Best practice for responding to analyst draft research

This best practice comes from guest contributor Gerry Van Zandt (Twitter handle), AR manager with HP Services.
Often (as you know) analysts will provide drafts of research notes or event-reaction pieces to vendors to review for inaccuracies.  You have a limited opportunity to provide a response or comment and need a process for action. Here are [...]

How does one become an analyst? [AR Practitioner Question]

At a recent client meeting we got an interesting question: How does a person become an analyst? Is there certification? A test?
At this time the requirements for becoming an analyst consist of ownership of a laptop, cell phone, business card and an opinion. A website and / or blog are nice, but not required. There [...]

So, have you started planning and executing your Fall Symposium campaign yet?

Hmm, let’s see, Gartner’s Fall Symposia series kicks off on October 12 with Europe, Japan and Australia following through mid-November. That is what, five months away? I’m sure that many folks are thinking that there is plenty of time to worry about educating the Gartnerians.
Alas, if that is your impression then you will not like [...]

Introducing yourself to an analyst for the first time [Startup Saturday]

Startups are often in the position of introducing themselves to industry analysts as they start or expand their AR outreach. In addition to the initial outreach, startups find themselves introducing themselves to new analysts because the analyst landscape is very dynamic.  Analysts change firms, but more importantly change coverages and areas of research.  This means [...]

Are you guilty? Classic analyst complaints

Lately we have given some time to complaints that vendor and end user clients have with analysts.  But analysts have a litany of issues with the typical vendor AR teams that they will gladly speak about given the opportunity.  Unfortunately many AR teams don’t listen. 
Recalling the analyst stages post and the hierarchy of needs we [...]

Educate your executives about the analysts to building sponsorship and improve spokespeople effectiveness

Many communications and IT vendors executives are really not informed about the IT Industry analysts.  They often believe one or more the Analyst Myths.  Frequently, tech vendor executives also view the analysts as predators or, worse, as irrelevant. This can both lead to lack of support for the Analyst Relations team and to a reduced [...]

Using inquiry… Influence the analysts’ research agenda

We have repeated stressed the importance of inquiry, both from the role of the vendor and that of the research consumer.  Obviously it can be used to obtain information as well as inform the analyst.  Another aspect of inquiry is the use of it to influence the research agenda of an analyst or a firm [...]

Involving the analysts - The need for early and often

Too often, communications and IT vendors wait until a few weeks prior to a major announcement to brief the analysts. This is a problematic practice for a number of reasons which we will investigate in future posts.  Perhaps the most important is that the advisory analysts are talking continuously to many people that fill many [...]

Analyst Hierarchy of Needs — Part two — Emphasis Changes Depending on the Situation

 The SageCircle Hierarchy of Analyst Needs provides interesting insights into the professional and emotional needs of analysts (see Part one). What makes this model powerful is the application of the Hierarchy to specific relationships. In the graphic to the right we illustrate that the level of analyst (see Know your analyst - Novice, Luminary or Sage) can [...]

The value in the Analyst Relations Diagnostic™

One of the SageTools that SageCircle has devoted a significant amount of effort in building is the Analyst Relations DiagnosticTM. It represents such a significant research investment and a major advancement in evaluating AR programs that we decided to trademark it. In addition, it’s one of the coolest tools this long-time analyst has seen.
The AR [...]

Be Analyst Centric, not Company Centric

One of the greatest failings of inexperienced AR teams, and occasionally even seasoned AR professionals is not focusing on the analyst needs.  In a recent post about the Analyst Hierarchy of Needs we explained some issues of content.  However, schedule is also a major consideration.  Too often the AR plan is driven in the same [...]

Commenting on analyst blogs to build relationships with analysts on the cheap [Startup Saturday]

One of the challenges for startups is how to build relationships with analysts when they do not have a services contract. Because many analyst firms put the analysts behind a paywall, startups cannot call up the analyst for an ad hoc conversation. Yes, one can do some relationship building via briefings and informal interactions at [...]

SageCircle’s “Analyst Hierarchy of Needs” - Part one

Why is it that some analysts are content with receiving a newsletter while other analysts always demand access to the vendor’s CEO? In this post we introduce a model that defines a hierarchy of analyst needs.  Application of the Hierarchy can help AR programs prioritize initiatives and focus communication and interaction strategies based on a [...]

