Gartner Sales Marketing Conference Us Research Note Hype Cycle CRM Sales 2018

Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2017
Published: 18 July 2017 ID: G00313776
Analyst(s): Melissa A. Hilbert, Tad Travis
Organizations typically place heavy emphasis on increasing operational

efficiency and effectiveness by optimizing revenue or profitability. To improve
sales execution, application leaders supporting sales technologies should
evaluate the emerging and maturing technologies in this Hype Cycle.
Table of Contents
Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 3
What You Need to Know.................................................................................................................. 3
The Hype Cycle................................................................................................................................ 3
The Priority Matrix.............................................................................................................................4
Off the Hype Cycle........................................................................................................................... 6
On the Rise...................................................................................................................................... 6
IoT for CRM Sales...................................................................................................................... 6
Sales Enablement Platforms....................................................................................................... 7
Virtual Digital Sales Assistant (VDSA).......................................................................................... 9
Quota Planning.........................................................................................................................10
Visual Configuration.................................................................................................................. 11
Voice-Driven Sales Apps...........................................................................................................12
At the Peak.....................................................................................................................................13
MDM and Social Data...............................................................................................................13
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)..............................................................................................15
Customer Success Management for CRM................................................................................16
Recurring Revenue Management..............................................................................................17
Voice of the Customer.............................................................................................................. 19
Mobile Sales Productivity.......................................................................................................... 20
Predictive B2B Marketing Analytics...........................................................................................21
Sales Predictive Analytics......................................................................................................... 23
Sliding Into the Trough.................................................................................................................... 25
Sales Coaching Solutions......................................................................................................... 25
Social for Sales.........................................................................................................................26
Sales Acceleration.................................................................................................................... 28
Video Technology for Sales....................................................................................................... 29
Sales Performance Management.............................................................................................. 30
Sales Analytics......................................................................................................................... 31
Climbing the Slope......................................................................................................................... 33
Territory Planning...................................................................................................................... 33
Price Optimization and Management for B2B........................................................................... 34
CPQ Application Suites.............................................................................................................35
MDM of Customer Data............................................................................................................36
Partner Relationship Management (PRM)..................................................................................38
Business Information Services for Sales....................................................................................39
Sales Training Solutions............................................................................................................ 40
Sales Contract Management.................................................................................................... 42
Entering the Plateau....................................................................................................................... 43
Lead Management................................................................................................................... 43
Digital Content Management for Sales...................................................................................... 45
Appendixes.................................................................................................................................... 46
Hype Cycle Phases, Benefit Ratings and Maturity Levels.......................................................... 48
Gartner Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................... 49
List of Tables
Table 1. Hype Cycle Phases................................................................................................................. 48

Table 2. Benefit Ratings........................................................................................................................ 48
Table 3. Maturity Levels........................................................................................................................ 49
List of Figures
Figure 1. Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2017.............................................................................................4

Figure 2. Priority Matrix for CRM Sales, 2017......................................................................................... 5
Figure 3. Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2016...........................................................................................47
Page 2 of 50 Gartner, Inc. | G00313776

Analysis
What You Need to Know
Application leaders focused on CRM innovation and competitive differentiation will find that CRM
sales applications are providing new capabilities to improve the user experience, productivity and
insights. New technologies using predictive and machine-learning techniques are advancing, while
existing capabilities continue to mature via SaaS applications and mobile devices.
Predictive and prescriptive technologies such as lead scoring with next-best action capability,
voice-driven bots and machine-learning algorithms are available to help drive optimization and
improve sales productivity. In addition, CRM and sales performance management continue to
improve as these technologies provide faster data-driven analytical insights.
Application leaders supporting sales organizations should review all the technologies profiled in this
Hype Cycle to understand the risks and benefits of each, as they seek to improve differentiation,
innovate, increase productivity and optimize processes.
The Hype Cycle

This Hype Cycle will help application leaders supporting sales organizations assess the relative
maturity and business impact of sales technologies. Key drivers of technological developments on
this Hype Cycle are the user experience, platforms, process integration, mobile usage and
advanced analytics.
User experience design is the discipline of designing applications that marry device form factors to
what salespeople need in order to work efficiently. In this area, there are new entrants to the Hype
Cycle, such as sales enablement platforms and virtual digital sales assistants, alongside established
entries such as video technology for sales and mobile sales productivity technology. The value of
mobility continues to grow because it is an essential foundation of a good user experience. Mobile
apps enable salespeople to use capabilities when and where they most need them — that is, when
they are on the move.
Advanced analytics tools enable application leaders to boost revenue or profitability by using, for
example, algorithm-driven solutions for lead scoring, forecast scoring, next best action for
opportunities, and price optimization. Sales performance management (SPM) solutions, such as
those for incentive compensation, territory planning and quota planning, can use advanced
techniques, such as predictive and prescriptive analysis, to optimize the design and performance of
compensation plans and processes. SPM and sales force automation (SFA) solutions remain tightly
integrated, which leads to better sales results, more efficient operational processes and higher end-
user satisfaction rates.
Application leaders supporting sales organizations will find value in maturing technologies,
especially lead management, partner relationship management (PRM), sales analytics, sales training
solutions and digital content management for sales. These technologies have gained wide usage
and adoption, and those that have just entered the Plateau of Productivity, in particular, are still
Gartner, Inc. | G00313776 Page 3 of 50

innovative. Application leaders should use these technologies to gain a competitive advantage by
applying various combinations of mobile usage, new capabilities and fresh insights gained from the
use of advanced analytic techniques.
Figure 1. Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2017
Source: Gartner (July 2017)
The Priority Matrix

Gartner expects several CRM sales technologies to achieve mainstream adoption over the next two
years. They include those for configure, price and quote (CPQ) application suites, digital content
management for sales, lead management and PRM. Having been on the market for more than 10
years, these technologies all have mature capabilities and most have achieved 20% to 50% market
adoption. They are unlikely to reveal innovative, market-changing functional capabilities to automate
sales processes that have yet to be automated. Rather than lead to new process automation, they
are likely to be subject to moves in one or other of two directions:
■ Vendors may complement them with well-established capabilities. For example, Marketo, a
leading marketing automation vendor for lead management, released a native account-based

marketing module in late 2016, and acquired ToutApp in April 2017, thereby adding a sales
acceleration solution to its marketing offerings.
■ Some vendors may deepen their process automation with machine-learning technology. This
technology has already appeared in well-established markets like contract management and
proposal management. In the former case, Gartner is tracking vendors that use machine-
learning algorithms to build a composite picture of all products sold in a multisubsidiary
contract. The algorithms find and link assets that may be associated with different contract
records in different CRM systems. In the latter case, Gartner is tracking vendors that ingest
prospective customers' RFI documents and use machine-learning algorithms to find the best
answers to each RFI question.
In addition to consulting this Hype Cycle, application leaders should adopt the recommendations in
"Best Practices for Developing a Pace-Layered Application Strategy for Sales."
Figure 2. Priority Matrix for CRM Sales, 2017
benefit years to mainstream adoption

less than 2 years 2 to 5 years 5 to 10 years more than 10 years
transformational
high CPQ Application Suites Account-Based Marketing Customer Success

(ABM) Management for CRM
Digital Content
Management for Sales MDM of Customer Data IoT for CRM Sales
Lead Management Mobile Sales Productivity Quota Planning
Partner Relationship Predictive B2B Marketing Recurring Revenue
Management (PRM) Analytics Management
Price Optimization and Sales Performance
Management for B2B Management
Sales Acceleration Voice of the Customer
Sales Analytics
Sales Coaching Solutions
Sales Predictive Analytics
Sales Training Solutions
Visual Configuration
moderate Business Information Territory Planning Sales Enablement Video Technology for
Services for Sales Platforms Sales
Voice-Driven Sales Apps
Sales Contract Virtual Digital Sales
Management Assistant (VDSA)
low Social for Sales
As of July 2017 © 2017 Gartner, Inc.

Off the Hype Cycle
The following profiles have been removed from the Hype Cycle:
■ "Strategic account management" (due to lack of interest from application leaders, judging from
Gartner's client inquiry data).
■ "Cognitive expert advisors" (now renamed "voice-driven sales apps").
■ "Inside sales" (now renamed "sales acceleration").
■ "Sales appraisal and evaluation management" (because it has reached the Plateau of
Productivity).
■ "Sales objective and quota management" (which is now included in "SPM," as these
capabilities are generally purchased as part of SPM solutions).
■ "Gamification" (which is now included in "SPM," as this capability is generally purchased as
part of SPM solutions).
■ "Territory management" (which is now included in "SPM," as this capability is generally
purchased as part of SPM solutions).
■ "Sales ICM" (which is now included in "SPM," as this capability is included as a core element of
SPM solutions).
■ "Mobile sales force automation containers" (which, as a result of a shift in terminology, is now
included in "mobile sales productivity").
■ "Salesforce automation SaaS" (because it has reached the Plateau of Productivity).
■ "Proposal generation systems" (because it has reached the Plateau of Productivity).
On the Rise
IoT for CRM Sales

Analysis By: Tad Travis
Definition: The Internet of Things (IoT) comprises an ecosystem that includes things,
communications, applications and data analysis. Its uses range from transforming business
operations to new revenue generation. In sales processes, the IoT includes technology that
performs buying functions on behalf of customers, such as ordering technology embedded in
consumer devices and B2B applications, or sales agents that perform actions on behalf of sellers.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The market is still embryonic. IoT architectures are
still emerging; different applications and styles include the use of single instantiations of machines (a
virtual medical diagnostic engine) or multiple of such instantiations (self-driving cars). IoT will allow
computing to climb farther up the process chain and drive dialogue based on actual physical
product usage, serving to process sales more completely and hand the result to a human that can
close the sale. Consumers will respond variously to the strategy; some will find it more appealing to

interact with a machine than with a human, and others will essentially decline the machine-driven
interaction. In addition, likely, IoT agents will automatically connect buyers and sellers, bypassing
human interactions entirely. However, those that welcome such an interaction will find the best-
designed IoT agents capable of altering persona and style to match what seems most effective in
delivering the information (and is most likely to result in a sustainable sale).
User Advice: The earliest forms of IoT for sales will be B2B- and asset (physical product)-centric.
Application leaders will find that it is often linked with processes that are close to customer service,
like customer success program, product upgrades, spare parts sales, consumables, increase of
capacity (e.g., additional storage or solar panels or batteries) and service sales. In this manner, IoT
sales interactions will become a new sales channel that application leaders should start to evaluate
and support, particularly those working in consumer and manufacturing verticals. Marketing
processes may follow customer service processes in future years, but it will not be a primary focus
in the near term.
Application leaders supporting sales should:
■ Be aware that IoT-based selling will be an innovative pace-layer application over the next five
years and will require custom development. It should also be considered experimental.
■ Assess the ability of the IoT architecture to integrate with CRM and marketing applications to
support consistent messaging with prospects and customers.
■ Train existing sales or selling partners on how IoT will enhance their ability to sell to consumers
(but only if direct human interaction remains a requirement).
Business Impact: Experimental IoT selling has the potential to become a major disruptor to both
B2C and B2B sales. It is possible that IoT will develop different selling styles and that a human or
agent "handler" will assign responsibility to initiate and conduct the automated sales dialogue to
individual sales engines, based on their predictions, with the ability to detect the need for shifts
within a sales process.
Benefit Rating: High
Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Amazon
Recommended Reading: "Mass Adoption of the Internet of Things Will Create New Opportunities
and Challenges for Enterprises"
"Three Immediate Impacts on CRM Now That Customers Live Among the Internet of Things"
Sales Enablement Platforms


