Managing the AR budget in a recession

With all the turmoil in the economic scene, we have been getting inquiries about how to manage the analyst relations (AR) budget in a recession. This post is a roundup of content we have published on the SageCircle blog on the topics of budgets and spending. 

This content is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the full set of intellectual property SageCircle has generated on these topics. There is more written research and SageTools^TM in the Online SageContent^TM Library. There is also an AR Team Briefing on managing budgets in a recession. Finally we recommend that Advisory clients, either Blocks of Advisory Hours or Annual Advisory, schedule inquiries to discuss the budget implications of the economic uncertainty.

• Notes on managing your budget in a recession – SageCircle’s Coffee Talk
• Budgeting cutting can help AR focus and innovate
• Budget cutting part two – Alternate solutions for analyst contracts
• Why it is a really bad idea to cut AR, even in a recession
   
• Analyst Relations budget – Use it, don’t lose it
• Christmas leftovers that are better than fruitcake
• Startups should look for “bite-sized” services that provide AR insights and tools at modest prices [Startup Saturday]

Purchasing Analyst Services, a six-part series:

1. Using five rights to avoid a wrong when it comes to purchasing Gartner or Forrester services
2. Right reasons – Evaluate why you are purchasing analyst services
3. Right services – Align the services you buy to better match the reason for info or advice
4. Right firms – Search out alternative services providers that better match your reasons
5. Right price – Acquire those services that meet your basics requirements
6. Right usage – Drive usage of the services you buy to ensure maximize business value

SageCircle Technique:

• AR should take a zero-based budgeting approach to any expense reduction exercise with everything on the table
• AR should revisit its charter, objectives and priorities to ensure that they are aligned with the company’s strategy and tactics, especially if the company strategy is changing
• AR should examine every expense for its relevance to AR’s objectives and cut those that should be handled by another budget
• Annual analyst contracts should be scrutinized to make sure that everything in the current and prior contracts was fully utilized with underused items cut from the new contract. This will produce howls of protest from the firms’ sales representatives but will not impact analysts opinion

Bottom Line: Budget cutting is never painless and is fraught with political challenges. However, taking a systematic approach rather than generic across-the-board cuts can produce significantly better outcomes.

Question:

• Analyst firm sales executives – Are you working to ensure that every part of your contract is getting fully utilized and delivering visible business value?
• Analysts – How does budget cutting that impact your firm’s contract affect your opinion of the vendor?
• AR managers – How do you approach budget cutting? How much of your current spending really belongs in someone else’s budget?

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