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Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 5 PORT GROUP
Buyer A
You are the Director of Network Support for Port Group, a company with offices in New
York, London, San Francisco, and your city. The company is a commercial real estate
owner, property manager, and lender – each of these divisions has its own director who
reports to the Chief Operating Officer. Each year, the company creates an investment fund
for qualified investors and then uses that to acquire commercial, industrial, or multi-family
real estate, or to loan to others who want to buy real estate. The company owns just over
200 properties.
The rep had an appointment with the CIO but he had an emergency appendectomy
yesterday so you are covering his appointments. There is also a Director of Cyber
Security, a Data Manager, and a Director of Systems, all of whom report to the CIO. You
are the most senior of the team.
The company is working to grow significantly over the next three years, and may go
international. You know that the team has been tasked with looking ahead to the
technology needs, what needs to be improved, what can wait, etc. There’s been discussion
over whether to bring in a consultant to help with the planning process, but budgets are
tight.
Obviously, no decision will be made today. In fact, you expect any decision to involve the
full team. You are an expressive.
1. Budgets are tight – not sure where we can get money for this. (One possibility
would be using the cost optimization tool, which might identify possible savings
but no guarantee.)
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 5 PORT GROUP
Buyer B
You are the CIO of Port Group, a company with offices in New York, London, San
Francisco, and your city. The company is a commercial real estate owner, property
manager, and lender – each of these divisions has its own director who reports to the Chief
Operating Officer. Each year, the company creates an investment fund for qualified
investors and then uses that to acquire commercial, industrial, or multi-family real estate,
or to loan to others who want to buy real estate. The company owns just over 200
properties.
The CIO is a new position. In the past, each of the three divisions had its own IT director
who handled IT specific to that division. The only central IT operation was a group that
managed the network and the company’s overall financial system – you directed that
group and were promoted to CIO at the start of the year. As a result of each division
operating more or less independently, there’s a lot of IT that doesn’t integrate well. The
company has grown too large for that to continue. You need to re-organize and integrate
the IT team, as well as set a strategic plan for integration the IT systems. Any decision you
make on consulting services will have to involve the COO and CFO, as your budget isn’t
entirely set yet.
Objections:
1. I need to consider all possibilities – Forester, Accenture, etc. – so I’m going to
look around.
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 6 JAMES MANUFACTURING
Buyer A
Your company manufactures custom metal components that other companies design into
their own products. Examples include the case used to make the milkshake machines used
at McDonald’s restaurants and the metal frames used in making airplane seating. The
company serves a three-state area. It was just taken over by the third generation of the
James family, and the new president wants to grow the business aggressively. You have an
appointment with the Gartner rep, who called and said that Gartner could help your
company grow.
While the president has plans to grow aggressively, most of these plans involve getting
new manufacturing equipment that will enable the company to offer more products to
more clients. There are also plans to grow marketing, with a stronger digital marketing
platform and the head of marketing will likely make that decision. There hasn’t been much
talk of growing the IT infrastructure or what the implications that the growth will have on
IT. You are most concerned about the antiquated ERP system that you use to manage
inventory, job costing, and the like. The functionality is poor and it doesn’t integrate with
the computer-based engineering product that your engineers use to design the products.
You are an amiable.
1. I don’t know if the president or any of the other senior leaders have any appetite
for IT spending, much less spending on IT consulting services.
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 6 JAMES MANUFACTURING
Buyer B
Your company manufactures custom metal components that other companies design into
their own products. Examples include the case used to make the milkshake machines used
at McDonald’s restaurants and the metal frames used in making airplane seating. The
company serves a three-state area. It was just taken over by the third generation of the
James family, and the new president wants to grow the business aggressively. You have an
appointment with the Gartner rep, who called and said that Gartner could help your
company grow.
You are an amiable. You’ve been with the company for a very long time, long enough to
have known the president (who is now 36 years old) some twenty years. You are afraid
that the president views you as being out of date and possibly incapable of handling the
growth, even though you’re only ten years older. So one of your objections will relate to
fear of being viewed as incapable, thus needing a consultant. The solution should
ultimately be access to the senior consultant but let the rep figure it out. If the rep doesn’t,
then ask what services they provide to help CIOs stay on top of things.
1. I don’t think I need this help. (If probed, say it doesn’t look good – I should be
able to do this myself.)
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 7 FUTURIS DESIGN
Buyer A
You are the CIO of Futuris Design, and your little brother/sister was a friend of the
Gartner rep in college but don’t bring that up. Futuris Design makes commercial display
systems used in showrooms and trade shows. There are approximately 50 projects that are
“live” at any particular time. These projects generally last between two weeks and three
months, with shorter projects being trade show booth designs and longer projects going
into commercial showrooms. The projects require several meetings with clients, suppliers,
and sometimes municipal building inspectors. The president wishes to increase the number
of projects that the company can handle without additional personnel. The company
president introduced you to the Gartner rep, said they met at a charity golf event, and that
it might be a good idea to talk with them.