Definition: Sales enablement platforms are systems of sales execution that unite disparate
customer-facing sales processes into a single application. They feature native functionality, like
sales content delivery and sales activity capture, but also provide a set of open APIs that permit
integration with other applications or external data sources. They also feature capabilities for
tracking, measuring and optimizing engagement with prospects, as well as similar functions for
measuring representatives' adherence to sales execution best practices.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Sales enablement platforms is a new category, one
that has emerged in the last year, from vendors in the digital content management for sales (DCMS)
market. The functional capabilities common in these systems, such as measuring the number of
document page views, is already well established, as is the ability to integrate sales activities and
calendars with SFA systems. The open API platform, however, is new even though some of the
vendors, such as ClearSlide, have attracted several dozen ISV partners onto their platform. With the
platform, companies can integrate several different technologies, like training, guided selling, sales
acceleration or forecast management, into a single system of sales execution.
Because of this integration, the platform approach offers some meaningful benefits, most notably
the ability to measure prospects' level of engagement/interest based on how often they download
content and interact with sales representatives. The technology also supports coaching and training
objectives, measuring representative engagement and execution within sales processes. However,
application leaders will find that this technology likely overlaps and conflicts with their existing SFA
and CRM technology investments.
User Advice: Application leaders that are looking for new approaches to improve sales
representative effectiveness are well advised to evaluate sales enablement platforms. Gartner favors
applications and systems that support effectiveness objectives. This technology, however, qualifies
as a system of innovation in the Gartner Pace-Layered Application Strategy and, as such, should be
evaluated as a trial basis.
Gartner expects that buyers in some verticals, like consumer goods and high tech, will rapidly adopt
these tools, but Gartner also believes that many buyers will have difficulty accepting purchasing yet
another sales technology platform, one that is additive to their CRM investments.
With regard to the overlap in sales technology investments, Gartner finds that a few of the SFA
vendors are moving toward providing strong systems of engagement capabilities, but it is not yet
common in the SFA. Therefore, given that it will be some time before the leading SFA vendors
deploy this technology, application leaders that are looking for rapid improvements in sales
execution should evaluate this category. In addition, some application leaders in the SMB market
may find this a viable option as their primary sales technology.
Business Impact: Application leaders should be aware that because most companies have already
used content and training to improve sales execution, this technology has broad applicability to
many different verticals in the long run. This category has a moderate benefit rating because it
appears to offer attractive effectiveness outcomes. Because of engagement capabilities, sales
leaders can determine which content has the biggest impact on customers and on sales cycles.
When this is combined with coaching capabilities, managers can also measure how well their teams

are adhering to sales process expectations. However, the technology is still too new to measure the
impact that it has had upon early adopters to date.
Benefit Rating: Moderate
Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience
Maturity: Embryonic
Sample Vendors: Brainshark; ClearSlide; DocSend; Highspot; Seismic; Showpad
Recommended Reading: "Market Guide for Digital Content Management for Sales"
Virtual Digital Sales Assistant (VDSA)

Definition: Virtual digital sales assistants (VDSAs) are new tools for sales execution. VDSAs are
based upon artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that have semantic and
contextual awareness, drawing upon the internal data in the CRM system, to enable faster data
entry, easier information retrieval, automated actions and better decision making. When paired with
a voice-responsive device (like a mobile phone), VDSAs offer an entirely new, nearly frictionless
method for accessing or updating information in the SFA.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Commonly referred to as salesbots, VDSAs are a new
technology, having emerged in the past year. VDSAs are a form of cognitive expert advisor
technology that Gartner has been tracking for some time. These are systems that possess
specialized algorithms, based on artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural-language
processing function. They are tuned specifically to a purpose-built, curated body of big data to
generate insights, discoveries, recommendations and decisions, or to perform automated tasks on
behalf of sales representatives. A VDSA, for example, can be employed to push insights about
buyer sentiment to representatives, thus saving them the time of manually assessing and inferring
status on their own. The VDSA market, however, is new and has not yet established itself with
software buyers, and the technology is currently available from only a few providers. However, that
situation will change rapidly as the mega-CRM vendors add these capabilities to their SFA systems
in the next few years. For that reason, Gartner expects that this area will develop rapidly and may
reach maturity sooner than the five to 10 years currently predicted.
User Advice: Before proceeding with VDSA, application leaders should be aware that this
technology is very nascent. In terms of technology development and practical application, these
tools, as currently provided, must be purposely designed and built by a development team, like a
software provider. The development team must be rigorously trained and used to produce "expert"
advice. They are neither effective nor "cognitive" without the participation of human subject matter
experts in development and operation. Because of the comprehensive impact to user experience,
application leaders should begin planning and assessing the change management impact. Test the
technology with pilot groups before committing to an organizationwide deployment. Lastly,
application leaders should also be aware that these systems currently only work within the scope of

the sales data in the CRM systems; integration with external data is some time away. This market
will also likely merge with the mobile sales productivity market.
Business Impact: This technology has broad application to all B2B, B2C and indirect sales use
cases. The earliest adopters come from a range of vertical industries. However, because this market
is so young and not yet widely deployed beyond the initial adopters, it has a moderate benefit
rating.
Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Clari; Conversica; Kore.ai; Salesflare; Tact; Vymo
Recommended Reading: "The Future of CRM Sales Technology Promises New Algorithmic and
Automation Approaches"
Quota Planning
Analysis By: Melissa A. Hilbert
Definition: Quota planning includes the workflow and collaboration required to set accurate sales
quotas. The approach considers both a top-down and bottom-up approach with multiple methods,
including statistical, to spread quotas across the organization. It includes setting optimal quotas
through algorithm methods. It also includes the ability to integrate with incentive compensation and
financial planning and analysis (FP&A) applications to connect revenue budgets and to manage the
distribution and management of approved sales quotas.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Quota planning appears on the rise of innovation
trigger. Quota planning is often implemented as a second phase of an SPM solution. It is performed
less frequently and requires the ability to create and compare quota models and present optimal
scenarios. It is purchased as a stand-alone application or incorporated into SPM solutions. Many
SPM providers have now added this capability and are expanding the capabilities for spreading and
optimizing quotas through statistical means. They have yet to integrate fully with FP&A. Gartner
speaks with existing SPM customers who are ready to incorporate quota planning into the solution
and are seeking advice. The connection to planning is in its nascent stage. Gartner estimates that it
will take at minimum five years to reach the plateau.
User Advice: Application leaders supporting sales and finance should consider native functionality
offered by vendors as it will be easier to configure and adopt. Third-party planning tools may be
considered if there are API/data integration capabilities to connect data between the applications.
Quota planning tools will enable the connection between revenue budgets and sales quotas,
improving sales operational efficiency and execution effectiveness.
Business Impact: Adoption of quota planning will increase accuracy in sales quota setting and
decrease manual effort and collaboration in creating and maintaining quota models and outputs,

providing greater visibility to sales in real time. Organizations will gain value in the collaboration and
planning of quotas in terms of time and cost savings, reduced human error and more advanced
technologies to spread quotas, providing faster time to execution. Enterprise companies seeking to
align the quota setting process to sales execution will be early adopters.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Anaplan; CallidusCloud; IBM; Nice; Optymyze; Oracle
Recommended Reading: "Magic Quadrant for Sales Performance Management"
"Critical Capabilities for Sales Performance Management"
Visual Configuration
Analysis By: Mark David Lewis
Definition: Visual configuration tools enable a sales representative or end customer to see a visual
representation of a product they want to order, with the options and features they have selected.
They are usually deployed as part of an overall configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution. The best
technologies enable the user to interact directly, in real-time with the visual representation. The
visual depiction is closely coupled to an underlying configuration model to ensure that all business
and technical limitations are enforced as selections are made.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Visual configuration encompasses a range of

technologies that are at varying levels of maturity: 2D, 3D, augmented reality, virtual reality, floor
space planning and computer-aided design (CAD). The adoption of visual configuration
technologies is still low. Gartner expects adoption to expand rapidly now that this technology is built
into leading cloud CPQ solutions and is enabled for web browsers and mobile tablet devices.
User Advice: In many industries, it is still possible to be the first adopter of visual configuration
technology. Early movers will take market share from their competitors by significantly changing the
way in which products are sold. If one of your competitors is already using this technology, you are
probably being outsold and need to react quickly with your own initiative. Application leaders
responsible for sales applications should evaluate early adoption of visual configuration technology.
Business Impact: Companies that implement visual configuration technologies experience

significant business benefits:
■ Higher win rates, because of faster creation of proposals that include CAD drawings or 3D
renderings of the ordered product. For example, a major medical device manufacturer reduced
the time to generate a proposal from 10 days to 10 minutes.
■ Higher win rates, because the company is perceived as being technologically advanced.

■ Faster decisions and higher win rates, because the prospect is more confident that they will
receive the correct product if they can see it at the time of ordering.
■ Higher win rates, because the product is more compelling to a customer they can see it and
interact with it. For example, same store sales increased by 20% in a virtual reality pilot that
enabled prospective customers to walk through their new custom kitchen. Augmented reality
has the potential to be even more impactful, because the prospect can see the new product in
their own home or business premises.
■ Lower rework costs and higher customer satisfaction, by eliminating miscommunication
between the customer and the vendor.
■ Reduce or eliminate the cost of manually drafting CAD drawings for proposals and
manufacturing.
■ Reduce the need for physical samples and inventory items in sales showrooms.
Maturity: Adolescent
Sample Vendors: Acatec; Axonom; Configit; Configura; Experlogix; Infor; KBMax; Marxent; Pros;
Tacton Systems
Recommended Reading: "Innovation Insight for Visual Configuration"
Voice-Driven Sales Apps

Definition: Voice-driven sales apps consist of technologies that enable verbal commands used for
managing sales data, as well as navigating sales applications and using functions in support of
sales processes. Specific application features may be executed via voice, such as creating new
contact records, entering a new appointment on a calendar or changing the disposition of an
opportunity in a sales pipeline.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: This year, Gartner decreased the time to plateau from
five-to-10 years to two-to-five years. In the past year, Gartner has evaluated the voice-driven
offerings from leading SFA vendors, as well as a few independent vendors. Based on the rapidly
improving capabilities for data capture coming from these vendors and given the fact that these
features will be embedded in the SFA offerings, Gartner predicts an earlier maturity point than
previously predicted. Gartner also believes that this technology merges with the class of technology
called mobile sales productivity within two years, which means that this product category will likely
be obsolete within two years. The time to plateau, however, is constrained by the fact that most of
these applications currently only work with English vocalizations, a factor that contributes to the
regional context of the market.

User Advice: Application leaders supporting sales with significant investments in mobile field sales
forces should evaluate this technology. IT leaders supporting sales should focus on replacing
common user interface patterns like pick lists. First, pursue pilots that focus on defining essential
data requirements and key indicators for accurately measuring end-user acceptance and the
practicality of such systems. In addition, confirm whether the accuracy of proposed systems in
capturing details is sufficient to enable field sales to easily use such systems without errors. The
latter point is significant because speech-to-text engines are still not accurate 100% of the time
and, in fact, may render only about 70% of communications correctly for activities involving
relatively well-defined vocabularies. Lastly, if your organization already has a substantial investment
in SFA technology, check with your provider to determine their plans for providing this technology
as part of their native mobile application.
Business Impact: This emerging technology has the potential to significantly increase sales force
adoption of opportunity management systems and, consequently, improve the timeliness, quality,
and relevance of data residing within those systems by providing a convenient way to register
common actions, details and observations from the field via familiar, commodity mobile phones.
Overall, when effectively deployed, such implementations can improve individual productivity by
offering a more accessible alternative for documenting sales activities and outcomes, thus freeing
up more time for selling. At the same time, success with such measures can encourage end-user
adoption of SFA systems and, consequently, help sales management gain better datasets and
visibility into sales activities.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Agnitio; Gong.io; Microsoft; Nuance; Oracle; SpearFysh; Spoken; Tact
Recommended Reading: "The Future of CRM Sales Technology Promises New Algorithmic and
Automation Approaches"
At the Peak
MDM and Social Data

