How Analyst Relations Can Maximize Their Value to Companies

Feb 8, 2022 | Uncategorized

AR people are either nodding their heads, standing up and saying “preach!” or shrugging their shoulders as if this is not news to them. However, the stated goals of AR do not always meet the realities of how companies practice it. And the disconnect makes the engagements with analysts that much less productive or worse.

To construct this article, I drew upon my lengthy history in the analyst space which has entailed engaging both from research and business development perspectives. I also conducted over a dozen telephone interviews with analysts, practice heads and senior salespeople across a full spectrum of firms in terms of size, scope and focus. The topics focused on the following:

What elements of Analyst Relations were effective and which ones were not? How vendors were missing opportunities to better leverage their offerings? Some of the commercial aspects and challenges of the relationship that arise between AR and analyst firms. The dominant themes that arose from the discussions are presented below.

Practices:

There seems to be an excessive vendor focus on Gartner’s MQ rankings and other metrics like Forrester’s Wave etc. Putting aside the segmentation games that analysts play and the pressured marketing and sales practices employed, waving the MQ about is a marketing play and is not what drives deals with customers despite what surveys conducted by these very same firms intimate. These metrics also do not necessarily impress other analysts that vendors want to impress. There are other sources for customers to collect insights and preferences from via peer reviews, user groups crowd actions and other research avenues.

Some companies properly treat AR as a strategic function and others place the role within corporate communications. Each area fulfills important roles for companies, but they have distinctly different objectives. Marcom is messaging, narrative and yes, spinning. Putting AR in the Marcom domain tends to lead to more friction between the vendors and the analysts. Marcom has a tendency to prefer having analysts act as part of the company’s marketing and messaging channel. Quality analysts are quite put off by this.

Analysts value having a relationship with AR people who get them the information they need and connect them with the right people inside the company. When AR plays gatekeeper too often and makes getting information difficult analysts are prone to bypassing the function altogether. Inevitable that analysts will create relationships they will leverage but AR does itself no favors by not being responsive or not providing access.

One additional point that was raised was in AR not necessarily having goal alignment with internal stakeholders. What problems exist from a strategic or tactical perspective that firms can support? If AR isn’t aligned with supporting the company fully or limits its focus to improper metrics, it isn’t maximizing its own value. (insert https://www.starsight.biz/2021/10/14/how-are-your-analyst-research-subscriptions-like-a-gym-membership/)

Good analysts are open to being influenced by vendors, but they want qualified data. Approaching them with unsubstantiated claims or with no means to verify leaves good analysts skeptical. Expecting analysts to accept the narrative turns them off and even more so when the business side of the equation is leveraged. This last action does damage to the relationship and whatever influence or mindshare they were hoping to gain.

Candor and professional respect play much better with them.

Regular engagements vs ad hoc or situational outreach would produce better results. When there is a certain cadence to interactions that the parties follow it makes the flow of information to analysts much smoother and potentially reduced the negative responses and surprises that a vendor may encounter. Analysts have multiple clients and companies that they follow. It becomes impossible for them to drop what they are doing and needing to suddenly get up to speed on a vendor’s initiative.

If a company operates within multiple verticals or segments with multiple analysts operating within them then it can become too challenging to engage everyone. Nonetheless, activity, strategy and considerations still need to be communicated to the market as the analyst community will still likely be writing about companies or making media comments. If AR is not going to engage personally then be sure to make it possible for analysts to follow along with what the vendor is doing. Find ways to provide information that analysts can use.

Opportunities:

Some AR programs and professionals are very heavily invested in influence and generating sales leads and give less attention to advisory, messaging and data that firms offer. They also forget, or ignore, that many analysts have real world experience in leading product groups, GTM efforts, have created technologies or sold them. Their insights can be useful if engaged properly, especially in the initial stages of a product, strategic initiative or launch plan.

It is understandable that companies have significant investments in products, strategies, and messaging. Founders have vision, leaders have targets to hit, and marketing needs to sell the story. Hearing that the strategy or implementation is a miss is hard to hear for some. But engaging analysts that tell leadership what it wants to hear is self-serving and destructive. Bringing internal stakeholders to the table to listen and consider what quality firms and the objective analysts have to say is how to best add value to a firm.

