Most companies are not tech companies. They may not have the expertise or ability to make informed procurement decisions. In order to make a decision on (say) which ERP software to buy, they’ll often work with Analysts at firms like Gartner to understand the pros and cons of software in a specific segment. Think of companies like Gartner as a concierge G2 or ProductHunt experience, minus all the spammy crap and with a lot more handholding and support.

The Magic Quadrant (and other similar products) act as a conversation starter and product validation that can give the buyer some confidence that there is some semblance of support, because their ass is on the line if a product they bought turns out to be garbage.

Edit: added additional context

When the project fails that manager can say “but Gartner said they were good.” That’s why they use it.

This times 1,000. The old adage "No one got fired for buying IBM" is alive and well in most companies.

I always wonder where these companies like Gartner get the material they need to produce their reports.

Many reports by Gartner, Forrester, etc are sponsored reports. Companies work with these reviewers to put themselves in a magic quadrant that they define for themselves. I know cause I've been approached to do the same.

99% of the time yes, but there are certain companies that have been Magic Quadrant leaders despite having a steadfast rule against chatting with analysts due to their lack of understanding (which is a fair critique). A leader in the SSE segment is one of these companies for example.

Companies like Gartner communicate with industry leaders in a segment to gain an understanding about the technology. These companies always have a couple ICs dedicated to Analyst relations, plus associated SEs, PMMs, and Engineering Leads spending time and educating analysts about the market space and associated features.

Source - worked on the last 2 Magic Quadrants at an industry SME.

Edit - grammar

ok, so big tech co’s get to define what is truth

Not necessarily. The firm I work at has been collaborating with firms like Gartner since we exited stealth, and most of our competitors also started chatting with them at similar stages (Series A-C). It's not that difficult for early stage companies to be a part of the conversations ASSUMING they made sure to make analyst relations an important part of their GTM strategy.

edit: typo

As a Solutions Engineer I've talked with a lot of companies, we're selling software to enterprises. A lot of prospects take Gartner as a starting point and evaluate multiple solutions from there.

I've never seen the actual decision made based on the magic quadrant, but I absolutely see the list of candidates at the start of a research effort come from it.

As a manager, I can say that I do make purchasing decisions based off Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.

The reason I use this is because it helps me to easily identify potential vendors and products that can help me achieve the goals of my company.

The Magic Quadrant allows me to see how different companies compare to one another in terms of their position in the market and how they perform compared with their peers. The quadrant also includes a brief description of each vendor or product so that I can get a better understanding of what each one does before deciding whether or not it would be beneficial for my business.

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