Analysis By: Bill O'Kane
Definition: Master data management (MDM) and social data focuses on identifying relevant entities
(such as customers, products and brands) that are resident or referenced in social networks, and
then storing the links to, and key social networking attributes about, those entities to extend an
organization's 360-degree view of that entity.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Links between MDM and social data continue to
emerge, but they are now seen as a single component of the "360-degree view" concept and

technology solutions, and will be covered under a new technical profile by that name. More
organizations are adopting MDM and, increasingly, they have or want "360-degree view" systems
for customers or products, but Gartner continues to see few early adopters that have yet included
social data in that view and that can articulate clear business benefits from doing so.
Enterprises that have not adopted MDM may be forced to do so to make effective use of social data
and the 360-degree view, thereby delaying their stand-alone social-for-CRM efforts, or forcing them
to operate in a suboptimal manner until MDM can be sufficiently realized to provide the maximum
possible business value.
User Advice: If you have a social-for-CRM initiative, you should explore the need for integration
between social networks and your in-house customer, prospect and product master data as part of
a 360-degree view effort to improve the customer experience. The ability to link trusted internal
master data with social network data that is "fit for purpose" is critical to ensuring trust in any
social-for-CRM effort. If you don't have an MDM of customer or product data capability, start
researching these disciplines. If MDM of customer data is already in place and you also have a
social-for-CRM solution, you may gain immediate benefit by changing your business process to link
the social-for-CRM platform to the MDM solution, instead of the traditional practice of linking it to a
CRM application.
Business Impact: Social media analytics is a well-accepted discipline and network-based

marketing initiatives continue to proliferate. The combination of MDM and social data as part of a
360-degree view of the customer or product has the potential to link separate, siloed activities back
into the overall mix of customer and prospect experience. Over time, it will become "must have"
and pervasive, and will be an essential component of the 360-degree view of the customer in
support of the overall customer experience, CRM, foundational business operations and regulatory
compliance. This combination will also help organizations drive growth, create new efficiencies and
understand their customers. It will require new risk management strategies to protect both the
brand and the customer.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Artesian; Dun & Bradstreet (Avention); IBM; Informatica; Oracle; Salesforce
Recommended Reading: "What Master Data Management Leaders Need to Know About Social for
CRM"
"How to Incorporate Social Data for CRM Into Your Quest for a 360-Degree View of the Customer"
"The Nine Types of Social Applications to Consider for Your CRM Team"
"MDM Is Critical to CRM and Customer Experience"
"The Seven Building Blocks of MDM: A Framework for Success"

Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
Analysis By: Todd Berkowitz
Definition: Account-based marketing (ABM) solutions are used by B2B marketers to enable
marketing and sales engagement with targeted prospects and customers and provide reporting and
attribution of campaigns. They automate and orchestrate targeted advertising, retargeting, content
syndication, messaging and website personalization to decision makers and influencers within a
defined list of accounts. Other solutions provide account-level reporting and attribution capabilities
and account-specific sales engagement.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: ABM has quickly become a prominent go-to-market
model for many B2B companies, starting with high technology and now expanding to other
industries. Account-based selling (especially to existing accounts) is certainly not new. However,
adoption of account-based marketing to reach both net new and existing customers at scale has
increased dramatically, in part because of the ability of ABM solutions to limit exposure to only
targeted accounts and individuals, and show engagement and reach across those accounts.
Many of the vendors in the market are either under three years old or have moved to offer ABM
solutions in the last five years. The ability to match accounts via IP address is far from perfect and
cookies aren't available for every individual contact. In addition, implementing an ABM program can
be difficult due to the level of buy-in required across the organization and the fact that some ABM
solutions aren't necessary during a pilot phase. However, press attention and event sessions for
ABM are very high and ABM-related inquiries to Gartner are up over 200% from this time last year.
The ABM market seems on track for a very fast progression through the Hype Cycle, especially if
adoption continues to increase outside of high-tech companies.
User Advice:
■ Ensure that sales, marketing and other executive leaders are aligned and fully committed to the
ABM program before evaluating the solution; this helps with engagement and reporting.
■ Make sure to spend proper time and effort on selecting account and building out account or
segment plans. Jumping to engagement without focusing on selection and planning often leads
to poor results.
■ When evaluating advertising solutions, ask vendors to provide match-rate estimates for both the
accounts and the roles you are targeting since IP and cookie-related capabilities (and their
ability to deliver ads to the accounts/contacts) will vary from one vendor to another. Even with
the vendor estimates, keep in mind that there is no standard for calculating match rates, so look
at methodology and pilot results to compare vendors.
■ Weigh whether best-of-breed solutions around retargeting, targeted display advertising, website
personalization or social advertising outweigh the benefits of using a single engagement
platform that offers easier orchestration and reporting.
■ Compare stand-alone reporting and analytics tools with the current and planned capabilities
offered by your CRM lead management vendor.

■ If you are in an industry outside of high tech, ask vendors to provide references for your
industry. Although adoption has spread to other industries, all vendors may not have best
practices specific to the needs of your industry.
Business Impact: Gartner clients report significant lift across key sales and marketing metrics from
running ABM programs (compared to traditional demand generation and prospecting campaigns).
The ABM engagement and reporting solutions are necessary components to any fully operational
ABM program, particularly those targeting net-new customers or one targeting more than a handful
of key accounts. However, unless there is a total commitment and support for ABM across sales,
marketing and the executive team, the potential significant benefits offered by these types of
solutions are unlikely to be realized. In addition, these types of solutions will be less effective if you
sell a highly transactional solution or only target one or two decision makers within an account.
Maturity: Emerging
Sample Vendors: Azalead; Bizible; Demandbase; Engagio; Kwanzoo; LeanData; Madison Logic;
MarianaIQ; Terminus; Vendemore
Recommended Reading: "Tech Go-to-Market: Plan, Build and Manage a Successful Account-
Based Marketing Program"
"Tech Go-to-Market: Choose the Right Engagement Channels for Account-Based Marketing
Programs"
"Tech Go-to-Market: Choose the Metrics to Track and Measure Account-Based Marketing Success"
"Account-Based Marketing Defined"
"Four Ways B2B Marketers Can Generate Demand Within Existing Accounts"
Customer Success Management for CRM

Definition: Customer success management (CSM) for CRM systems automate the postsales, client
relationship processes that are common to companies with recurring revenue and subscription-
based revenue models. These solutions are implemented to manage companies' customer
retention, customer adoption and customer upsell objectives. Capabilities include customer health
monitoring, product adoption monitoring, quarterly business reviews and customer retention
workflow.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The category has existed for several years, and the
technology has already achieved a meaningful level of functional maturity. However, this submarket
does not yet have broad adoption beyond businesses with recurring revenue models, such as
technology companies. Gartner has taken very few inquiries from nontechnology companies about

CSM. The market will reach maturity in about five years, even if it does not expand beyond the high-
technology vertical.
User Advice: IT leaders supporting B2B and B2C CRM implementations should:
■ Deploy CSM solutions as part of a comprehensive customer retention and customer experience
program.
■ Evaluate solutions on the quality of their customer health analytics and the ability to integrate
with non-API-enabled back-office systems.
■ Conduct POC sessions with several providers because churn and upsell functions are driven by
black-box predictive analytics that you cannot customize.
Business Impact: Customer success management systems have a high benefit rating for
companies that need to automate postsales processes like renewals and churn mitigation. CSM
solutions are already a business-critical system for the increasing number of companies with
recurring revenue models. These solutions are also relevant to companies with customer experience
programs, and they can be used to fill the gaps of their existing sales, marketing and customer
support processes. However, to date, Gartner has spoken with few firms following this approach, a
condition caused in part by the fact that recurring revenue models are not yet widely used in all
verticals.
Sample Vendors: Amity; Azuqua; Gainsight; Natero; Right On Interactive; ServiceSource; Totango
Recurring Revenue Management

Analysis By: Adrian Lee; Tad Travis
Definition: RRM technology supports the presales and postsales processes associated with selling
products and services on a subscription basis. RRM capabilities include subscription management
(offers, registration/onboarding and fulfillment), revenue recognition management (billing and
revenue management) and renewal management (adoption monitoring, reminders and offers).
Examples of recurring revenue businesses include SaaS; digital media; consumables (such as razor
blades and coffee capsules); and mobile value-added, professional and utility services.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Recurring revenue as a business model is mature and
well-established, particularly for mobile, utilities and media. But it has gained wider attention over
the past five years due to the rapid adoption of SaaS in the software industry, as well as the
evolution of traditional print to digital formats. In addition, brands are starting to use it to encourage
lifelong relationships with customers. As subscription models permeate different product classes
and industries — for example, in application software — RRM will see growing adoption and

maturity. RRM growth in terms of technologies and vendors is driven by expectations of a holistic
purchase and consumption (customer life cycle) experience.
Other core technology changes are also impacting RRM positively. As the Internet of Things (IoT)
gains traction, companies looking to monetize this potential revenue stream may find their current
selling and billing models do not support IoT, and they will evaluate packaged RRM as a possible
solution.
User Advice: User organizations should explore and differentiate the multiple RRM technology
options that are available, according to their requirements and usage models, since there are still
only a relatively small number of vendors providing RRM solutions. Fulfillment and access to the
product also need to be managed and governed; multiple business models, such as one-time
usage, volume- or time-metered usage, and trial usage offers, may need to be supported. In
addition to technical functionality, support for and integration with business processes and people
need to be considered. The platform and integration issues associated with RRM may be relatively
simple for a new company or division starting "greenfield," but they can be extremely complex for
large, global or public organizations with established systems, products and processes in place.
Business Impact: RRM technologies play an important role in several fast-growing industries.
SaaS, digital commerce, mobile, IoT, media and professional services will all depend on RRM
technology in one form or another to continuously support their sales, billing, support and financial
reporting requirements.
Companies that provide products or services on a recurring basis should evaluate multiple RRM
alternatives, including:
■ Packaged application solutions available from vendors

■ Custom-developed solutions or services provided by service provider organizations
■ Internally developed or extended solutions based on current ERP, financial management and
related operational technology applications
Users should map their current and future business models for selling or licensing their products,
and evaluate RRM technologies on their ability to address those requirements. RRM business
models are relatively easy to envision from the customer or consumer side, but there is almost
always a need for deep and relatively complex integration with existing systems on the business
operations side.
RRM technologies may enable several types of functionality, including:
■ The implementation of the subscription business model and pricing

■ Support for billing and reporting processes
■ Financial management and reporting
■ Customer retention, marketing and support

Sample Vendors: Aria; Digital River; Gainsight; Model N; NetSuite; Oracle; SAP; ServiceSource;
Vindicia; Zuora
Voice of the Customer

Analysis By: Jim Davies
Definition: Voice of the customer (VoC) solutions combine multiple, traditionally siloed technologies
associated with the capture, storage and analysis of direct, indirect and inferred customer feedback.
Technologies such as social media monitoring, enterprise feedback management, speech analytics,
text mining and web analytics are integrated to provide a holistic view of the customer's "voice."
The resultant customer insights are acted on by disseminating relevant information to the right
employee at the right time on the right channel.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Most organizations have multiple and often quite
mature customer feedback mechanisms, but these are usually departmentally oriented and siloed in
nature, and are often not used for strategic purposes. The most common of these is surveying, but
departments are also becoming transfixed on capturing and understanding additional customer
feedback associated with their specific domains. They are doing so through the use of speech
analytics in the contact center, web analytics on the corporate website and social media monitoring
by marketing to capture customer comments. However, these pockets of feedback for the large part
remain isolated — few organizations have aligned these various sources to create an integrated VoC
hub. Most organizations aspire to tie these diverse feedback channels together to create a single
view, but are currently a few years away from achieving this. Instead, for the majority, the current
drive is to improve surveying through investment in a new platform, which can then form the basis
of a VoC hub in years to come.
Some momentum has been seen within leading customer-centric organizations, particularly those in
consumer-centric industries such as financial services, telecommunications and utilities, but VoC is
far from mainstream. The vendor landscape is still emerging, and there are over 20 vendors that
have expertise spanning the diversity of feedback collection techniques that a holistic VoC solution
encompasses. However, multivendor VoC solution ecosystems — where data is imported into a
central solution from one or more third-party solutions — will be the unavoidable organizational
deployment strategy for the next few years.
User Advice: Ideally VoC should fall under the remit of a central CX function but, without this find an
owner with cross-department awareness and set up a cross-department VoC committee. Conduct
an internal audit to assess current capabilities and reduce duplicate departmental customer
feedback technologies (such as surveying or social media monitoring). Prioritize future initiatives to
collect VoC data based on the richness of the content. Strive to obtain a single, holistic view of the
VoC. Determine the most appropriate data architecture and analytical models/techniques to extract
key customer insights at both individual and aggregate levels. Distribute relevant insights/actions

across the organization (front line and management) in a timely manner using workflow and
operational integration. Determine what distilled set of feedback metadata (for example, a customer
sentiment score) will be fed into the corporate master data management environment. Leverage
VoC in core business processes, ideally in real time — for example, using a low survey score to
open a case within the CRM system.
Business Impact: The business impacts of VoC are many and varied. Sources of VoC data are
plentiful, ranging from survey results to social media dialogue. Such sources provide valuable
venues for analysis, but analytics in isolation inherently limits the opportunity to fully understand
customers. By integrating data from multiple VoC sources, organizations can uncover subtler
insights, drive accuracy and ultimately instill more confidence in the actions taken at individual
customer (such as an outbound call) and overarching strategic (such as a process change) levels.
This holistic approach also ensures that the right insight gets to the right employee at the right time
— for example, a new lead resulting from a tweet being sent to a sales rep; negative campaign
feedback from analyzing a recording of a contact center dialogue being sent to a marketing
manager; or a survey comment to "talk slower" being sent to an agent. VoC can be used to help
manage brand perceptions, understand the customer experience and help develop future customer
engagement strategies.
Sample Vendors: Clarabridge; Confirmit; InMoment; MaritzCX; Medallia; Nexidia; Nice; Qualtrics;
Questback; Verint
Recommended Reading: "Market Guide for Voice-of-the-Customer Solutions"
"15 Voice-of-the-Customer Best Practices Linked to Organizational Maturity"
"How to Start Creating a Voice-of-the-Customer Strategy"
Mobile Sales Productivity