You are an expressive and you are young for being a CIO. You’re very proud of the fact
that you are the CIO at such an early age and you are very ambitious. In this scenario, you
are pretty satisfied with the way things are going and what you’ve accomplished, and you
hope to be moving on at some point in the future (say a year or two) to a bigger company
and more responsibility. If the rep brings up the access to a senior analyst, ask questions
like “What’s that mean?” and “What does that person do?” Your thinking is that you might
learn something that can help you advance your career.
If there’s a weak spot in your company’s IT systems, it’s in your people. They really aren’t
very innovative. You know that to move on to the next place, you need some good
showcase actions that you can point to and show others what a great CIO you are.
Objections:
1. At the beginning, say something like, “I’m not really sure why we’re meeting and
I’m pretty busy. Why don’t you leave your materials and I’ll let you know if there’s
an interest?”
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 7 FUTURIS DESIGN
You are the CIO of Futuris Design, and your little brother/sister was a friend of the
Gartner rep in college but don’t bring that up. Futuris Design makes commercial display
systems used in showrooms and trade shows. There are approximately 50 projects that are
“live” at any particular time. These projects generally last between two weeks and three
months, with shorter projects being trade show booth designs and longer projects going
into commercial showrooms. The projects require several meetings with clients, suppliers,
and sometimes municipal building inspectors. The president wishes to increase the number
of projects that the company can handle without additional personnel. The company
president introduced you to the Gartner rep, said they met at a charity golf event, and that
it might be a good idea to talk with them.
You are a driver and you’ve been with the company for seven years. You were first hired
to manage the IT systems supporting the HR, accounting and marketing systems, then
were promoted to CIO three years ago. The president is new to the company, having just
joined three months back from a competitor. You don’t think the new president likes you
very much and you see this sales call as an example of the fact that the president doesn’t
respect you because you’ve said you don’t think IT is the technology that will enable the
handling of more projects without hiring more personnel. But to be fair, you’re really not
an expert in operations systems – those systems involved in designing and building the
displays.
Objections:
1. This is a waste of time. (Say at the start – if probed, say, “This is all because the
president thinks IT is how we can grow the company. What we need is another
designer and more efficient manufacturing.”) NOTE: This objection is key. If the
rep can at least get you to think that better IT could improve overall firm
productivity, then you’ll consider Gartner.
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 8 MORTAR
Buyer A
You are the CIO of Mortar, an industrial services company. Jokingly, the company says it
does everything, even mow the grass, but that's not far off. Mortar used Gartner until two
years ago, when a new CIO came in and cancelled the contract. You are the new CIO,
having replaced the one who cancelled the agreement, and accepted an appointment with
Gartner. Mortar operates in a very difficult market. Competition is stiff, and finding ways
to be innovative to be worth premium prices is hard. You came to Mortar from a
competitor that is likely to go out of business.
Mortar is a huge company with facilities up and down the Atlantic coast. The biggest
challenge is managing labor costs because that is the most variable and the difference in
making a profit on a contract or losing money on a contract. The company provides highly
skilled labor in some instances and manual laborers in others and uses Salesforce to
manage its labor pool, bringing in workers as needed on various projects. Probably 60% of
the field workforce is contract laborers, meaning they aren’t employees and are hired as
1099 workers. You are under significant pressure to provide systems that help manage
costs, both your own and the company’s costs by providing better systems that help
reduce labor costs through better planning and management.
Objections:
1. Managing costs is my number one objective so I can’t really spend money on this.
(Use this early and if the rep focuses on the cost optimization tool, say, “That’s
nice but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about.” Then if probed, you can go into
the need to help the company reduce operating costs, or possibly increase the
number of customers served without adding operating costs.)
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 8 MORTAR
Buyer B
You are the CIO of Mortar, an industrial services company. Jokingly, the company says it
does everything, even mow the grass, but that's not far off. Mortar used Gartner until two
years ago, when a new CIO came in and cancelled the contract. You are the new CIO, and
accepted an appointment with Gartner. Mortar operates in a very difficult market.
Competition is stiff, and finding ways to be innovative to be worth premium prices is
hard. You came to Mortar from a competitor that is likely to go out of business.
The CEO of Mortar plans to grow by acquiring customers from companies like your
former employer when they go out of business. There are also a couple of smaller
companies in the Midwest that may be purchased – well-run companies that are competing
well. You are under pressure for several reasons: how can you contribute to being
innovative so that Mortar can retain customers yet earn a premium price, and how will you
reduce operating costs while integrating these acquisitions? You are an amiable, and you
feel overwhelmed. Your biggest fear is that the president is going to ask you to lay off
some employees. You manage a staff of 12 people and your overall budget is $3.5m
including personnel.
Objections:
1. You want me to spend money on this when I have no budget for new software?
I’m worried about price increases from vendors and how I’ll pay for them!
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 9 Financial Recovery Assets (FRA)
Buyer A
You are the CIO for Financial Recovery Assets (FRA), a debt collection company with
about 200 employees. You called Gartner after being told of their services by a friend.
