7 Steps of Highly Effective Analyst Relations Function

No matter what the size of your company, if you are in the business of making and selling technology products one go-to-market channel that you cannot ignore is that of the industry analysts. Firms like Gartner, Forrester, Ovum, HFS, Novarica, Celent, SpendMatters et al play a significant role in influencing the buying decisions of a major chunk of your prospective customers. And their role becomes even more critical if you want to make an entry in the enterprise segment. Almost no Fortune 2000 company, make their buying decisions for enterprise class software products without first consulting these industry analyst firms. One mention in any of their reports or a dot in the Magic Quadrant can not only have an exponential impact on the growth of your business but also fetch you very attractive valuations. I know of a company based in Pune who I had helped in gaining an entry in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in the Niche segment. Very soon thereafter, the firm received a 7-million-dollar round of funding. Through this article I would like to highlight some of the best practices, the dos and donts, if you will, that an organisation ideally should practice to get the best out of their analyst relationship function.

Right Analyst Identification

Large firms like Gartner and Forrester have multiple analysts covering the same domain. While it makes sense to build relations with all of them, it is not practically feasible to have the same intensity with all unless you have a large AR team. The approach should be select the most relevant ones from the basket of analysts covering your domain and start engaging with them on regular basis. That doesn’t not mean you ignore the rest but the key word in Analyst Relationship, is “relationship” and you cant have the same depth of relations with everyone.

One look at the reports written over the last two years will give you a good insight into whether an analyst should be in your Cat A list of Cat B. Factors like base location, geographic coverage, strength of influence (determined by how many conferences he is invited to speak at), number of inquiries handled and readership of his reports will help you also arrive at your shortlist. Also it would be of great help if you know the research agenda for the year of the analysts that you would like to engage with. The agenda is usually released at the end of the year for the subsequent year and if you know what your analyst is going to be writing on, you can always find opportunities to engage and plug your story.

Briefings over inquiries

While briefings are free, inquiries are paid activities, included in the subscription fee of the analyst firm. Most analyst firms will allow a briefing or what they call proof of concept even to those organisations who are not yet their client. Inquiries are strictly meant for clients. While its not mandatory to appear for all briefings, an analyst will loathe to let go of an inquiry as it has a direct impact on his KRAs. A good analyst relation would call for spreading the engagement over one briefing a quarter and a minimum of one inquiry a month. One can include valuable pieces of product or organisation information in the inquires itself before diving down to get answers to the questions posed. Care must be taken to not have more than 3 questions in a single inquiry as analysts are uncomfortable to spend more than 45 minute on an inquiry. I will perhaps one day write on the best practices for handling an inquiry but that is for later

  Share your knowledge

One key point we must note is that analysts are not encyclopedias. They write about their domain by speaking to both vendors and customers of technology products and gaining knowledge from these interactions. So while speaking to analysts don’t just be a knowledge seeker or in an inquiring mode. Worse, don’t just use the engagement to plug your products or services. Share your experiences, what you are seeing in the market, what are you hearing your clients say and how are competitors reacting to your moves. All these will not only increase your credibility but will also earn the respect for your organisation’s capabilities.

 Let your customers speak for you

The general rule of thumb is that analysts do not believe the claims that you make unless endorsed or verified by your customers. If you are confident enough to have a customer independently handle a briefing with a client then make them sit in a closed door room to share their experience of working with your products. The analyst will love you for it and his confidence in your organisation will soar. The bigger the customer name the better. And more the number of customers, the merrier.

SAS and CED

Having been a former Gartner analyst, pardon me for using Gartner terms here, but I believe all analyst firms offer the same services perhaps with a different name. SAS or Strategic Advisory Service is one full day meeting with an analyst of your choice, a CED or Client Engagement Day, is somewhat similar but usually lasting no more than a hour. Ask your account manager to set up CED meetings with the analysts of your choice whenever someone senior is travelling. However, this might not always be forthcoming as analysts are busy folks but never give up without an attempt. A SAS is of two types, an internal one which is what I described in the beginning of the paragraph whereas an external SAS is a when you ask an analyst to speak at your event like a User Conference. While a CED is a free activity, a SAS is a paid engagement and an extremely expensive one at that. While you should use a SAS to increase mind share, change perception or to present a futuristic road map a CED should be ideally used to check a hypothesis, build senior level connections or aid top of mind recall. The external SAS is a different kettle of fish all together. You get to pay an analyst firm, a lot mind you, to have the privilege of the services of an analyst to come and speak at your user conference. While you can request for your favoured analyst there is no guarantee that his manager will not send some one else from the team. During these engagements, you should not only ensure that you make all your senior leadership have face time with the analyst but also make him or her meet as many of your customers as possible. Remember the earlier adage, he hears you but believes only what your customers say. And what better platform than your own user conference where he or she is captive for up to 3 days.

Getting into that dream report

Ah the El Dorado! Every company the moment they sign up with an analyst firm want to get featured in their reports. They warn, threaten and cajole the Account Manager to somehow get them in those quadrant and wave reports. Well, if it was so easy to get into these reports, then there would be no need for an analyst relationship function. Customers have spent years but have still not managed to get their coveted dot in these reports and some have managed to get into them in their debut attempt. While large vendors will always get to be part of these reports, their goal is to ensure they get the position possible, the smaller vendors on other hand are happy just getting featured. But for both its always a huge effort to get into either a Magic Quadrant or a Wave report. So how does one go about doing it. As I mentioned there is no secret sauce. The only way is to keep engaging with the analysts, make your customers speak to them, gain credibility and credence and when the time comes to fill the qualification criteria sheet make sure you tick all the boxes. Some firms like Gartner insist on 15 customer references, customers who are of a certain kind, to even qualify for these reports. If you cant get featured in a Quadrant, then try the Market Guide. If not the Wave then try the Now:tech and if you are persistent, I can assure you one day morning you will see your company’s dot in one of these reports. And here is a little secret. It is not necessary to be a client of these analyst firms to feature in their reports. Yes, being one helps but its not mandatory.

Know your objectives

Most neophytes make the mistake of getting featured in one of the above mentioned report as the only goal of their analyst relation. If they cant manage it within a year, many get disenchanted and do not renew their subscription. After all a Gartner, Forrester or Ovum subscriptions are bloody expensive. But that should be just one of your many objectives that you set while measuring the success of your analyst relationship function. Number of analyst enquiries that have featured your company name, recommendations by the analyst to their clients, peer reviews, quantity and quality of your engagements top of mind recall and mention in other reports are also some metrics that you should not lose sight off.

 Analyst relations is a journey and not a destination and the above 7 steps are just pointers that might help you in achieving some of the milestones in your journey. Its no way all that you would need to do. Remember the CPP formula for a successful analyst relationship function, consistent, persistent and patient, without these three you wont have much success.