The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise telecommunications equipment company is based on an October 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“Yes, I absolutely recommend The Skills Connection. We have succeeded in moving our position from a ‘Niche Player’ in a Gartner Magic Quadrant to being recognised as one of the ‘Visionaries’ which is very important for us to be able to compete with other larger players in our industry.
“By working with The Skills Connection we gained an ‘inside view’ of what industry analysts want to hear and a deep understanding of how they will interpret the information they receive. This helped us to tailor our messaging to ensure we pushed the right buttons, all backed-up by the necessary evidence to convince the analysts of our capabilities.”
“The MQ has only just been published, however, we are confident this will result in new business opportunities for us moving forward. Money (and time) well spent.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise consumer services company is based on a November 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“I credit The Skills Connection with conveying the art and science of mastering analyst relations, particularly as related to the Gartner Magic Quadrant research process. We rely on a strong performance in the MQ report to maximize awareness, drive market differentiation, and accelerate sales cycles, in addition to improving all of the processes giving shape to our service. The Skills Connection helped us manage certain risks and uncertainties to attain the top spot in the Gartner annual Magic Quadrant report.”
“I have found their guidance to be instrumental in making the best use of our time and resources for influencing Gartner analysts of the vision and execution behind our services. Excellent service, excellent insights across the process. Unsurpassed professionalism balanced with a cheerful yet challenging camaraderie.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a May 2017 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“I strongly agree that The Skills Connection provide value for money. We got to our first Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) Leader position ever, as well as two Leader positions in Forrester Waves, which I put down to the enablement we had The Skills Connection. Not only did they guide us through the MQ process, but they really helped us in nailing the message, the differentiators, the right proof points, and communication of our strategy.”
“The analyst we worked with, from The Skills Connection, has been fundamental in continuously challenging and helping us work on all aspects of our analyst engagement, specifically on the end-to-end MQ processes. The ability to understand our product and strategy, and ask the right questions that lead us to find better answers has been fundamental to our results in this area.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a May 2017 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection offer value for money. Their obsession with ‘results-driven’ work, with reasoned and sound arguments, often led us to move from correct answers to effective answers.”
“Analyst reports and the way they represent our company are a major influence on our business opportunities. The Skills Connection enabled us to communicate our value prop much more effectively to the target analysts. I rate them ten out of ten.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a May 2017 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“I would certainly recommend The Skills Connection. In our experience, and from my perspective, they had a very important influence in the outcome of our interactions with analysts, both in inquiries and reports. Their contribution was essential in the review process with analysts. It was insightful and actionable, leading us to a great result, positively shifting our position in several analyst reports.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a May 2017 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“For us, The Skills Connection are a 5-star company. We achieved our goal to be Magic Quadrant (MQ) Leaders with the quality of coaching they provided. In just two years we moved first to Visionaries and now Leaders. Their understanding of the Gartner analysts and MQ process is outstanding. They guided our preparation for MQs, reviewed the answers, and coached the product managers.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a large enterprise computer services company is based on a May 2017 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“We were able to identify the right resources and information that describes our business strength and capabilities appropriately. Our Skills Connection analyst worked as an extended team member, guiding, supporting and helping us dig out the right facts, structure them in the most impressive way and ensure our RFI was well documented.”
“We score them 10/10 due to their thorough knowledge, expertise, and the ease of working with them.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise financial services company is based on an April 2017 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection understand the influencer business and are incredibly supportive. They helped focus our team throughout a complex vendor evaluation process and helped to manage the expectations of our management team.”
“They are very professional, consistently honoring all commitments, and they quickly became an integral part of our team. What impressed me most, however, was the way they rallied to our support when we faced a difficult negotiation. You can count on The Skills Connection to provide good guidance and to stand by you no matter what.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
“The briefing presentation and product demos that we developed for this evaluation were much stronger than they would have been without their guidance. We learned from that process and will be able to apply that knowledge in future evaluations.”
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The money we spent with The Skills Connection proved to be a great investment. Our target analysts have a much sharper understanding of the value we deliver, and now give their clients a stronger endorsement of our solutions, which has led to a tangible increase in new business opportunities.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a small business computer hardware company is based on a June 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection is extremely good at what they do. Through strategic counseling and hands-on editing, they helped us create a concrete, memorable, and credible submission to maximize our ability to move up and right in the Magic Quadrant and score well in the Critical Capabilities report.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a small business computer services company is based on a June 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection provided valuable counsel to us through the journey of building our value proposition for a new SaaS product, identifying and sharpening appropriate use cases, and collecting the evidence to support our suggested product positioning.”
