IT
#Sales productivity is one of our top focus areas.
We spend a lot of time and effort on it.
The things that we are doing I think are getting better all the time.
It falls into three main categories: recruiting ---+ just making sure we hire people that are the best possible fit with Gartner, where we're really focused on having the right analytics to help us make sure we get the right people and the right process.
The second category is then training, where we have, I think, what is one the best training programs for sales people in the industry.
We continue to improve that training all the time and modify it.
It's not static.
As an example, one of the things we train our sales people on, in areas that are a little distressed, is, how do you deal with those and be very successful in an environment like that, which we know how to do.
The last one is in tools, where we are focused and having better tools for sales force.
Technology is changing everything.
Technology allows tools that help our salespeople to be more productive as well.
We've got investors in all three of those areas focused on improved sales productivity, and we feel really good that those are all ---+ over time we're going to have a great impact on our sales productivity.
Good morning, it's <UNK>.
I think there is two things going on.
One is the labor-based business which makes up the bulk of the consulting revenue.
We've seen pretty consistent performance there, and we had strong bookings and strong backlog coming out of Q4.
That translated into a strong labor-based revenue quarter in Q1.
We also replenished that backlog and entered Q2 with a strong backlog position.
I think that led to the strong labor-based growth, which I talked about earlier.
We were up 10% on our labor-based revenue in Q2 on an FX-neutral basis.
I think some of the volatility still comes from the contract optimization business.
As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, in Q2, we were actually down on a year-over-year basis in contract optimization.
In Q1 we were up a little bit.
On a year-to-date basis, we're up modestly on that business, but that's the place that consistently causes some of that volatility.
I think if you peel the onion back a little bit, you'll see our labor-based business has been performing really nicely and really consistently.
Again, that goes back to a lot of the investments we've made around managing partners and a lot of the things that the consulting leadership team has done to make that business more predictable with people, relationships, et cetera.
I think you are starting to see that ---+ or you are not starting to, but you're seeing that flow through in our results.
Again, gives us confidence around Q3 and Q4 given the backlog position we have during Q3.
I'd like to summarize the key points of today's call.
First, we are doing great as a company.
We see robust demand for our services, and our sales pipeline is incredibly strong with a huge untapped market opportunity.
We attract the best talent in the industry.
We continue to invest in recruiting capability and training tools that drive sales productivity.
We continue to invest in innovations in our content, products, hiring, training, and tools to drive continuing improvements and our operational effectiveness.
We're committed to enhancing shareholder value through investment in our business, strategic acquisitions, and share repurchases.
We are well on track to deliver another year of double-digit growth in contract value, revenue and earnings, coupled with strong cash flow conversion.
And our long-term outlook remains equally strong.
Thanks for joining us today and we look forward to updating you again next quarter.
