Those are from the recruiters, not anyone who has actually been in the role for more than 6 months. Don’t be fooled.