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Tag Archives | Jonathon Gordon

[GUEST POST] The secret trick to working with sales

By on Monday 12th December 2016 in AR, AR Best practices, Guest posts – Analysts 0

Working with sales is easy. Just think like a salesperson!

Working with sales should come naturally to a marketer once you get into the head of your sales colleagues.  More than once I have been accused by my colleagues of “sounding like a salesman”.  While not often meant as a compliment, that’s how I take it.   If truth be told, I have spent a few of my years in the Sales trenches and believe that’s what gives me a unique perspective on working with sales.

Sales incentives, illustration for blog post by Jonathon Gordon / EMI on the IIAR website

Just like in any relationship, to really get to know someone, you need to understand what makes a person tick.  The thing I really loved about being in sales, is that in most cases, it’s easy to know what you should be doing and how it’s measured.  Mostly it’s about the target.  OK, there may be other KPIs thrown in for flavor, but it’s the target that really matters.  That’s pretty much what makes sales people click and how to get there is what keeps them awake at night.  The key to working with sales is helping them reach and pass that target, quarter after quarter, year after year.  Do this, and they will always be there for you. Continue Reading →

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[GUEST POST] Analysts’ Dirty Little Secrets

By on Sunday 24th August 2014 in AR, AR debates, EMI, ethics, Gartner, Gartner Magic Quadrant, Guest posts – Analysts, Netscout 3

The Gartner Godfather, illustration from the 1972 movie for a blog post by Jonathon Gordon / EMI on Gartner on the IIAR websiteNetScout is crying foul against Gartner. The NetScout lawsuit against Gartner has raised the ‘pay-for-play’ specter once again. Whether this is a case of a vendor just peeved at their spot on the GMQ or they have a legitimate grievance, I am not in a position to judge Whether NetScout will be successful with their legal foray is for the lawyers and judges to say.

However, the latest outcry against Gartner should ring warning bells for the mega-analyst firm and others too. The fact that ‘pay-for-play’ has once again raised its ugly head is symptomatic of the lack of regulation and transparency in the Industry Analyst Business.

The lawsuit calls for ‘structural reforms’ similar to those imposed on the financial system in order to ‘remove the conflicts of interest and unfair and deceptive business practices’. Incidentally, this is a topic that has been discussed on this blog before. Continue Reading →

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[GUEST POST] Analyst value does not equal word count

By on Saturday 14th June 2014 in AR, AR debates, Guest Posts, Guest posts – Analysts 0

Click to tweet - illustration on post by Jonathon Gordon / EMI on the IIAR blogYesterday I was reading a thread (here) on the IIAR (Institute of Industry Analyst Relations) LinkedIn group regarding Analysts’ adoption/use of social media and it got me to thinking.. It was claimed that the CIO did not see social media as an ‘appropriate source’ of analyst information. Maybe it’s because the analysts themselves have conditioned their customers to think that value=word count? As someone who still writes the occasional piece of copy, I can agree that it is much harder to write short than it is to ramble on. How can you possibly distill the core value of a 25 page whitepaper into a tweet of 140 chars? Some analysts firms regularly produce reports in excess of 100-150 pages, where is the value in that? Does the same customer then have to buy consulting hours so the analyst can explain the top 5 points of the report or the key takeaways? Some of you will be screaming, there’s an executive summary, you can read only that! My point is, you can write only that!
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[GUEST POST] #Visionaries, #Disruptors and Complete Lunatics

By on Thursday 12th June 2014 in AR, AR Best practices, EMI, Gartner, Gartner Magic Quadrant, Guest Posts, Guest posts – Analysts 0

Recently, I have been taking an interest in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, trying to understand how helpful the model is and what role it plays. I looked at a bunch of these industry super models and one thing in particular caught my eye, or rather something that didn’t appear to be there. That something was a little dot in the far bottom right hand corner of the bottom right hand quadrant, the one Gartner calls ‘Visionaries’.

If you want a quick verification without doing all the hard work, just Google Gartner magic quadrant and take look at the image tag. Low and behold, you should get something like this and the pattern will become clear … Continue Reading →

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