Definition: Mobile sales productivity apps help salespeople be more productive in their daily tasks,
such as logging emails and phone calls, preparing for sales meetings, managing tasks, and
following through with prospects for fulfillment. The primary user interface for mobile sales
productivity apps is manual data entry, but voice entry is becoming increasingly common.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: This is a rapidly maturing market. Independent
vendors of mobile sales productivity have added new capabilities rapidly. Sales force automation
(SFA) vendors have increased their mobile offerings to support features of mobile sales productivity
apps (see Salesforce Inbox or improvements to Microsoft XRM for mobile). Given buyer interest in

these applications, the improvements made by the SFA vendors and the high business value that
these applications offer, the market may reach the Plateau of Productivity in only two years.
User Advice: Most of these solutions are apps (as opposed to mobile HTML5 web pages) that
integrate with a sales organization's SFA system. As such, these apps reflect the best elements of
the consumer web. IT leaders supporting sales should not assume they will be able to eliminate
their core SFA system, but should look at mobile sales productivity apps as an add-on to improve
data quality and user adoption. Application leaders need to be aware that salespeople will be able
to purchase these apps on their own, so it is best to have a strategy to recommend a specific
vendor to avoid having multiple apps performing the same task entering the organization.
Business Impact: Mobile sales productivity apps are high-benefit systems. Unlike a mobile SFA
app that requires salespeople to adapt their behavior to how the app is designed, mobile sales
productivity apps capture information automatically based on salesperson behavior. For example,
when a salesperson is done with a sales meeting, a prompt will appear to log the meeting in a
pertinent note, rather than requiring the representative to go to a mobile SFA app, find an
opportunity, create an activity and then log the meeting. More advanced apps will also analyze
activities and provide prescriptive advice. Mobile sales productivity apps will increase sales
adoption and improve data quality by using a less intrusive approach to collecting sales data.
Sample Vendors: Base; Clari; MobileForce; Resco; Tact; ToutApp
Recommended Reading: "IT Leaders Value SFA Systems With Mobile Access, Basic Capabilities
and Easy Integration"
"The Future of CRM Sales Technology Promises New Algorithmic and Automation Approaches"
Predictive B2B Marketing Analytics

Analysis By: Todd Berkowitz
Definition: SaaS-based applications, featuring embedded data science and machine-learning

models leveraging both internal (from CRM lead management and sales force automation [SFA]
systems) and external data (from social media, public and proprietary databases), are used by B2B
marketers and sales development representatives to identify segments, accounts and leads with a
higher propensity to buy. The scoring models are based on fit and intent scores.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: B2B marketers have become more sophisticated in
how they generate demand as well as convert, nurture and qualify leads. They are looking for a
more intelligent and reliable way to identify buyers that are a good fit (look like other customers) and
in the market (showing intent). These applications are used to select accounts and contacts for

traditional demand generation/prospecting and account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns, to
score inbound leads and highlight the right solutions to recommend to prospects and customers.
The market is starting to show signs of maturing, with adoption increasing outside of high
technology to industries such as financial services and manufacturing and distribution, at least in
North America. Some smaller vendors have been acquired and exited the market, and the remaining
vendors are heading toward profitability or potential acquisition. In addition, both sales force
automation and CRM lead management vendors have started to add predictive lead scoring
capabilities to their offerings, with the latter primarily appealing to organizations with less
sophisticated demand generation capabilities. Differentiation between vendors in terms of many
core capabilities and top-level messaging remains difficult, but the vendors have been able to carve
out unique niches around industry, company size, modeling techniques, geography and funnel
stage.
The press attention for lead scoring and prospecting has waned somewhat from 2016 (although
much of the attention has shifted to ABM), and some of the early "buzz" has worn off, driving the
market position toward the Trough of Disillusionment. However, the benefit rating is high and the
return on investment can be very compelling, so as ABM continues to gain traction as a go-to-
market model, many B2B companies are likely to consider adoption over the next two or three
years.
User Advice: Consult with marketing and sales stakeholders to understand the success of current
demand generation/prospecting processes, account selection techniques (for ABM programs) and
lead-scoring strategies in terms of hitting conversion rates and closed deal targets.
■ Predictive models work best with larger datasets; ensure that you have enough historic data (at
least 500 transactions over two years [wins, losses and converted opportunities]) before
evaluating applications.
■ Many vendors use similar data science and machine-learning techniques, so don't simply make
purchasing decisions based solely on perceived model accuracy. Consider data sources,
domain expertise, security, the ability of the machine learning to intelligently select/reject
models, customer references, integrations and model flexibility as well.
■ Conduct proof of concept (POC) comparisons before purchasing a solution, both to evaluate
performance and also to accelerate buy-in from marketing and sales stakeholders. Don't give
vendors all of your historical transactional data for the POCs, so you can independently verify
the accuracy of the solutions.
■ Evaluate the roadmaps from your SFA and CRM lead management vendors to see if their
planned predictive analytics capabilities will meet your needs, particularly if you don't have
sophisticated demand generation programs.
Business Impact: Predictive B2B marketing applications help organizations be smarter about
where to focus their sales and marketing investments and resources, as well as improve
engagement with prospects. Many organizations will not abandon traditional demand generation
strategies and scoring models, but will use the predictive models to augment current efforts. When
sales development and field representatives "buy-in" to the recommendations and scores, then

adjust behavior accordingly. B2B companies often see very compelling (and rapid) return on
investment through increased win rates, larger average deal sizes and higher incremental revenue.
Sample Vendors: 6sense; Datanyze; EverString; GrowthIntel; Infer; Lattice Engines; Leadspace;
Mintigo; Radius; Sidetrade
Recommended Reading: "Market Guide for SaaS-Based Predictive Analytics Applications for B2B
Sales and Marketing"
"Tech Go-to-Market: Predictive Analytics Can Improve Top-of-the-Funnel Effectiveness for TSPs"
"Tech Go-to-Market: Predictive Lead Scoring Can Yield Significant ROI for Technology Provider
Marketers, Even for Lower Lead Volumes"
"Tech Go-to-Market: Master Account Selection for Account-Based Marketing Programs"

Definition: Sales predictive analytics systems apply heuristic and machine-learning algorithms to a
firm's historical opportunity and account data and deliver statistically derived insights to sales
representatives and managers who want to increase sales velocity, improve opportunity close rates
and increase forecast accuracy. These solutions have three capabilities: predictive forecasting,
upsell/cross-sell recommendations and opportunity scoring.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Predictive analytics will start to move toward the
Trough of Disillusionment. There continue to be product improvements offered by vendors coupled
with adoption in the market by end users. There is still considerable interest from high tech and
software firms as leading adopters of the technology, and we now see other industries such as
manufacturing and financial services showing interest. A meaningful set of client inquiries has been
focused on this technology in regards to SFA strategy and planning.
The market will continue to grow quickly in the next one to two years. Major sales force automation
(SFA) vendors continue to improve and expand embedded predictive analytics, which shows end-
user interest and need for these capabilities. Many providers are offering a suite of capabilities,
expanding beyond just opportunity scoring into account scoring and predictive forecasting. Lastly,
most vendors have good predictive capabilities. Prescriptive capabilities are still nascent, but
expected to increase in offering availability and capabilities.
User Advice: IT and sales leaders who want to increase sales velocity and augment their sales
processes with solutions that reduce the uncertainty that is inherent in sales cycles, but without

investing time and resources in the statistical tools common to advanced analytics solutions, should
consider adoption of this technology. These solutions are typically third-party solutions that
integrate with your SFA and email systems.
IT application and sales leaders should consider the following:
■ Forecast accuracy has become the predominant reason to use sales predictive analytics,
replacing opportunity scoring.
■ These solutions utilize a mix of internal and historical transactional data from SFA, ERP, lead
management, campaign management and order management systems, so you must have
clean, consistent and accurate data for these systems to work effectively.
■ Start planning now for how predictive analytics will affect your sales processes because these
functions will soon be embedded into standard SFA products.
■ Some providers use external data signals from social, public and proprietary databases in the
propensity-to-close scores, but your most reliable data source will be your historical opportunity
data.
■ These solutions do not actually predict the future, but merely calculate a possible set of
outcomes.
■ Conduct proofs of concept with the providers so you can compare relative accuracy and
performance of the solution.
■ Some solutions will begin to offer prescriptive (next best action) capabilities with the solution to
accelerate wins and sales velocity.
■ Nearly all vendors in the market integrate with Salesforce, and several of them integrate with
Microsoft Dynamics, Infor CRM or other SFA applications.
Business Impact: Predictive analytics technology applies equally to B2B and B2C companies.
Early adopters have been mostly high-tech and software companies, now joined by manufacturing,
widening the potential market penetration. Gartner expects continued incremental adoption in other
industries over the next two years.
The technology has a high benefit rating because current clients cite improvements in deal closure
rates, complex forecast accuracy, renewal rates, pipeline growth and revenue growth. Sales users
can gain sophisticated insights and recommendations without having to use complicated advanced
analytic packages.
These solutions also offer rapid time to value. They are SaaS, turnkey solutions that do not require
difficult integration into BI systems or data warehouses and do not require maintenance by IT
resources.

Sample Vendors: 6sense; Aviso; Clari; EverString; Infer; InsideSales.com; Lattice; Mintigo;
TopOpps
Recommended Reading: "Market Guide for SaaS-Based Predictive Analytics Applications for B2B
Sales and Marketing"
"Predictive Analytics Are Transforming B2B Selling"
Sliding Into the Trough

Definition: Sales coaching applications enable organizations to improve sales productivity and
performance while reducing learning time by streamlining and automating the entire sales coaching
management process. They identify gaps in performance; identify the cause; suggest skills, actions
or content; and continuously evaluate the results and effectiveness over time. These tools include
guided selling and content repositories, recording, interaction documentation, monitoring and
analysis.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The field of sales coaching is moving steadily through
the early stages of the Hype Cycle, as the technology for B2B sales lags behind that of B2C sales.
B2C companies with call centers have already adopted telecommunications technology that
records, monitors, suggests and scores, and optimizes representatives' sales execution. Vendors'
capabilities vary widely. At one end of the spectrum, some vendors have released simple
capabilities such as automating the learning objectives process. Activities such as ride-alongs or
training classes are associated with an objective that allows for easy monitoring.
At the other end of the spectrum, sales enablement vendors have mature coaching tools that
capture and document progression and have dashboards for scoring, best practices and follow-up,
which are mostly implemented for complex B2B environments.
The market has moved forward because of improvements made by vendors that target B2B sales
processes as well as continued improvements with B2C. Gartner is tracking vendors who have
incorporated recording and analysis technology into call center applications as well as continued
tracking of vendors that aggregate data from sales execution and sales content management
systems, and surface new insights about sales cycles and clients' needs. Vendors also include use
of video training solutions: systems in which users record sales pitches and submit them to peers
and managers for assessment and feedback. Based on these improvements, Gartner expects that
sales coaching systems will move into the mainstream of sales enablement technology within the
next five years.
User Advice: Application leaders supporting sales will implement coaching as a further subset of
changing behavior or adaptive learning because specific coaching and training requirements for

salespeople leads to significant increases in their productivity and performance. Coaching is a part
of onboarding as well as continued development of existing sales. It is linked with use and timing of
appropriate material and with quality evaluations from sales field calls or recorded calls from inside
sales teams. These solutions help optimize performance through the delivery of appropriate
feedback and coaching materials, such as best practices or coaching notes from the supervisor. In
verticals such as high tech, joint selling is often mandatory so that the manager can review the sales
performance in action and coach to the desired performance. Companies that rely on
telecommunications and email should consider these solutions because their client interactions are
already digitalized, which means that the metadata of the interactions are more readily applied to
coaching analysis.
Business Impact: Many enterprise sales organizations are looking to focus on significant
productivity improvement through sales development. Application leaders can use coaching
solutions to help focus sales management on utilizing best practices. Enterprises that adopt sales
coaching initiatives include many businesses that sell complex and lengthy sales cycle solutions
and companies that rely on relationship influence to increase sales. The applications are of
importance to inside sales teams, field sales organizations, call centers as they can be tailored to
add and modify workflows, set up notifications, and create reporting and analytics around different
segments of the sales coaching process and its execution. These tools are built to manage activities
at the individual salesperson level and have been deployed to sales teams in midsize and large
enterprise sales organizations. Studies across leading consulting firms, such as CEB, have
determined that sales coaching can have a significant impact on the success of the sales
organization. The Harvard Business Review reported that coaching applied to the middle 60% of
sales representatives can yield a 19% performance increase.
Sample Vendors: Allego; beqom; Brainshark; CallidusCloud; IBM; Incentives Solutions; Nice;
Qstream; Sales Performance International; Salesforce
Recommended Reading: "Evaluate Emerging Sales Performance Management Technologies to

Improve Sales Execution"
Social for Sales

Analysis By: Jenny Sussin
Definition: Social for sales is composed of three capabilities:
■ Social analytics capabilities to identify relevant prospects or learn more about existing
customers.
■ Social engagement capabilities, which allow sellers to reach out to prospects or clients directly
over social media.