FRA enjoyed great growth for the first four years of existence, but growth has stalled
recently. The economy has been good, so bad debt portfolios are harder to come by.
With stalled growth, the company is looking to manage costs well in order to grow the
bottom line. You’ve been ordered to reduce costs 10% this year and 10% next year. At the
same time, you know that it is time to make some major hardware replacements, if not this
year, then next.
You are an expressive. You don’t want to have to lay people off.
In addition to Gartner, you also called Forrester and have an appointment with them next
week. You have the budget for this, if you can find a way to reduce costs by spending this
money. Your IT budget is $1.5 million.
Objections:
1. What happens if after a year, costs haven’t been reduced? Money back guarantee,
right?
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 9 Financial Recovery Assets (FRA)
Buyer B
You are the CIO for Financial Recovery Assets (FRA), a debt collection company with
about 200 employees. You called Gartner after being told of their services by a friend.
FRA enjoyed great growth for the first four years of existence, but growth has stalled
recently. The economy has been good, so bad debt portfolios are harder to come by.
The company has never had a marketing department or salesperson because their business
model didn’t require it. Their revenue is whatever people pay on their debt. But with the
lack of growth, the owners of the company (a pair of sorority sisters) decided to hire a
Chief Marketing Officer and tasked him with the goal of finding new markets based on the
data collected as they collect debt. FRA has a portfolio of people with a great deal of
information about them – how can that be turned into cash?
The CMO has a lot of ideas – good ones – and a budget for IT to support those ideas. But
some of the IT systems he wants to purchase for marketing purposes will overlap things
you already have, and that is a waste of money. However, the owners are convinced that
he knows what he’s talking about. What you would like is for an objective third-party who
could help you and the CMO get on the same page, whatever that page is, and do the best
for the company. You are an analytical.
Objections
1. I have some money I can spend but not enough to cover the full cost. What can
you do for $25,000? (Note, if probed, the right answer is to get the CMO involved
and share the cost – but don’t offer that up.)
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 10 AVIDYNE
Buyer A
AviDyne is a communications engineering company that manufactures custom
communications systems for use in global shipping. Essentially, the company takes a ship
and rebuilds the communications systems, as it specializes in refurbishing ships. The
communications systems include onboard communications as well as ship-to-shore. You
support about 50 engineers who design and execute the projects. You met the Gartner rep
at a trade show in Brussels about two months ago and scheduled an appointment.
Your role is IT Director. You have two managers reporting to you, one who manages the
ERP system and the other who manages the network, which includes cybersecurity. After
you met the Gartner rep in Brussels, your company had a cyber breach and your system
was held for ransom. You had to pay 3 bitcoins ($35,000 at the time) to get access back to
your systems. The owners of the company realized that the old IT systems were in need of
significant updating, and they’ve tasked you with hiring the company’s first information
security officer and a small (2 more people) support staff. You really don’t know much
about cybersecurity.
You’re a driver. You’ve been with the company for most of your career. The security
breach was a real blow to your ego and you don’t want anything like it to ever happen
again.
Objections:
1. Why don’t I just use an IT staffing company to help me find the right person? (Use
this at the beginning of the Needs ID portion - the best answer is that you need
more than a person, you also need the right systems, and that includes upgrading
your engineering and ERP systems but let the rep come up with that.)
Gartner Buyer Scenario
Situation 10 AVIDYNE
Buyer B
AviDyne is a communications engineering company that manufactures custom
communications systems for use in global shipping. Essentially, the company takes a ship
and rebuilds the communications systems, as it specializes in refurbishing ships. The
communications systems include onboard communications as well as ship-to-shore. You
support about 50 engineers that design and implement the projects. You met the Gartner
rep at a trade show in Brussels about two months ago and scheduled an appointment.
The new Panamax ships (these new ships are larger than aircraft carriers) are causing a
trickle-down effect in shipping, meaning that as these new ships are brought into service,
older ships are getting sold and moving down the food chain. And as that happens, a lot of
times they are getting overhauled, which is great opportunity for AviDyne. As a result, the
owners are willing to invest in upgrading the engineering systems in order to improve
productivity. One of the problems with the old system is that it is on-premise, meaning it is
installed on your servers. Every time there is an upgrade, you have to come in over the
weekend and load the new software. Plus, each upgrade costs money and you don’t
always buy them so your company hasn’t purchased the last three upgrades. There are
some bugs and glitches that impact productivity, which the owners no longer want to put
up with given the growth and need for better productivity. So you need to get a new
engineering system and migrate to the cloud, and you’d like to plan a complete migration
to the cloud for all of your IT systems – that’s the key to this. Migrating one system is
probably not a big deal – it’s knowing what to replace in what order and why that you
really need help with. You are a driver.
Objections:
1. Speed – I’ve been charged to get this done quickly and you will just slow me down
with all the typical consultant bill-by-the-hour taking forever to get anything done.
Heck, it took two months just to get this meeting. (Actually, that’s partly your fault
because you were out for foot surgery for three weeks. You can admit that but still
worry about the time it takes to get things done.)
