Gartner VP labels channel lingo meaningless and bad for sales

Terms such as value-add, end to end, solution provider and trusted partner are 'irrelevant' staples of 'bad pitches'

A top analyst has claimed that much of the lingo used by the IT industry – including such terms as value-add, end-to-end offering and solution provider – is "meaningless and irrelevant" and serves only to make customers "switch off".

In a blog post, Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst Rolf Jester writes that he has "seen too many bad pitches from IT vendors" that are littered with worthless jargon.

"I aim to help IT marketers and salespeople, so I am in favour of good sales pitches," he adds. "But I hate [the] waste of time and effort; bad selling makes me wince."

He goes on to cite "the most outstandingly useless slide" he often sees in presentations – one detailing "common differentiators". He lists a sextet of phrases, all of which will be familiar to anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the channel, which he considers the worst examples of "vague... and not particularly relevant" claptrap. These include:

• Global presence
• End-to-end offering
• Solution provider
• Focused on business value-add
• Trusted partner for our clients
• Our people

"We could analyse each point at length, but it's not really worthwhile," adds Jester. "They are typically mostly meaningless and irrelevant. They are so common to all sales pitches that they have become white noise washing over the audience. Not only do people ignore them, they actually switch off and miss the unique gems of business value you are undoubtedly about to share with them.

"These non-differentiators are rarely substantiated with credible evidence. An attempt to do so would likely just show up their emptiness anyway. Even more rarely are they related to the client's actual need. They do not help your sales efforts. Yet I see them still, time and again."