“The money we spent with The Skills Connection proved to be a great investment. Our target analysts have a much sharper understanding of the value we deliver, and now give their clients a stronger endorsement of our solutions, which has led to a tangible increase in new business opportunities.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a small business computer hardware company is based on a June 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“Helping us move up and to the right on the Magic Quadrant is something we fully expect to see as a real business result from this engagement. Our submission this year was 100 times better than last years because of their assistance. We developed collateral and materials and marketing messaging we will continue to utilize throughout the year as well.”
“They were extremely knowledgeable about the Gartner process and their expectations. They went above and beyond working around our schedules to help make our response much better than we would have put together on our own. They helped us put all the information Gartner would want to see in a format they would want to see it in, hitting the points Gartner would care about. Their engagement was extremely valuable to help us for honing in on our essential story to help shape our marketing message, as well to help with customer endeavors.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
The Skills Connection Case Study
This case study of a medium enterprise telecommunications equipment company is based on a June 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The team at The Skills Connection is first-class. They are easy to work with, have an incredible knowledge of the industry, are quick to react, and really want to make an impact for your company. I would recommend them to anyone.”
The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select The Skills Connection:
The key features and functionalities of The Skills Connection that the surveyed company uses:
The surveyed company achieved the following results with The Skills Connection:
This case study of a small business computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“We used The Skills Connection to prepare a Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) briefing deck with the aim of moving our dot. We also utilized them to discuss messaging with the analysts when we had a CEO change and an impending lawsuit with an industry giant and one of our technology partners mid-way through the MQ process.”
“We thought we were going to just have a great briefing deck. What surprised us and also exceeded our expectations was the breadth of service and process around the preparation of the inclusion package, right down to how the document should be presented/formatted, the references and the Critical Capabilities report. All of those components made a significant difference.”
“Yes, I would recommend them. The insight and experience they bring to the table about the inner-workings at an analyst firm are extremely valuable to ensuring we put the right information forward, in the right format at the right time. Without them we likely would have repeated the same mistakes made the prior year and quite honestly, I’m convinced without them we likely could have risked even lowering our position instead of improving it.”
This case study of a large enterprise computer services company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“We use The Skills Connection to develop Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) responses. The Skills Connection do an excellent job by helping us understand our strengths and weaknesses in the context of an MQ. This understanding is then used to help us develop plans and materials to capitalise on the strengths and constructively address the weaknesses found.”
“We have seen improvements in our Gartner Magic Quadrant positions in several areas which have attracted positive comments from our customers.”
“The Skills Connection understand the process, the analysts and the client very well. I am particularly impressed by how they quickly familiarise themselves with the clients business and use this knowledge to suggest improvements and the means to address analyst perceived weaknesses.”
“I would strongly recommend The Skills Connection. Not only do they understand and communicate what the analysts are looking for, they actively engage with us and push us, politely but firmly, to think deeply about how we can best portray ourselves. The interactive, enquiring nature of the engagement gets the best from us. The excellent results speak for themselves.”
This case study of a small business security products & services company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection support us during the Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) process, the preparation and execution of analyst briefings and analyst relations planning in general.”
“As a result of their work, we have developed a clearer understanding of our strengths, weaknesses and value that we provide and were able to improve our position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant.”
“I would reccomend them as they bring in a valuable outside view and challenge the team to produce better results. What you see/read is what you get with The Skills Connection.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection helps drive our analyst relations program and enriches our analyst content to support our success. They have particularly helped us to optimally position our company to the Tier 1 analysts.”
“I would recommend The Skills Connection to anyone who has a great product and needs analyst relations expertise to move it forward in the market. Our consultant clearly knows his stuff, and has been very responsive. This helps us ensure that we’re working on the things that will make the biggest impact for our organization.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“I would recommend The Skills Connection to companies who have just started dealing with major analyst groups and don’t understand how best to engage. They offer solid, no-nonsense advice. At the end of the day they bring value through better analyst communication which equals analyst recommendations which equals $$$.”
“The Skills Connection helped us communicate with target analysts. As a result, the analysts gained a better understanding of the value we deliver and started giving their clients a stronger endorsement of our solutions. These changes have led to an increase in new business opportunities.”
This case study of a small business computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection helped us to build our analyst briefing deck.”
“They helped us to phrase and formulate the deck in a way that made sense for the analysts. They gave us confidence in our approach and in knowing that the final deck was right.”
“I would recommend them to others. They are very professional and very knowledgeable. They managed to direct us to do what was needed in a very short period of time.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer services company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection enabled us to craft the right response to the Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) questionnaire and tailor our presentation to focus on each element that the analysts were looking at. The net result was that we were included for the first time.”
“I would recommend The Skills Connection as they provide an excellent insight into the analyst world. We received, for them, exactly the help and services that we needed to achieve our objective of MQ inclusion.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection works together with our internal resources on our Gartner and Forrester rankings. They particularly help us in nurturing the relationship we have with the analyst community.”
