Focus on aggressive sales and marketing rather than just software programmers has helped IT companies like TCS, HCL Technologies and Cognizant post stronger growth numbers than their peers, research firm Gartner said today.

“The difference is in company specific factors. How they define their markets, their strategy... who is successful will not be the techie capability which the Indian companies have focussed on but it is the sales and marketing capability and companies that have invested in that,” Gartner Vice President Partha Iyengar told reporters.

Citing examples, he said, “The co—relation is stark. Look at TCS, HCL and Cognizant. The difference is not that their techies can code better than Wipro or Infosys. It is that Chandra (TCS Managing Director and CEO) has spent four years revamping the entire sales and marketing engine within TCS and the results are there.”

“The challenge is we are not a sales and marketing driven culture. It is this culture which holds us back,” he said.

Talking about demand for IT services, Iyengar said the US and European markets, which are the two major contributors to revenues of Indian IT companies, are showing positive signs.

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