Maximizing Analyst Discussions

Since being on work break, I’ve been doing some advising and consulting. With my background buying technology, advising companies as a Gartner analyst and then finally building technology for the last 10 years, it’s astonishing how software companies (vendors) do not understand analyst relations or how to work with analysts. In the context of Enterprise selling, mastering this skill is critical. You can hire an analyst relations (AR) professional, or someone can learn on the job, typically with a press relations (PR) background. Both approaches work have worked well at organizations I have been part of. What doesn’t work is outsourcing this to a 3rd party firm, it’s never a good idea and doesn’t result in positive outcomes.??

Any company can brief an analyst for no cost and doesn’t need to be a client. This is as simple as filling out a form on the analyst website, and they will schedule the cal. Be prepared to wait many weeks, sometimes over a month, for the call to occur. Plan ahead and do this before a big announcement for extra points with the analyst, everyone likes a scoop. If there is interest from readers, I can highlight what a good briefing looks like in a followup post.?

Delivering a compelling briefing is essential to getting the analyst to engage; however, do not expect engagement as a rule of thumb. Occasionally, the analyst would rather not provide their insights to non-clients, as this is giving away the service. If the briefing is interesting and provocative, they will engage, regardless of your relationship with the firm. The notion of pay for play is not true, but analyst firms will do paid or branded research (aside from Gartner). When they do these engagements with vendors, they brand the research or white paper (webinar, etc.) as such, often leveraging existing research and surveys (or what we call quantitative research).?

The purpose of paying for a seat and becoming a client of a firm is that you can spend time getting advice from the analysts and share your strategy and direction. Seats are also useful for internal purposes as every software vendor is buying products and services, analysts can save you a boatload of money in helping negotiate contracts (Another topic for a blog if there is interest, just provide feedback).?

As a client, after multiple discussions with an analyst, should you decide to action upon the analysts’ opinion or become aligned with them, you will receive good coverage and a positive outcome. If you disagree with the analyst or do not align with their perspective of the current or future state, there is little benefit to working with that analyst. The one exception to this rule is that you might be able to change their mind over time, and this is where influence and a strategy are critical. The ability to influence the analyst is what separates the analyst relations professionals who are the top 5% from the other 95%. Even if you do not agree with the analyst, the good news is that larger analyst firms like Gartner, Forrester and IDC often have many analysts covering a similar topic, and they do not always agree with each other. Find a different analyst to work with who might be more aligned with your view of the market or what you should be doing.

The one issue which regularly comes up is often founders or other strong-willed leaders would rather not take advice, as they believe they know what they need to do. This can be an issue where they do not listen to customers fully and thus are not interested in getting expert advice either. Subscribing to an analyst firm for “marketing purposes” is not a good reason to spend money and time. Let me repeat that, if you would rather not listen to advice or change your path, then you are wasting your money and time. The research published is useful to read, but the engagement with analysts is where the value of the subscription is derived, and why the access to those experts is so expensive.?

Analysts are in high demand, make sure you are well-prepared to maximize your time with them. Try to build the relationship and not just have the discussion, this will loosen things up and the insights can be extremely valuable. Having been on both sides, the outside expert view is helpful to step back and understand the bigger picture. Everyone lives in their perception and nothing is more true from within a software vendor, the outside perspective is critical to make the right decision. In vendors, my colleagues have been skeptical of using analysts, and almost all of them have since flipped to seeing the value.?

When it comes to selecting firms to work with, there are many types of firms out there, many have countless great uses for marketing purposes or specific advice. There are really only 2 for most startups to concentrate on, Gartner and Forrester. The highest value is for B2B business models, often selling to enterprise organizations. If you are raising money or getting close to an IPO or exit then IDC has specific use as they have the best market data, forecasts, and other quantitative and financial data.?