Vendor sales reps should ask which analysts are advisors on deals [Vendor Sales]

icon-dollar-euro.jpgThe IT advisory analysts (e.g., AMR, Forrester and Ovum) have their fingerprints all over the IT and telecommunications acquisition projects of large and some mid-size enterprises. While the participation of the analysts is not meant to be a secret, sales representatives of tech vendors are often unaware of their influence behind the scenes. This can be a fatal flaw in a sales process, since an analyst can eliminate a vendor from a sales opportunity with a single comment. To bypass this problem, vendor sales representatives need to ask prospects a few simple questions during the qualification phase as well as throughout the sales cycle. […]