Gartner reviews

Here is a fair warning before you accept the job offer. I'll give it to you straight. The role of a Client Partner is simply, and at most, the individual responsible for delivering click bait. You are tasked with typically a large territory owned by several Account Managers (around 8-12 while I was around) who 'share' their book of business with you (typically around 250 contacts). The job entitles you, as the Client Partner, to reach out to the heads of these businesses (in the HR realm, you're looking at the Chief Human Resources Officer, or their leadership teams) to hold 'value calls' based on calculated intervals prior to their subscription renewal. You act as essentially the middle person who plays a support type role to make sure that clients are happy with their expensive subscription. Day in and day out, you are measured on if clients clicked on a link that you've sent them (which indicates that they may have read the research), how many times they've been on the website to search utilizing self help, if you've showed them something new during a call, etc. Really, your job is to make sure they use their subscription, so day in and day out you're chasing people who are very busy, trying to get a phone call in, or sending out personalized e-mails to 'trick' them into clicking on your link, so you can meet your metrics! To be fair, I thought it would be a fun job when I was recruited away from an established career and great organization. Reflecting back on it now, it was a great learning experience on how this organization does not stay true to their words in being a people company, and a great opportunity to write a review for anyone who is thinking about joining. Gartner preaches 'mission over metrics', however it's a really heavily metrics based company where if you meet 9/10 metrics, they will still let you go despite all other qualities or achievements. Good luck if you have a new manager, the top down approach with management will dictate your day to day, which typically consists of scheduling 10-20 calls (most of which go unanswered), cold calling, and making sure clients click on links! You'll feel the pressure of micromanagement because of the top down approach. From my professional experience and seeing the organizational structure, it doesn't surprise me that there were many lay-offs during this pandemic. Middle management and front line managers are saturated in this organization, so much that the title of 'manager' may even be diluted, so I'm predicting there may be additional lay-offs to trim the fat unfortunately. I'll summarize a few key takeaways here: - Your job is to deliver 'value' in the form of click bait - You'll partner with some awesome, and some horrible Account Managers - If you have clients in other countries, good luck have fun with setting meetings during their working hours (management still expects you to reach out to them!) - Salary is good, if you're starting off. Client Partners make around $65,000, not bad for click bait, but attrition is very very high, and the job is risky in terms of your expected metrics, and potential lay-offs. - The job satisfaction level is low, because you're in a never ending cycle of a push-pull relationship with internal stakeholders and every day you hope someone clicks your link. Hope this helps!

The quick summary: - Management is extremely out of touch - Success metrics will eat you up alive, even as a top performer - Success and satisfaction is largely dependent on the luck of your territory assignment - No professional development despite promises, limited career growth opportunities both vertically and laterally - Spend more time dealing with internal issues rather than focusing on client work --- The CP organization in the Arlington office is extremely troubled. Turnover is high with most new hires out once the yearly bonus payout is complete. Management seems to almost welcome the turnover as any concerns voiced are waved away and not addressed. The Gartner acquisition of CEB resulted in them retrofitting their service delivery model onto CEB's product. It is simply not working as clients are paying more but only get more mandatory phone calls. Every review states this, even the reviews I read coming into the company, but it is extremely metrics-focused. You'll be measured mainly on how many calls you complete per client contract year and if you can keep them "engaged" (if you're lucky, they will engage themselves). It sounds easy enough to complete client calls, but the inclusive process of inputting it into Gartner's pseudo-CRM correctly so it registers into your metrics can often take anywhere from 10-20 minutes PER call when each call itself normally 30-minutes. You will often hear CPs talk about how they have upwards of 6 calls a day (oftentimes back to back), but even that is not enough as the territories are way too big. There is no team consistently hitting management's golden metric of bimonthly calls with 80% of your territory due to the sheer size of everything we are managing. Management will blame this on your lack of effort, but the majority of them did not come from a CP role. With all the work that your engaged clients and account partners thrust on you, you won't have the capacity to even think about closing that gap of blackhole clients. Success in this role is largely dependent on your luck with your initial team placement. You cannot request to join another team or leave your team unless there is a specific "business need" that requires you to move. The luck factor comes into play as each team supports a different functional product (Legal, Finance, HR, IT, etc.), and the leadership at the product level is wildly different across each product. If you get placed into a well-run product, you will have a much smoother experience as everything from research, advisory, and service delivery runs like a well-oiled machine. There are several teams that are known for having easier clients due to their function. Everyone is doing the exact same things across all teams, but expect to see a disproportionate amount of praise coming for associates on those teams for "fast starts" and "immediate success in role". Management is wildly variable as well. There is a large focus on management "coaching". 90% of managers in the Arlington office were not previous CPs, haven't been on the phone in years, and just ask you "What could you be doing differently to get this black hole client to speak to you? Have you tried sending content? Or emailing their admin?" ad nauseam. They are beginning to promote CPs to management roles, but this has been slow since management roles are already filled and set. Except for one, CP teams are not growing, and management roles only open up as backfill. Internal movement is encouraged though, but you'll either have to go into a sales role or take a pay cut. Since you will be the main point of contact for your clients, you will also bear the brunt of any negative feedback received, none of which you yourself can act upon. For example, many clients will tell you that research is not relevant or tactical enough for what they are looking for. If you can even figure out who to send that feedback to internally, you'll never see that feedback acknowledged. The next time you talk to that client, they're in a bad mood seeing as how nothing has changed as you clearly must not have done your job. A common thread across all CPs is the lack of ability to take ownership in your success and work. The CP is part of a three-person support team, consisting of CP, AE, and Executive Advisor (think an SME). The AEs go through a Sales Academy that is "highly rigorous", but so many come out of it knowing next to nothing about the CP role and about Gartner services. As a result, AEs will speak to your client, hear a complaint, and then falsely promise them a service that isn't provided. As the CP, you'll have to fall on the sword and break the news to them. You'll constantly hear excuses from AEs about why they don't know things and how new they are, so don't expect them to ever become competent without their CPs taking extra time to teach. It's a double-edged sword as tenured AEs that are competent constantly try to undermine you. There is no role clarity across the account team, both internally and with clients. You will often hear about how we have 3 different people trying to do the same job with clients, which is confusing. Should client attrition progress at the current rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the CP experiment in Arlington is cut in 2 years.