■ Internal community capabilities, which allow sellers and partners to collaborate in a gated
environment.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Social for sales is on the move in 2017 following the
high-profile acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft. Prospecting on LinkedIn continues to be the
predominant approach sellers take to social sales and as LinkedIn data becomes better integrated
with CRM providers including Microsoft and Salesforce, we expect companies that had given up on
social selling might be reinvigorated. Outside of social analytics and engagement over LinkedIn, the
majority of social selling efforts have come up short — particularly in the area of internal
communities where sellers have not been motivated to collaborate.
Software to support social for sales is typically a unique purchase, particularly when it pertains to
social analytics or social engagement. Social sales applications, which are internal communities, are
often bundled with an organization's primary CRM tool.
User Advice: We continue to advise sales organizations, particularly those with B2B sales models,
to:
■ Experiment with use cases that support prospecting, frontline account research and accessing
subject matter experts (SMEs) for specific content (for example, product specifications,
competitive intelligence and proposal language).
■ Deploy internal communities to provide networking for team selling and peers, and for
assistance in handling specific scenarios in sales cycles (for example, objections, key sales
messages and sales tactics).
■ Leverage internal communities' capabilities to push notices or opportunity updates to sellers.
■ Embed social sales capabilities within legacy CRM tools to encourage adoption.
Business Impact: Market penetration for enterprise social sales is low, and we don't see many
examples outside of using LinkedIn where sales organizations can state that they measured the
tangible business value associated with these investments. Although social software provides new
interface paradigms and communication tools that match consumer IT innovations, sales
organizations that have mature internal work processes have resisted adding new communication
channels to their operational processes. To earn a higher business benefit rating over the long term,
social-for-sales software will need to demonstrate broader practical contributions to improve sales
processes; facilitate closer collaboration among sales, marketing and other departments; and
increase the effectiveness of salespeople during their interactions with prospects and accounts.
Benefit Rating: Low
Sample Vendors: Artesian; FirstRain; InsideView; Lattice; LinkedIn; Oracle; Salesforce; SugarCRM
Recommended Reading: "Top Use Cases and Benefits of Social for CRM in 2017"

Sales Acceleration
Analysis By: Ilona Hansen
Definition: Sales acceleration technologies provide broad support for sales teams operating
internally within a sales organization, including inbound- and outbound-dedicated resources. These
solutions fit in between marketing and sales force automation solutions, and combine lead
qualification, sales enablement and call center technologies, including rich reporting technologies,
and also the following:
■ CTI integration
■ Integration to social media profiles
■ Automated lead scoring with predictive analytics
■ Guided selling and next-best practices
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Sales acceleration technologies have been newly
added to the CRM Sales Hype Cycle because inside sales teams have specific requirements and
the number of sales- or business-development representatives (SDRs/BDRs), telesales and sales
agents are increasing. Sales acceleration technologies are not yet mature. Some capabilities like
sales activity management and contact management are traditionally covered in sales force
automation solutions, but increasingly are available as stand-alone technologies. The choice of
tools is expanding, as more new, dedicated vendors focus on gaps in the sales process. Overall, the
increased number of product offers in the market and the greater demand by customers have
moved these technologies faster along the Hype Cycle than many other technologies. Some
technologies in this submarket are relatively new such as the use of artificial intelligence, while some
are more mainstream such as the use of CTI for screen-popping. This mix of technologies is
therefore positioned in the Trough of Disillusionment.
User Advice: The sales tools needed by inside sales reps are not the same as those used by other
sales roles. IT leaders will need to work together with marketing and sales to identify the inside
sales reps' needs. Most implementations require adjustments in sales processes and in the
resources allocated after the project has gone live. Mostly inbound or outbound agents are targeted
with these technologies.
Business Impact: The administrative burden on inside sales employees can be reduced with these
technologies. Time can be saved in finding the right contact, qualifying a lead, reaching out to
prospects or customers, providing the right information through email and other channels, and
handling prospect or customer-dedicated materials. The time gained back by taking advantage of
these technologies can then be redirected to more sales-effective activities. For example, through
"recommended next best actions" the number of calls conducted can be increased or deals may be
closed faster or for more.

Maturity: Early mainstream
Sample Vendors: 6sense; Conversica; Dimelo; Eptica; Frontline Selling; InsideSales.com; KiteDesk;
RingDNA; SalesLoft; Vymo
Recommended Reading: "Assess Inside Sales Technologies for Your Sales Development
Representatives to Improve the Sales Process"
Video Technology for Sales

Analysis By: Ed Thompson
Definition: Video technology for salespeople encompasses several different use cases. The primary
current mainstream use case is videoconferencing; for example, when talking to existing accounts
(once customers have got used to it) or for prospecting in some specific circumstances. There is
also video for sales training, sales tools that create personalized video messages and, finally, video
chat — the next step after web chat text sessions.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Video technologies are currently at differing levels of
maturity, with videoconferencing being mainstream, sales training rapidly maturing, personalized
sales video messages at an early stage and video chat sessions just beginning to be adopted.
Gartner has seen a particularly healthy interest in using video for sales training in the last year,
coming primarily from financial services for onboarding or coaching during new product rollouts.
The challenges to adoption of these technologies come from several directions: network and
security infrastructure that supports video, cultural resistance from salespeople, cultural suitability
for customers, the ease of use without training, and being able to demonstrate the business value
from using them. Drivers of adoption include the rise in use by office-based inside salespeople, the
increased use of digital commerce by customers, the rise in use of Skype and FaceTime by
consumers, the technical improvements in picture and sound quality, and the ability to have more
graceful degradation of picture quality as bandwidth declines when using video. Desktop
videoconferencing by salespeople has shown gradual adoption over several years and is still not
used by the majority, as it also needs the acceptance by the other party. Many organizations have
not made the investment so salespeople often find it is unavailable to the customer. Video chat will
follow web chat in adoption and is showing slow adoption too. Sales video training can be
mandated for use and personalized video messaging requires less cultural buy-in to drive its use, so
these two use cases will be adopted much more quickly. The various video technologies all have
different use cases, cost justifications, likelihoods of adoption, infrastructure requirements and
returns on investment for sales teams.
User Advice: Experiment, then pilot, then adopt more widely. Because of the need for some degree
of cultural buy-in and the difficulty of proving the financial benefit, we would advise experimenting
with all the various video technology types and seeing which gains most recognition the fastest.
Then, focus on those types first rather than doing a detailed analysis and trying to predict which will
work best. For a more structured approach, consider starting with video for sales if the account
territory is large, you have limited sales resources and visiting customers becomes very time
consuming, or when wanting to provide personalized services to customers outside of your regular

business hours. However, be careful to change the working environment for those salespeople
using it as noisy, distracting or unprofessional backgrounds to the video call can do more harm than
good. We would also advise fully piloting the chosen technology before wider deployment — to
avoid greater disappointment later.
Business Impact:
■ The principal benefit of desktop videoconferencing, video chat and video training is to reduce
the cost of sales by lowering onboarding time and speeding up time to value and then cutting
down travel, preparation and other forms of nonselling time, or by opening up selling time
outside of normal working hours.
■ The principal benefit of personalized video messaging is to drive sales revenue growth through
better response rates to the marketing messages that drive leads.
However, desktop videoconferencing, video chat and video training can also be used to drive
increased sales revenue above and beyond traditional voice or web-based interactions. The
benefits are likely to be incremental improvements in your existing sales processes, but in some
cases, they may transform the process entirely.
Sample Vendors: Allego; Brainshark; CallidusCloud; CommercialTribe; OneMob; Pitney Bowes;

Recursive Labs; Vidyard; WalkMe; Wistia
Recommended Reading: "Competitive Landscape: Video as a Service"
"Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing"
"Cool Vendors in CRM Customer Service and Support, 2016"
"Take a Fresh Look at Video Marketing"
Sales Performance Management

Definition: Sales performance management (SPM) is a suite of operational and analytical functions
that automate and unite back-office operational sales processes. It is implemented to improve sales
execution and operational efficiency. Capabilities include sales incentive compensation
management (ICM), quota management (QM), territory management (TM), territory and quota
planning, advanced analytics and gamification.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: SPM moves to the end of inflated expectations this
year. Gartner estimates, based on analysis of inquiries and vendors' feedback, that buyers purchase

ICM first and then incorporate territory and quota management along with other near-core
capabilities. Less than 15% of all companies using at least one SPM solution have implemented the
full set of SPM functionality. There is less differentiation in product capabilities as the SPM
applications mature. SPM is now past the educational phase and buyers are able to acquire budget
for SPM projects. New tools are available for making SPM more effective to drive revenue. This
market moves at a slow and steady pace and Gartner expects that it will take five to 10 years to
reach the Plateau of Productivity.
User Advice: The top three reasons that enterprises deploy an SPM solution are to gain new
operational efficiencies, improve incentive compensation management, territory and quota
management, and gain better visibility into compensation plans. These capabilities allow users to
gain greater transparency, coordination and operational efficiency across their sales operations
processes. Companies usually implement ICM first, largely to eliminate manual or excel processes,
adding quota management and territory management in a subsequent phase. These capabilities
should be considered in combination to optimize compensation processes and performance.
Business Impact: The top three benefits that enterprises realize after implementing an SPM
solution are operational efficiency, cost reduction and improved go-to-market execution. When
implemented as part of a larger CRM effort, SPM can support the increased velocity of targeted
opportunities through behavior driven from compensation plans aligned to organizational goals.
SPM, when managed in a siloed fashion, will increase operational efficiency and provide cost
savings to an organization. With new capabilities around quota and territory planning and advanced
analytics (benchmarking, predictive/prescriptive and machine learning), SPM will provide
effectiveness including optimization of compensation and processes including a connection and
integration to strategic CPM that can result in an increase to top-line revenue.
Sample Vendors: Anaplan; beqom; CallidusCloud; IBM; Incentives Solutions; Nice; Optymyze;
Oracle; SAP; Xactly
Recommended Reading: "Magic Quadrant for Sales Performance Management"
"Critical Capabilities for Sales Performance Management"
Sales Analytics
Definition: Sales analytics systems provide descriptive, diagnostic, predictive (including machine
learning) and prescriptive functions, and are used to monitor sales activity, sales execution and
support decision making. Capabilities include the manipulation of parameters, measures and
dimensions as part of an analytics or planning exercise. These capabilities are provided by a range

of vendors, including those involved in CRM, sales performance management (SPM) and SaaS-
based business intelligence and analytics platforms.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Sales analytics has advanced past the Trough of
Disillusionment toward the Slope of Enlightenment, supported by vendors that have improved their
native capabilities to include all four types of analytics (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and
prescriptive). The speed of the market has improved because some SPM vendors and large CRM
vendors — like Salesforce, Microsoft and Oracle — have added tools for integrating structured and
unstructured data into a data visualization layer. The time to plateau is still several years away.
Companies have not extensively adopted new tools like predictive analytics or SaaS business
intelligence (BI). Gartner continues to speak with clients that need advice regarding which solution
meets their needs, particularly if they have invested in enterprisewide BI tools or rely upon the native
reports provided by their vendor.
User Advice: Most CRM and/or SPM suite vendors provide integrated sales reporting and
dashboard tools, and the technology is commonly used by all buyers. Gartner advises buyers to
consider native analytics from the CRM and SPM providers first, because they are easy to
implement and help leaders run the business from a conformed set of reports and dashboards. If
the purpose is to conduct sales planning, analyze business with statistically derived correlations or
integrate with external data sources, then IT application leaders should consider not only native
capabilities of CRM and SPM, but also BI and analytics platforms. BI systems serve the same
function, and also offer the advantage of strong visualization capabilities. Buyers should note that
these latter systems must be supported by reporting experts. For CRM, also consider third-party
sales analytics apps for predictive/prescriptive analytics to help sales development reps to
accelerate deal progress to closure given the nascent stage of these tools within CRM.
Business Impact: This technology applies to all industries and can be used by sales leaders,
compensation teams and sales representatives alike. The market has a high-benefit rating because
it helps users identify areas of improvement, ensuring that their activities are aligned with corporate
priorities and are contributing to expected performance outcomes.
Market Penetration: More than 50% of target audience
Maturity: Mature mainstream
Sample Vendors: Birst; Domo; GoodData; IBM SPSS; Microsoft; Oracle; Qliktech; Salesforce;
Tableau Software; Vistaar Technologies
Recommended Reading: "Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms"
"Strengthen Your Sales Analytics Initiative With These Six Best Practices"