Potential analyst inquiry topics for IT and communications vendors

SageCircle constantly recommends that communications and IT vendors take advantage of their inquiry privileges with analysts and actively work this activity into their interactions plan.  In last Saturday’s post (click here) we encouraged startups to use inquiry and suggested some techniques that are valid for all vendors.
Inquiries are a great way to stay “top of [...]

You could end up buried deep in the “Niche” by insisting on being added to a MQ before you are ready

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant is probably the iconic piece of analyst research. With its visibility and status, it also has enormous influence on vendor sales opportunities, especially when it comes time for IT buyers to draw up the all-important vendor short lists.
Because of this influence on short lists, communications and IT vendor executives sometimes obsess over [...]

Not responding to analysts can lead to major issues

SageCircle believes strongly in ranking and tiering your analyst list and applying your resources in a reasonable and carefully thought out process.  By determining the relative importance and impact of each analyst you can decide how much of your available resource to allocate.  This allows you to give sufficient resource to the real influencers rather [...]

Will you get analyst opinions in a briefing if you are not a client? [AR seminar question]

Yes… if you give them a chance to actually speak and if you take the time to ask correctly.
There is a common (mis-)understanding that analysts will only provide opinions if you are a paying client of their firm.  So can you get their opinions during a briefing? For the most part, analysts are more than [...]

Because analysts are increasingly using blogs as development platforms, AR has to participate to be part of the conversation

Over the weekend in a Twitter exchange, AMR Research’s Phil Fersht (Twitter, blog) told me he “uses blogging to cultivate ideas for research.” In addition, Phil said that he uses “it as a networking tool to attract and influence users.”
For AR managers who have Phil on their analyst lists - and any outsourcing vendor should [...]

Outlets to Go is a great gadget for road warriors

This is not a gadget site, but I came across this one and thought that road warriors – and what part of the analyst ecosystem is not populated by road warriors? — should know about this one. The “Outlets to Go” is a compact powerstrip that can fit into most computer bags. Four outlets and a [...]

AR programs should put their contact info on the company website

A recent survey of vendor websites indicates that while PR and IR contacts are clearly listed often AR teams do not post their contact information.  When questioned some AR teams have indicated that they know their tier one analysts and do not want to be contacted directly by other analysts.
The analyst landscape is constantly changing.  [...]

Why do analyst consulting days? [AR Practitioner Question]

 As was briefly mentioned in Strengths and weaknesses of analyst research delivery types, analyst consulting days (aka SAS or strategic advisory service in Gartnerese) have a high risk/reward profile for vendor analyst relations (AR) teams. After that post, we received a question from an AR practitioner asking why AR would want to spend the money on [...]

Blogs as part of the AR tool box — Is there a chicken-or-egg issue?

While blogs have been around for a number of years, they are seldom used by communications and IT vendor analyst relations (AR) teams*. I have found only Adobe, Cisco, HP, IBM** and Sun. This is too bad because blogs can be a valuable tool for communicating certain types of information in a less formal manner.
Now [...]

Six more analyst tips for AR added today

Robin Bloor’s tips # 6, 7 and 8, two by James Governor, two by Jeremiah Owyang and one by Charlene Li  added on 2/19/08 
Tips from analysts about how to interact with them more effectively (new tips added 2/19/0
Make sure you check to see if there are comments associated with the posts, some have good “ah ha”s. Also, [...]

When hype can go overboard and hurt credibility

While the US Federal Trade Commission in the Lanham Act said that puffery is “harmless exaggeration or colorful hype” and is not prosecutable as false advertising, too much hype can severely damage a vendor’s credibility. This was reinforced the other day when I participated in a Twitter conversation (right, click to enlarge).
Redmonk’s James Governor (”Monkchips” [...]

Are you guilty of monologuing and death by PowerPoint?

One of the top annoyances of IT industry analysts are vendor briefings where the spokesperson is talking at the analysts instead of having a conversation with the analysts. Not only does this annoy the analysts, it causes vendors to miss the opportunity to find out if their message and content is getting through. We have [...]