Incorporating social media into your measurement program

A critical success factor for best-in-class analyst relations (AR) programs is an appropriate measurement program. A measurement program can help AR managers demonstrate the business value of AR, generate information to improve day-to-day operations, and harvest intelligence valuable to the Sales organization. As social media matures into a regular part of the business communications environment [...]

Call for case study volunteers - How the analysts impacted a sales deal

One of the most powerful tools that analyst relations teams have to convince their companies’ executives about the business value of AR is a case study on an impact that an industry analyst had on a specific deal. For example, when we published “SageNoteTM AR107 — Case Study: Rapid Response by AR saves a $35 [...]

Commercially available systems - The ROI of an Analyst Relationship Management System (part two)

This is the second in a series of posts that will explore the resources required and the advantages gained in using a formal analyst relationship management (ARM) system.  In this post we look at some of the commercially available products.  Upcoming posts will suggest some best practices in using a system, and look at the [...]

Why technology buyers use the IT industry analysts

Sometimes IT and telecommunications vendors express frustration at the very existence of IT advisory analysts and their influence with the technology buyers (aka end users or IT managers). Often the vendors accuse the IT buyers of being lazy or stupid because they use the analysts instead of doing the research themselves. Bloggers are equally amazed [...]

Use the analysts’ words to build executive understanding about the impact of the analysts on sales

One of the critical success factors for analyst relations is strong executive sponsorship. Many AR teams believe they have executive sponsorship when in reality they do not. In these cases, AR is misinterpreting an agreement to do the occasional briefing as executive sponsorship. AR needs to persuade executives to take an active sponsorship and oversight [...]

Why it is a really bad idea to cut AR, even in a recession

It is common for tech vendors to cut marketing spend in a recession. Because Industry Analyst Relations (AR) is typically in the marketing department, AR is often asked to shoulder part of the cost cutting burden by cutting spending, freezing hiring, or even cutting head count. As a consequence, AR often cuts back on the [...]

Managing your budget in a recession — SageCircle’s Coffee Talk

On Tuesday April 1 SageCircle conducted a web-based Coffee Talk around the potential impacts of budget cuts and how AR teams can best handle them.  We began with a few slides to review the techniques for managing a budget and then opened the session to questions from the participants.
Often when resources are trimmed certain areas [...]

Knowledge about the industry analysts can be a competitive advantage so create a training plan that includes all constituencies

Best-in-class AR programs do not take training for granted.  They understand that communications and IT industry analysts can touch or be touched by many parts of the company and that a good training program is key for ensuring that all interactions with analysts are positive for the company. In addition to outbound activities a training [...]

Definition and basic characteristics - The ROI of Analyst Relationship Management Systems (part one)

This is the first in a series of posts that will explore the resources required and the advantages gained in using a formal analyst relationship management (ARM) system.  In this post we will look at the characteristics of a good system.  In future posts we will review some of the commercially available products, suggest some [...]

Social media inputs need to be added to analyst opinion monitoring programs

Analyst opinion monitoring is a critical AR task because it contributes to AR planning, rapid response to sales impact, relationship management, message management, internal politics, and overall metrics programs. In the past, savvy AR means focused on the spoken word - using the SageCircle spoken word audit technique - in addition to the usual written [...]

The organizational challenges of managing AR, CI and MR [Practitioner Question]

We often are asked about the differences in management techniques when AR is organizationally under corporate communications or marketing as compared to a when it is part of a strategy group.  How you deal with analysts, and the need for strategic interactions as compared to product-level briefings, will be altered based on the client base [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Why should AR Mangers attend Analyst Conferences

Tomorrow is the San Jose version of the annual IDC Directions Conference.  It is among the many analyst conferences from both the major firms and the boutiques.  There are those that include broad topic coverage and those that are specifically pointed to a market or technology.  Given time, budget, and insanity an AR manager could [...]

Budget cutting part two — Alternate solutions for analyst contracts

Last week (see Budgeting cutting can help AR focus and innovate) we suggested that potential budget cuts may have the effect of causing AR teams to prioritize and innovate in their programs and might not always be as negative as when first viewed.  Another way to deal with the possible cuts in funding that follow any [...]

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 [...]

Should startups use PR agencies to do AR? [Startup Saturday]

This is a post that will no doubt irritate my PR friends, but the answer to the question about whether startups should use PR agencies for AR is “only for the boring stuff.” By boring, I mean interaction logistics and basic information dissemination. However, when it comes to building the relationship and developing credibility with [...]

Challenges for Analyst Relations in 2008 – part two

Last week in Part One we summarized some of the issues noted in our survey on LinkedIn asking what people felt were the biggest challenges that AR will have in 2008?  Last week’s list focused on the traditional problems that AR teams always face.  Today we look at some new areas of concern.
Return on AR Investment
While [...]

Budget cutting can help AR focus and innovate

It is a fact of life that because of the reports of economic slowing, marketing departments at communications and IT vendors are considering budget cuts. Because most analyst relations teams report to marketing, there will be trickle down cuts hitting AR as well. Unfortunately, most AR functions are already short of staff and funding resources [...]

Challenges for Analyst Relations in 2008 - Part One

There are many challenges that AR has had for years like identifying the right analysts to focus on, obtaining resources and getting great content. There are new challenges now like how to interact with analyst/bloggers and leveraging social media. We recently did a survey on LinkedIn asking what people felt were the biggest challenges that [...]

AR–Sales Partnership [part 1]: It’s not about pushing out reports

I think that most, if not all, of us in analyst relations (AR) have been on the receiving end of a phone call from a desperate/angry sales rep who is confronted with salvaging a deal squashed by analyst commentary. Often these calls are unpleasant as the sales rep takes out his or her frustration on [...]

Seven new AR job openings posted today

Some are pure AR, while others wears multiple hats like PR and executive communicaitons.
Employers don’t forget to send us your job openings and we’ll post them for free. info [at] sagecircle dot com

Do you know of a headhunter specialized in recruiting AR? [AR practitioner question]

I just got pinged by a VP of Corporate Communications asking if I knew of any recruiters that specialize in the analyst relations field. Frankly, all the headhunters I have chatted with were their clients regular recruiters and were only doing the AR search as a favor. If you know of a firm that has [...]

The Payback for an Analyst Briefing can be Measured in Minutes

As part of the ongoing struggle to convince their management about the value of analyst relations, AR professionals often prove the effectiveness of their AR programs by showing written research with mentions about the vendor. This type of metric is often shortsighted because it does not take into account the verbal delivery of research via [...]

Christmas leftovers that are better than fruitcake

As a helpful public service, here some ideas for consuming any leftover 2007 budgets: