Like most of the people on the floor there is a lot of negative feeling around the role of a Client Partner. Our Mission Statement "My role is to ensure the value Clients receive is 10 times their investment"....What is missing off the end is "unless you aren't hitting your metrics". If you are not achieving your numbers there is constant pressure to keep phoning clients and I would go as far as to say harass them, it is embarrassing.
The Company is 100% Sale focused, if you are comfortable with that then you will be able to deal with the drive within Gartner. The Sales force are treated as Rockstars and everyone else? Well, you are here to support them and ensure their success. Yes, I understand that Sales is a vitally important aspect of any company, but, you have to show other staff that what they do is important too! I have been in Gartner for multiple years hearing how well Gartner is doing, double digit growth for 15+ quarters in a row etc etc… Begs the question why everyone on the floor feels that they are not seeing a penny of that extra revenue returned to our business unit doesn’t it?
If you are happy with the role and no promotional opportunities then again, you will be welcomed. Promotions are a title change, doing the same job for very little extra, when you voice frustration of this you are asked if you have considered another role within Gartner to move across to….. Most of the time this would be another service role which is essentially the same role as a Client Partner (give or take a few variances). Where are the career opportunities within the Client Partner Group? The only promotions that we seem to hear about are people within management / senior management moving further up.
Gartner has what they call the Gartner Mindset which means if you overcome challenges, are dedicated, have integrity then you will advance within the company. There is however a distinct smell of one additional item on this list being a clique, you have to be within this clique before you will be considered and if you are, then it doesn’t matter if someone has more experience then you, you will get the promotion. I suppose I should also add at this stage the saying “It’s not about the metrics” which you will hear a lot in this role. The fact is that it IS about the metrics and if you aren’t achieving them, even if you can explain the reason to the point that everyone agrees with you, you are going to be told you are not doing good enough.
You will also be tasked with explaining your commission structure to your account partners, making them understand why it is important, and harassing them too to make sure you earn anywhere close to your OTE’s. This sort of message should be filtered down from the top, not from the bottom up. Reason behind this…. Sales are not incentivized or measured on our one commission metric so good luck trying to get them to understand it! It has been this way for 2 years now and I can say with 100% confidence not one of my Account Partners understand it, care about it or bother with it. They are measured to bring in NCVI (quite rightly so) so why are we being pulled in a totally different direction, and being told it’s on you to deliver the message?
Final note, whatever recruiters tell you will be your earnings in this role, take off at least 5,000 and then you are closer to reality. This has been raised to senior management and continues to happen with new hires, so be warned. The age on the floor has also continued to drop along with (I assume) the requirements, a lot are now straight out of university and feel like this is so they don’t know any better and can be shaped into the delusion that they are making a difference.
If you are new out of University it is a solid job to start you on your path but after (being generous here) 6 months you will start looking for your next opportunity.
