“There are only so many briefing hours in the year” so AR professionals better make sure their briefings are focused and valuable for the analyst

During the January 27, 2009 Gartner Quarterly AR Call, GVP Jenni Lehman, research operations, made a useful point that we think that vendors do not focus on enough:

      “There are only so many briefing hours in a year.”

This point is important because many vendors rely too much on briefings, and have ill-planned and poorly executed briefings. Calling on analysts too often and conducting low value briefings can lead to the situation where analysts cut back on the number of briefing slots allocated to the vendor. This outcome has nothing to do with the size of the vendor’s contract and everything to do with the typical value the analyst is getting from his or her investment of time with the vendor. Why should an analyst invest an hour with a vendor if they know they will get little useful information or strategic insights from the vendor?

AR programs need to carefully review all their planned briefings – you do plan your briefing schedule months in advance, right? – to ensure