Climbing the Slope
Territory Planning
Definition: Territory planning is the process of creating optimal territories and rules to assign sales
credit. Territory definitions may include multiple inclusion/exclusion criteria based on attributes and
multiple sales credits as well as a precedence/inheritance and/or matrix approach to applying rules.
Optimization includes the use of algorithms to determine territories and mapping views along with
wizard-based techniques to create the rules. The process is inherently connected to setting quotas
for SPM, and to assigning opportunities in the SFA.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Territory planning is climbing the Slope of
Enlightenment with an expected five to 10 years to reach the plateau. Territory planning in
conjunction with other sales execution applications such as CRM and SPM increases sales
operational efficiency. The functionality of the applications is relatively mature and fits a niche
market, and hasn't been widely adopted into SPM processes. SPM vendors that have incorporated
these features into their applications are providing modern UX and focusing specifically on sales
crediting as a result. Optimization for these SPM vendors is emerging. Reaching the plateau will
take some time as organizations need to connect the planning of territories (and quotas) to the
execution of sales performance, and is evidenced by less than 10% of Gartner inquiries specifically
around this topic.
User Advice: This type of application is relevant for sales management in industries where territory
segmentation is complicated and may change with frequency. This solution is relevant for
organizations utilizing a CRM solution as rules can be set to assign a sales rep. from the CRM
based on the territory definition. Those same rules should also be used to assign sales credit when
a deal closes for use in an SPM solution to calculate commissions to avoid duplication of rule
creation and errors. Application leaders supporting sales need to evaluate territory planning tools'
ability to integrate with both CRM and SPM systems. Capabilities should include wizard or drag and
drop configuration of rules that define territories, optimization of the territory definition using
statistical methods or algorithmic capabilities, and sales credit assignment methodology.
Business Impact: This application is used for sales management to support the creation and
optimization of territories based on multiple attributes. It is useful for any organizations with a strong
B2B focus and large sales teams, with major changes to territories, complexity in that structure as
well as frequency (more than once per year). Organizations will gain value through the workflow and
collaboration tools, and reduce human error through optimization of scenarios and rule-based
territory definitions. Enterprise companies seeking to align the territory, quota and sales execution
processes will benefit from using territory planning functionality.

Sample Vendors: AlignStar; Anaplan; CallidusCloud; IBM; Oracle; ProAlign; The TerrAlign Group
Recommended Reading: "Critical Capabilities for Sales Performance Management"
Price Optimization and Management for B2B

Definition: Price optimization and management (PO&M) products enable a company to extract
actionable insight and pricing guidance from ERP, CRM, order management and other enterprise
applications. The output of PO&M enables an organization to improve margins and grow revenue.
Additional functionality may include price guidance and price analyzer capabilities that provide price
and margin guidance to sales teams.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Price optimization and management is moving slowly
toward the Plateau of Productivity because it is able to demonstrate quantifiable and tangible
improvements in margin and revenue in successful implementations. There has been a shift in this
category causing a slower time to maturity. The vendors are now moving into real-time, front office,
sales intelligence and away from price list generation. The major vendors in this segment continue
to make progress in making their products easier to implement by expanding integration with
CRM/SFA applications, increasing the use of machine learning, providing direct and indirect sales
teams with pricing and margin assistance, and providing competitive insight tools and yield/margin
management tools to help sales teams manage both revenue and margin objectives. Ongoing
improvements in big data and analytics capabilities — by both vendors in this sector and in
adjacent technology areas — and a growing focus and recognition of the value of algorithmic
business by senior executives are all helping to raise awareness of the sector. New fixed-price- or
zero-price-implementation packages along with subscription pricing will make this technology
accessible to a wider audience.
User Advice: PO&M is used primarily by large and global B2B or B2B2C organizations. PO&M tools
are most valuable when they are extended to the point of contact with the customer. This can
include extending PO&M to a direct sales team accessing pricing tools on a mobile device or tablet,
indirect sales channels that can access pricing through a partner portal or an inside sales support
team, or a customer who can access dynamic, real-time pricing via a web or digital commerce site.
Pricing and price recommendations can also be integrated with existing CRM or SFA tools to
provide price guidance to the sales organization through a user tool that is already in place. Pricing
"guardrails" can be created to visually display and "gamify" price recommendations and to let
salespeople know if they are within recommended margin objectives for a particular price proposal.
Business Impact: Algorithms are driving digital business and strategies to maximize margins and
profitability. The improvements in margin and revenue provided by successful PO&M
implementations are achievable and quantifiable. Pricing is increasingly becoming dynamic and
digital, requiring real-time microsegment pricing capability that includes the product, current
demand, inventory availability, seasonality and multiple other criteria. Because a complete PO&M
implementation can be lengthy — 12 to 15 months or more is not unusual — IT application leaders

should set expectations for the amount of time, finance and human resources that are likely to be
required from start to finish. PO&M will become more widespread as the demands for digital-
enabled and algorithm-based pricing increase.
Sample Vendors: Price f(x); Pros; Vendavo; Zilliant
Recommended Reading: "Best Practices in Price Optimization and Management: Three Ways to
Enable Algorithmic Business and Dynamic Pricing"
"Market Guide for Unified Price, Promotion and Markdown Optimization Applications"
CPQ Application Suites

Definition: Configure, price and quote (CPQ) application suites enable sales organizations to
automate and optimize the creation of quotes and capture of sales orders. CPQ is part of the larger
lead-to-cash business process and is tightly integrated with salesforce automation, contract life
cycle management (CLM), order management (OM) and billing. Quotes and sales orders can be
captured across multiple channels of customer interaction including direct sales, contact center,
resellers and self-service.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: CPQ applications running in the cloud are now
climbing the slope toward the Plateau of Productivity. They have reached functional parity with
back-office ERP quote and order capture solutions. The lower cost of ownership of cloud solutions
has expanded the market by making a CPQ implementation a possibility for many more companies.
Significant growth is happening across multiple industries as companies move their quoting and
ordering onto their strategic front-office platform, be it using the native CPQ provided by the vendor
(e.g., Salesforce CPQ) or a third-party add-on (e.g., CloudSense).
User Advice: Now is a good time to implement a cloud CPQ application to replace existing manual
processes, Microsoft Excel, on-premises CPQ, and ERP quoting and ordering. Shortlist products
that are tightly integrated with your strategic front-office platform (e.g., Salesforce or Microsoft). You
should evaluate the native solution provided by the front-office platform vendor (e.g., Salesforce
CPQ) and third-party options that either may provide a better solution or improve your negotiating
position if you select the native solution.
Business Impact:
■ Sales efficiency and productivity: CPQ application suites increase the integrity and accuracy
of quote-to-order capture processes, support administrative efficiency with reduced cycle times

(for example, generating quotes and proposals, standard approval processes and escalations),
and avoid sales order errors that cause costly rework orders.
■ Sales effectiveness: CPQ suites increase average deal profitability and size, and elevate overall
sales effectiveness by successfully recommending products that resonate with specific clients
(for example, cross-sell, upsell and product substitutions within bundles, kits or solutions),
producing the optimal prices the market will bear. This objective includes delivering superior
guidance on responses to negotiation tactics and buying behaviors. It is more strategic, and is
gaining increased attention from customers.
■ Sales experience: CPQ tools help organizations improve the overall sales experience across
multiple channels by providing sales capabilities that respond faster to specific client needs and
by providing solutions based on the customer's needs, regardless of the customer engagement
channel.
Sample Vendors: Apttus; CallidusCloud; Cincom; CloudSense; Experlogix; Oracle; Pros;

Salesforce; Tacton Systems
Recommended Reading: "Best Practices for a Successful Configure, Price and Quote
Implementation"
"Market Guide for Configure, Price and Quote Application Suites"
MDM of Customer Data

Analysis By: Bill O'Kane
Definition: Master data management (MDM) of customer data enables business and IT
organizations to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, governance, semantic consistency
and accountability of an enterprise's official shared customer master data assets. Such
implementations enable the authoring of customer master data in workflow-, batch- or transaction-
oriented processes that conform to one or more MDM implementation styles (or a hybrid of those
styles).
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The need for consistency of customer master data
across business silos continues to drive the MDM of customer data market. Digitalization requires a
"360-degree view of the customer." Organizations must integrate new data sources (often externally
generated) to traditional customer activity. The race toward digitalization of business is, therefore,
putting increased pressure on MDM of customer data efforts. MDM vendors are creating MDM-
based business applications and continue to develop cloud-based offerings, integration with social
networks, big data and mobile initiatives.

MDM of customer data continues to progress along the Hype Cycle as adoption has increased;
progress continues to be inhibited by failures due to inadequate program preparation. Domain-
specific MDM solutions and implementations are approaching the Plateau of Productivity more
rapidly than MDM in general, but will require at least two more years to reach it. Domain-specific
implementations are more often being seen as part of a larger MDM program or ecosystem.
User Advice: Organizations with customer data fragmented across systems should implement
MDM of customer data in a style that integrates with established source systems and becomes the
system of record for customer master data. MDM of customer data programs typically focuses on
improving operational business processes, but this can also have benefits for downstream analytical
environments. If you are looking to provide real-time, in-process analytics, MDM can improve those
as well.
A successful MDM program is not just about technology. It is also about the need to create a
business-driven MDM of customer data vision and a strategy that focuses on key business
problems. It is important to pursue a long-term MDM vision and to approach the individual projects
of an MDM of customer data program based on business priorities. An MDM of customer data
strategy should be part of a wider multivector MDM implementation strategy, which adds additional
capabilities to the multidomain approach — the ability to meet requirements spanning multiple
usage scenarios, implementation styles and data domains, as well as any governance and
organizational models supporting MDM. An MDM program is a key part of enterprise information
management (EIM), enabling greater enterprise agility.
Evaluate these solutions based on their capabilities for data modeling, data quality, integration, data
stewardship and information governance, business services and workflow, measurement, and
manageability. Additionally, consider multivector MDM, cloud-based and social data interface
capabilities that may become important. Ancillary technologies, such as enterprise service bus or
analytics platform, may also be required to accomplish your business goals.
Business Impact: Trusted customer data and a trusted 360-degree view of the customer are
fundamental to the success of any digitalization of business strategy or supporting elements such
as a CRM strategy. The ability to identify customers correctly and to draw on a trusted, accurate
and comprehensive single customer view in customer-centric processes and interactions are
valuable for marketing, sales and service functions, and for other functions that interact with
customers. It can help organizations deliver the appropriate customer experience, cross-sell (across
products and markets), retain customers, and execute end-to-end processes in an efficient and
effective manner. It can also help them manage risk and enable regulatory compliance. In the era of
social networks and other forms of big data, MDM of customer data is key to managing the links
across the silos of customer data in these new data sources, thereby enabling a trusted
understanding of customers' sentiment and behavior.