“I have been very satisfied with their services due to the unique skillset they have, good co-operation and really great execution.”
“I would recommend, and infact a number of times have, recommended The Skills Connection because we are so satisfied with what they do. They specifically have helped us to improve our existing (already good) Gartner ranking and have brought us from zero to hero at Forrester.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“We use The Skills Connection as an extension of our Marketing team to manage our analyst relations.”
“They have deep experience, are easy to work with, and are clearly very knowledgeable on analyst relations.”
“The biggest value-add has been to educate the team on evidence-based proof points and on how to create a narrative that analysts understand and would publically recognize.”
“I absolutely, and often, recommend The Skills Connection. They’ve transformed how we interact with, and communicate to, the core analysts in our industry. They have helped us hit our Gartner Magic Quadrant goal and as a result, have allowed us to give our sales team the ammo they need to be more aggressive in their positioning of us against our competition.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“We work with The Skills Connection on our overall analyst engagement. Their knowledge and contribution is enormous.”
“They have hepled us to increase our position in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant and have helped us generally in planning our analyst engagement.”
“I would absolutely recommend them. The value they have provided is unparalleled. The dedication they show to their work is unmatched.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“We are working with The Skills Connection, as an extension of our analysts relations (AR) team, to help us to organize the activities and stories that we need to create and deliver to better engage with our target analysts.”
“Our experience with The Skills Connection during the last year has been very good. We see a great value in working with them. We managed to create a good story that helped us to move positively in the most recent Gartner Magic Quadrant.”
“We see great value in working with The Skills Connection. I would recommend them.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection offer strong knowledge and experience. I would certainly recommend them as they have provided excellent advice and enhancement to our analyst relations effort and they have helped us improve our position with the analyst community. They are easy to work with and most importantly help drive tangible, positive results through their valuable advice, assistance and useful coaching.”
This case study of a small business computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection helped us in responding to the Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) survey.”
“We witnessed very good, visible results after using their services – specifically our position improved.”
“The MQ is one of the most important factors influencing our target buyers’ decision-making for solutions like ours. We have been included in the MQ in the past but without any position improvement year-over-year. Improving position is definitely a favorable factor in attracting prospects and The Skills Connection helped us to achieve this. I would definitely recommend them.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection has helped us to establish and improve our overall analyst relations. In terms of Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) analysis, they guide us through the whole process and challenge our positions. With their highly proficient skills they have helped us to improve our MQ Position for the third successive time.”
“The Skills Connection provide highly qualified support in a timely manner. I recommend them without any reservation. By virtue of their experience in the analyst business they really complete our team. They help us to persistently focus our analyst communication on what really counts. They have helped us to sharpen our value proposition and show how we truly differentiate from our competition.”
This case study of a small business computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“Based on their extensive experience and knowledge with analyst companies, The Skills Connection have helped us to re-build our analyst presentation, particularly focusing on our company offering through relevant and effective messages.”
“I would recommend them. Their valuable knowledge and in-house familiarity with Gartner makes their service extremely valuable for companies who decided to invest in promoting their analyst relations.”
This case study of a medium enterprise computer software company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“The Skills Connection team work with us on a range of activities. This starts with our overall analyst engagement, including briefings and participation in various vendor evaluations. In addition, they are working with us on our user conference. This involves training staff on presenting, helping them to work out the right content and reviewing their draft presentations. Lastly, they are also a part of the team that is working to improve our product roadmap document; ensuring that all our messages are really clear.”
“I would strongly recommend The Skills Connection for the following reasons: – they have always provided very good advice on how to create a convincing story, their ability to structure our arguments to focus on the main ideas, their capacity to understand new developments quickly and integrate them into our story for the relevant analysts. Overall they have the capacity to help craft an effective storyline and bring out the essential elements, they provide very constructive feedback, and have a very effective structured approach.”
“With their help we became a leader in the Magic Quadrant and have remained a leader for the last 3 years. We are now also a leader in the relevant IDC MarketScape (on our first attempt) as well as a leader in Nelson Hall’s NEAT assessment where we are one of the most highly ratedd suppliers.”
This case study of a large enterprise computer services company is based on a March 2016 survey of The Skills Connection customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.
“We work with The Skills Connection to prepare for our Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) submission. They help us to interpret the requirements, storyboard the response, review references, prepare our presenters to deliver the presentation, and review all of our collateral prior to submission.”
“I would recommend them as they are easy to work with, adaptable, and truly become a part of the team. Critically they understand Gartner absolutely. They are very experienced, with excellent analytical skills and very good influencing skills.”
“Net, their understanding of the analyst mindset contributed to our achieving our best ever position in the MQ.”