Sample Vendors: Ataccama; IBM; Informatica; Magnitude Software (Kalido); Oracle; Orchestra
Networks; Profisee; SAP; Talend; TIBCO Software
Recommended Reading: "Magic Quadrant for Master Data Management Solutions"
"The Seven Building Blocks of MDM: A Framework for Success"
"Master Data Management: The Core of the Trusted 360-Degree View of the Customer"
"MDM Is Critical to CRM and Customer Experience"
"What Master Data Management Leaders Need to Know About Social for CRM"
Partner Relationship Management (PRM)

Definition: Partner relationship management (PRM) applications enable producers, technology

providers, manufacturers, life science, financial and service industries to execute their go-to-market
strategies with their indirect channel partners in a robust and collaborative manner. In recent years,
the focus of PRM applications was to enable sales partners for higher sales. Today's focus has
shifted to well-enhance the partner experience for achieving long-term partner and end-customer
satisfaction. PRM applications are designed to be purchased in modules.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The PRM market is moving toward the Plateau of
Productivity in less than two years on the strength and quality of products offered by the leading
vendors, and innovation offered by new vendors. However, the market is still considered to be
adolescent, based on the fact that only few industries, such as high-tech industry, retail banking and
large insurers, have adopted the full range of PRM. Gartner notes that industries such as
pharmaceuticals, automotive and life science are expressing increased interest in PRM.
User Advice: PRM applications support the seamless, end-to-end management of any contractual-
based sales relationship outside your organization. With these applications, retail banks are
managing their brokers, insurance companies are gaining insights and control into their agents'
behavior, and sales partners are valuing the technology provided by receiving additional support in
selling the producers products or services. As more business cases that might benefit from PRM
applications are coming up, the careful evaluation of what is needed by the organization is key for
acquiring the right solution. The implementation extends beyond an organization's own
infrastructure, as producers will have to ensure their channel sales partners deploy the technology
too. Customization is made easy for customers, and these SaaS-based toolsets are integrated into
ERP, CRM systems or marketing automation systems via multiple APIs provided by the vendor.
Business Impact: PRM applications facilitate interactions with partners at any time, for example, by
providing comprehensive content-sharing platforms for branded marketing campaigns.
Furthermore, all features are combined with extensive reporting, providing insights and control, for
example, how many products are still in stock or on what average pricing a channel sales partner is
selling. PRM applications support partner engagement and help to improve the partner experience.
Finally, it can be seen that the speed of business and informing an increasing number of sales

partners in the channel organization is driving the need for implementing a PRM solution across
many industries.
Sample Vendors: Bpm'online; Gorilla Toolz; Impartner (formerly TreeHouse Interactive); LogicBay;
Oracle (Siebel); PartnerPath; Pegasystems; Relayware; Salesforce; Webinfinity
Recommended Reading: "Market Guide for Partner Relationship Management Applications"
"Establish Communities to Better Engage Sales Partners"
"Ten Pitfalls to Avoid When Implementing a Digital Sales Partner System"
Business Information Services for Sales

Definition: Business information services for sales are B2B sales enablement solutions that deliver
firmographic data, like account master data, as well as topical account and contact news to sales
users. These solutions are used for prospecting, account management and segmentation. Some
solutions provide real-time news feeds, drawn from external data sources like news releases and
blog posts that are delivered via stand-alone mobile applications. Most providers integrate data
feeds into account and contact records in SFA systems.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: This market remains on the Slope of Enlightenment
because the most recent innovations have not been widely adopted. The market for account master
augmentation, which includes features such as geographic location, financial statistics and
organizational hierarchy, is mature, and already includes services based on software as a service
that allows representatives to augment their SFA data in real time. The newest innovations, such as
real-time news feeds for market intelligence, are evolving. They are moving away from simple
keyword-triggered events toward contextual intelligence, where thousands of online behavioral
signals are collected, parsed and curated into meaningful insights that align with prospecting and
selling objectives.
User Advice: Application leaders evaluating business information services for sales will find three
types of providers:
■ Account and contact master data purveyors, the solutions of which are appropriate for IT and
sales users who need an external service to maintain sales master data.
■ Market intelligence purveyors, which curate news feeds, social posts and press releases into
real-time news feeds. Their solutions are appropriate for companies that conduct lots of
prospecting or that use market intelligence for competitive advantage.

■ Hybrid vendors that provide both functions.
Adoption of both categories is spread over all industries and customer sizes; however, prospects
should note that these services commonly do not include industry-specific transactional information
(such as Dodge MarketShare) that is common in the construction, pharmaceutical and high-tech
industries.
Business Impact: This technology applies equally to inside sales representatives (such as business
development representatives), contact center sales representatives and field sales representatives.
It is also useful for operations users or for marketing managers who need timely market intelligence.
All users benefit from having clean, accurate and complete account data. Moreover, all users benefit
from receiving real-time news feeds as well, particularly in cases where the machine-learning
algorithms uncover insights that traditional news feeds alone would not find. The technology has a
moderate business impact because, even though it offers significant efficiency improvements,
effectiveness benefits are indirectly related to business outcomes and are, thus, hard to quantify.
Market Penetration: More than 50% of target audience
Sample Vendors: Artesian; DiscoverOrg; Dun & Bradstreet (Avention); FirstRain; LinkedIn; Oracle;
Salesforce; Thomson Reuters; verve
Recommended Reading: "The Gartner CRM Vendor Guide, 2016"

Definition: Sales training solutions are e-learning systems that automate the education of
salespeople on the skills, concepts, behaviors and attitudes that will enhance their expertise in
influencing prospects and customers to make positive purchasing decisions. Often used to replace
or augment time spent in instructor-led training classes or to replace a learning management
system (LMS), these tools are purpose-built for educating sales representatives.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The sales training management space has moved up
the Slope of Enlightenment again this year, due to the maturing of sales-specific technologies such
as:
■ Video-training systems, in which representatives' recorded sales pitches are evaluated by peers
and managers.
■ Training systems that use behavioral science techniques, such as continual testing and
continual message reinforcement, to deliver training lessons.
■ Training lessons that can be consumed in context with the work that users perform or accessed
from mobile applications.

The market has also advanced because some sales enablement vendors — providers of digital
content management solutions — have added training solutions to their products.
However, this market faces an adoption challenge that will slow its time to maturity. These solutions
are part of the larger sales enablement market, which makes it difficult for buyers to find and
evaluate these tools. The market remains fragmented among different disciplines focused on
creating training materials, delivering multimedia e-learning capabilities and sales methodologies.
Many technology providers are small or committed to selling a suite of sales enablement solutions
that have more functionality than prospects require. Gartner also finds that some application leaders
are reluctant to add to existing SFA investments with another sales automation solution.
User Advice: Because of training's importance to sales execution, Gartner has four
recommendations for application leaders:
■ Deploy sales training solutions as part of a comprehensive effort to increase sales effectiveness,
particularly around mastering skill sets and specific product and/or market knowledge. Leading
companies continually link training to corporate imperatives, deploying new training materials
via the sales training channel as rapidly as competitors and market conditions merit. They also
integrate training systems with sales performance management tools to unite their back-office
sales operation process into a single operational effectiveness program.
■ Evaluate sales training systems on their ability to meet three essential capabilities: content
management functionality, consumption on all mobile device platforms and integration with SFA
tools. A content management workflow is necessary to ensure that training content remains
relevant. Mobile devices and integration with SFA systems ensure that the content can be
consumed in context, on demand.
■ Evaluate solutions on the quality of their training consumption analytics.
■ Consider vendors that have additional sales enablement functions, such as sales content and
guided selling, if your sales organization is looking for new tools that improve sales execution or
onboarding.
Business Impact: Sales training technology applies to all industries and selling models. Gartner
finds it is primarily used to augment instructor-led training, but is increasingly being used as the
primary training channel. The technology has a high benefit rating because training implemented
with consistent information reinforcement, backed by online testing, has shown considerably higher
sales staff retention.
Sample Vendors: Allego; Brainshark; CallidusCloud; CommercialTribe; Cornerstone OnDemand;

HireVue; Oracle; Qstream; Showpad; WalkMe

Sales Contract Management

Definition: Sales contract management is the structured process of efficiently managing contracts
from vendors, partners and customers. It supports the contract creation, execution and analysis for
the purpose of maximizing financial and operational performance, and minimizing risk. Baseline
functionality includes self-service portals, legal preapproved templates, legal playbooks and
electronic signatures (e-signatures). It is sometimes supplemented by authoring and editing tools,
version controls, and monitoring agreement expiration.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: This technology is utilized to support sales people
and sales teams in structuring and accessing easily relevant contractual-based context, such as
price agreements (with customers or sales partners), service contracts, discounts and product
ranges. The necessary functionality is generally provided by vendors, but not always tailored to
meet the sales teams' needs. The applications' capabilities are mature, thus these technologies are
rated on the Slope of Enlightenment and will reach the Plateau of Productivity in less than two
years.
User Advice: Sales contract management is aimed to support sales-related activities and tasks.
Not all vendors provide easy-to-use features to satisfy demands of this particular target group.
Especially, features such as integration with sales content, proposal and quoting systems,
combined with e-signature functionality, are of most demand among sales teams. Furthermore,
price agreements often involve rebates, and its management has greater influence on the overall
profitability of a deal. But not all applications provide the rebate management functionality needed
by organizations. Other applications lack the integration with price optimization applications,
integration with price execution and red lining for contract negotiations. These requirements are
well-known, but mostly are not rated as a top priority when providing sales-supporting
technologies. Sales contract management is mainly considered when evaluating sales force
automation applications, as part of sales-supporting capabilities.
Similarly, companies reliant on negotiated or project-based sales, which require significant

instances of unique contracts or highly tailored, multiple contract types (i.e., every customer gets a
highly customized agreement), should explore standard systems for acquiring authoring capabilities
and repositories. These can enable legal and supporting departments to maintain consistency and
overview, while responding to growing volumes of requests for documents and revisions.
Business Impact: Contracts need to be methodically managed in order to ensure that financial and
operational risk is minimized and performance is maximized. Evaluate industry-specific solutions
relevant to your business practices and concerns first. Industry specialists are more likely to
appreciate and be fluent in the target sales processes — for example, how language, terms and
conditions, and agreements are typically structured, managed and revised — and approval
practices. In addition, they may be able to provide business practices for evaluating compliance and
ultimate contract value.

Furthermore, an important purpose of contract management software is to streamline administrative
tasks and reduce overhead by providing a single, unified view into each contract's process. The
value proposition for sales contract management systems is compelling for companies operating in
highly regulated environments; engaged in complex, negotiated selling processes; requiring
comprehensive contract reviews for deals to close; or relying on revenue streams dictated by
contractual terms and conditions (such as service contracts). By centralizing content and rendering
appropriate workflows, sales support teams can gain process efficiencies and reduce cycle times
while delivering suitable agreement language and terms and conditions, as well as revisions in sales
cycles. Teams can also audit and enforce regulations or policies, and proactively address key
milestones such as fulfillment, renewal and expiration.
Maturity: Mature mainstream
Sample Vendors: Apttus; bpm'online; CallidusCloud; CLM Matrix; Conga; FPX; Jaggaer; Model N;
Vistex
Recommended Reading: "
Entering the Plateau
Lead Management
Definition: Lead management is a set of methodologies, systems and practices designed to

generate new potential customers, generally operated through marketing campaigns or programs. It
facilitates a business's connection between its consumer acquisition processes and the responses
to those actions. The outputs are qualified, scored, nurtured, augmented and prioritized selling
opportunities, which are designed for business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C),
B2B2C indirect sales channels or to support digital commerce platforms.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: The market for lead management technology has
experienced strong growth over the past five years, buoyed by the increasing complexity of B2B
and B2C marketing. The continued growth of the CRM and SFA markets is also nurtured by the
growing attempt of marketing and sales leaders to quantify and manage all revenue-generating
technologies, which reflects back to the overall increased demand for lead management
technologies. Lead management applications are a vital part of the customer experience especially
in lead nurturing phases, but also the customer journey mapping. Large technology vendors
continue to make incremental investments in technology areas adjacent to lead management.
Emerging capabilities are being developed in areas such as artificial intelligence with predictive
analytics; ad word management and search engine optimization (SEO), which are moving from
primarily B2C marketing campaigns to underpin B2B and lead management applications; and

customer journey analytics, which track and map buying behavior across multiple channels and
interaction points. Account-based marketing (ABM) is another area that is likely to attract
investment from both end-user organizations as well as from current lead management vendors.
Lead management products are becoming increasingly vertical-industry-specific, with both large,
established lead management vendors and best-of-breed vendors targeting the needs of a specific
industry, such as financial services, insurance or automotive.
User Advice: Organizational alignment, particularly between sales and marketing organizations, and
executives, continues to be identified as a key challenge in implementations. IT application leaders
should work closely with customer-facing teams to evaluate vendor solutions and
recommendations, to ensure consistency with corporate technology standards and directions, and
provide guidance on integration and project management. A lead management product can be
delivered as a stand-alone lead management technology, or as a set of lead management
functionalities that is part of a customer relationship management (CRM), sales force automation
(SFA), multichannel campaign management (MCCM), marketing resource management (MRM),
partner relationship management (PRM) application or an email marketing application. Functionality
can be provided as a SaaS service or as an on-premises application. New and emerging
functionalities in CRM lead management applications include support for customer journey
mapping; search engine management and search engine optimization (SEM/SEO); Google AdWords
and display ads management; support for inside sales such as sales acceleration applications;
account-based-marketing features, artificial intelligence applied especially in predictive lead scoring
and analytics. It is recommended to verify with your lead management vendor before assessing
third-party solutions for new functionalities.
Business Impact: Lead management aims to drive higher-value opportunities through improved
demand creation, execution and opportunity management. Therefore, lead management is in many
cases a precursor to sales management and customer relationship management. This critical
connectivity facilitates business profitability through the acquisition of new customers, selling to
existing customers, and creating a market brand. This process has also accurately been referred to
as customer acquisition management.
Sample Vendors: Adobe; bpm'online; CallidusCloud; CRMNEXT; HubSpot; IBM; Marketo;

Microsoft; Oracle (Eloqua); Salesforce
Recommended Reading: "Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management"
"2017 CRM Vendor Guide"
"Tech Go-to-Market: Predictive Lead Scoring Can Yield Significant ROI for Technology Provider
Marketers, Even for Lower Lead Volumes"

Digital Content Management for Sales
Definition: Digital sales content management applications are a class of sales enablement systems
that encompass repositories, authoring tools, collaborative environments, and interfaces for
publishing, versioning, and presenting sales collateral. Most solutions provide a dedicated
application, where sales presentations can be accessed, shared and emailed to contacts and leads.
Some are optimized for tablet form factors and some can be used for data collection, like credit
applications.
Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Based on recent capability improvements from most
vendors and market growth, the market is still moving toward the Plateau of Maturity. Gartner
estimates that the market grew by 28.5% from 2014 to 2015. Gartner has seen evidence of very
large deals involving many thousands of sales representatives. In the past year, Gartner has seen
many vendors add mature capabilities, expanding into training capabilities, improving their content
recommendation algorithms, and releasing open API toolkits for better application and sales
process integration. The market, however, comprises more than 50 vendors, which means that
buyers are having trouble finding and selecting the right solution for their use cases. Moreover,
Gartner regularly speaks with clients that are concerned about the cost of these tools relative to
existing SFA investments. Gartner expects that these obstacles, however, will not stop the market
from reaching maturity.
User Advice: These solutions are useful as sales execution tools. They offer a strong level of
efficiency and a meaningful level of sales effectiveness. B2B and long-cycle B2C sales
organizations with moderate-to-high volumes of digital content should consider these systems to
improve the oversight of sales content. Sales organizations that rely on complex, time-sensitive and
precise information to advance sales cycles should pursue sales content management solutions to
increase sales effectiveness (such as improving project-based or complex-solution selling
practices). They are relevant for sales development representative (SDR) and partner relationship
management (PRM) processes, in addition to field sales processes.
Select vendors based on their ability to provide version control, external delivery, social
collaboration, mobile delivery on multiple devices, profile-driven access, online and offline access
and content analytics, and effectiveness assessment capabilities. To avoid duplicate technology
investments, evaluate these solutions relative to the content management capabilities provided by
your incumbent SFA system against your requirements for customer engagement tracking and
content use tracking.
Business Impact: This category has a high benefit rating because it offers companies strong
operational efficiencies. Used in both lead and opportunity processes, the applications save
representatives' time accessing and tailoring required documents. It can automatically find and
suggest relevant content, hence improving efficiency and impact with prospects, allowing them to
focus on preparing for and executing sales calls with greater skills.
Most solutions already integrate into sales processes and SFA applications, giving contextual
content recommendations or next-best actions on opportunities, and several solutions have

consumption and adoption metrics so that managers can determine how collateral pieces affected
sales cycles. These capabilities are not offered by enterprise content management (ECM), web
CMS, or enterprise file share and sync (EFSS) providers.
Some companies have found that sales content can be a significant competitive advantage when
developed, delivered and used effectively. The leading tools provide external delivery and
consumption metric capabilities, which allow sales users to measure prospects' engagement with
the content. Because of engagement capabilities, sales leaders can determine which content has
the biggest impact on customers and on sales cycles. They can also measure how well their teams
are using the content to drive a request. With these metrics, leaders can adjust collateral as
frequently as needed.
Sample Vendors: Bigtincan; Brainshark; CallidusCloud; ClearSlide; Docurated; Highspot; Octiv;

Savo; Seismic; Showpad
Appendixes

Figure 3. Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2016
Cognitive Expert Advisors

expectations Predictive B2B Marketing Analytics
Sales Performance Management
Voice of the Customer
Mobile Sales Productivity
Customer Success Management for CRM
MDM and Social Data
Recurring Revenue Management
Social for Sales
Inside Sales
Sales Appraisal and Proposal Generation Systems
Evaluation Management Sales Force Automation SaaS
Strategic Account Management Mobile Sales Force
Sales Objective and Automation Containers
Quota Management
Voice-Driven Sales Apps Lead Management
Digital Content Management
Video Technology for Sales for Sales
Sales ICM
Sales Contract Management
Business Information Services for Sales
CPQ Application Suites Territory Management
Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
Sales Analytics MDM of Customer Data
IoT for CRM Sales Price Optimization and Management for B2B
Gamification
As of July 2016
Innovation Peak of
Trough of Plateau of
Trigger Inflated Slope of Enlightenment
Disillusionment Productivity
Expectations
time
Plateau will be reached in:
obsolete
less than 2 years 2 to 5 years 5 to 10 years more than 10 years before plateau

Hype Cycle Phases, Benefit Ratings and Maturity Levels
Table 1. Hype Cycle Phases
Phase Definition
Innovation Trigger A breakthrough, public demonstration, product launch or other event generates significant
press and industry interest.
Peak of Inflated During this phase of overenthusiasm and unrealistic projections, a flurry of well-publicized
Expectations activity by technology leaders results in some successes, but more failures, as the
technology is pushed to its limits. The only enterprises making money are conference
organizers and magazine publishers.
Trough of Because the technology does not live up to its overinflated expectations, it rapidly becomes
Disillusionment unfashionable. Media interest wanes, except for a few cautionary tales.
Slope of Focused experimentation and solid hard work by an increasingly diverse range of
Enlightenment organizations lead to a true understanding of the technology's applicability, risks and
benefits. Commercial off-the-shelf methodologies and tools ease the development process.
Plateau of Productivity The real-world benefits of the technology are demonstrated and accepted. Tools and
methodologies are increasingly stable as they enter their second and third generations.
Growing numbers of organizations feel comfortable with the reduced level of risk; the rapid
growth phase of adoption begins. Approximately 20% of the technology's target audience
has adopted or is adopting the technology as it enters this phase.
Years to Mainstream The time required for the technology to reach the Plateau of Productivity.
Adoption
Table 2. Benefit Ratings
Benefit Rating Definition
Transformational Enables new ways of doing business across industries that will result in major shifts in industry
dynamics
High Enables new ways of performing horizontal or vertical processes that will result in significantly
increased revenue or cost savings for an enterprise
Moderate Provides incremental improvements to established processes that will result in increased revenue
or cost savings for an enterprise
Low Slightly improves processes (for example, improved user experience) that will be difficult to
translate into increased revenue or cost savings

Table 3. Maturity Levels
Maturity Level Status Products/Vendors
Embryonic ■ In labs ■ None
Emerging ■ Commercialization by vendors ■ First generation
■ Pilots and deployments by industry leaders ■ High price
■ Much customization
Adolescent ■ Maturing technology capabilities and process ■ Second generation

understanding
■ Less customization
■ Uptake beyond early adopters
Early mainstream ■ Proven technology ■ Third generation
■ Vendors, technology and adoption rapidly evolving ■ More out of box
■ Methodologies
Mature ■ Robust technology ■ Several dominant vendors

mainstream
■ Not much evolution in vendors or technology
Legacy ■ Not appropriate for new developments ■ Maintenance revenue focus
■ Cost of migration constrains replacement
Obsolete ■ Rarely used ■ Used/resale market only
Gartner Recommended Reading

Some documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.
"Understanding Gartner's Hype Cycles"
"Mobile Devices Are a Major Disrupter for Sales Applications"
"Best Practices for Developing a Pace-Layered Application Strategy for Sales"
More on This Topic

This is part of an in-depth collection of research. See the collection:
■ 2017 Hype Cycles Highlight Enterprise and Ecosystem Digital Disruptions: A Gartner Trend
Insight Report

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Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2017

Published: 18 July 2017 ID: G00313776

Analyst(s): Melissa A. Hilbert, Tad Travis

Organizations typically place heavy emphasis on increasing operational

Table 1. Hype Cycle Phases................................................................................................................. 48

Figure 1. Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2017.............................................................................................4

Page 2 of 50 Gartner, Inc. | G00313776

The Hype Cycle

Gartner, Inc. | G00313776 Page 3 of 50

Figure 1. Hype Cycle for CRM Sales, 2017

Source: Gartner (July 2017)

The Priority Matrix

Page 4 of 50 Gartner, Inc. | G00313776

Figure 2. Priority Matrix for CRM Sales, 2017

benefit years to mainstream adoption

high CPQ Application Suites Account-Based Marketing Customer Success

low Social for Sales

As of July 2017 © 2017 Gartner, Inc.

Source: Gartner (July 2017)

Gartner, Inc. | G00313776 Page 5 of 50

IoT for CRM Sales

Page 6 of 50 Gartner, Inc. | G00313776

Application leaders supporting sales should:

Benefit Rating: High

Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience

Sample Vendors: Amazon

Sales Enablement Platforms

Gartner, Inc. | G00313776 Page 7 of 50

Page 8 of 50 Gartner, Inc. | G00313776

Benefit Rating: Moderate

Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience

Sample Vendors: Brainshark; ClearSlide; DocSend; Highspot; Seismic; Showpad

Virtual Digital Sales Assistant (VDSA)

Gartner, Inc. | G00313776 Page 9 of 50

Benefit Rating: Moderate

Market Penetration: Less than 1% of target audience

Sample Vendors: Clari; Conversica; Kore.ai; Salesflare; Tact; Vymo

Page 10 of 50 Gartner, Inc. | G00313776

Benefit Rating: High

Market Penetration: 5% to 20% of target audience

Sample Vendors: Anaplan; CallidusCloud; IBM; Nice; Optymyze; Oracle

Recommended Reading: "Magic Quadrant for Sales Performance Management"

"Critical Capabilities for Sales Performance Management"

Position and Adoption Speed Justification: Visual configuration encompasses a range of

Business Impact: Companies that implement visual configuration technologies experience

Gartner, Inc. | G00313776 Page 11 of 50

Benefit Rating: High

Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience

Recommended Reading: "Innovation Insight for Visual Configuration"

Voice-Driven Sales Apps

Page 12 of 50 Gartner, Inc. | G00313776

Benefit Rating: Moderate

Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience

MDM and Social Data

Gartner, Inc. | G00313776 Page 13 of 50

Business Impact: Social media analytics is a well-accepted discipline and network-based

Benefit Rating: High

Market Penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience

"MDM Is Critical to CRM and Customer Experience"

"The Seven Building Blocks of MDM: A Framework for Success"

Page 14 of 50 Gartner, Inc. | G00313776

Gartner, Inc. | G00313776 Page 15 of 50

Benefit Rating: High