Question that arises is it the fault of the company’s AR program for shielding the company from criticism? Or is it a reflection of company culture where there is no value placed on outside thinking or constructive criticism?

Companies can be too myopic by focusing on a select few firms and missing other valuable thought leaders and potential influencers. Good people work outside the big 4 of Gartner, IDC, Forrester and Omdia. Talented people leave large firms and go to work in boutique firms, start their own or go independent. Start-ups may grow in both size and importance and wind up absorbed into larger firms. Or they may become leaders in their space. Some firms have their own events, media platforms or excel when it comes to promoting their own research and brands. Some have major presence in the trade media a company’s customers look to for news and trends.

Business:

Analysts are time constrained with the variety of tasks they are required to perform. They cannot take briefings from every company that reaches out and surprise, clients are generally going to be prioritized. Having a business relationship in place is wise in order to gain access and maximizing engagement opportunities available from the service agreements and programs works to further increase mindshare within firms.

If an analyst is important enough to reach out to for briefings, then they or their firm are likely to believe a vendor is a candidate for their programs. Briefings may very well be treated as a sales opportunity either during the time or after the fact. The P/L practices and accountabilities of the particular firm as well as the analysts themselves will vary. Professional firms do not sell opinions, but they are not acting as not for profit entities either.

Be honest and authentic about the interest in firm. Analysts understand that not everyone they talk to is going to be a client but still likely that their sales colleagues are going to call on a vendor or continue to look to grow the relationship. This should not be awkward or a surprise. It is unwise to tell an analyst there is interest then ignore the sales call from their colleague. It will not likely impact their assessment of a company, but it does not help a vendor either.

Holding a business relationship over the head of an analyst is a really bad practice. No one respects the firms that sell out their objectivity, but analysts and their firms generally take umbrage with being asked to change their opinions or beliefs based on who is buying or who won’t buy if they don’t.

The analyst business is highly nuanced with a broad ecosystem of providers and thinkers with a variety of skillsets. Companies should periodically consider if they are getting the full value available to them. There are numerous metrics that AR can apply to analyst relationships but how successful it is in challenging itself and being open to reexamining and considering new possibilities will go far in determining its ultimate value to a

company.

Successful Report Go To Market Planning and Processes

Nov 30, 2021 | Uncategorized

Said awareness within the sector affords firm the means to build influence and grow revenues via product, services and consulting sales. Awareness also helps to insulate brand against new market entrants especially those willing to flood the market with significant volume of reports. Unstated but important element is quality of offerings since it can be possible to achieve a negative general awareness as well.

This process detailed below is designed to create as thorough and engaging approach to bringing research studies to market as possible. Points of emphasis include collaboration, integration, timelines, effective narrative, and ongoing process throughout.

Initiation:

Analysts should be involved with marketing from the outset. As they have largely defined the project, analysts or project leads should be in position to brief marketing and sales teams. Analysts provide universe of companies, segmentation for their value potential and help to minimize wasting time on non-covertable accounts. Also provide messaging support and key points of analysis to facilitate engagements.

Audience Targeting and List Building:

Obviously start with relationships with previous customers. Past buyers, firms that have been engaged for other projects or will be targeted for current research effort. Populate list with names within existing relationship companies as well as new names for broader reach within both this segment and expanded list provided by analyst. Ensure quality of leads, remove deadweight from the campaign and look to add new contacts with fresh database searches and direct outreach to target companies. New additions require your nurturing process to be applied here.

Scout newer companies with VC or high-quality private equity funding who could be looking for guidance.

Media:

Generate a proper industry media list to generate coverage. Media relationships are a tremendous resource for spreading knowledge and findings but these relationships take time to cultivate and should be done with care and authenticity. Second level of media are within tangential industries who may have possible interest in exploring new markets. Industry verticals and/or lower or upper levels of supply chain (mining, specialty chemical, distribution channels). Outlets that can present findings to end-users of technologies or applications are useful relationships as well. The more end-user visibility the more opportunities to build influence companies often consider when buying.

Project Kick-Off:

Announcement of upcoming research effort with messaging on tech and market coverage, companies addressed, sector talking points and intended deliverables. Inquiries made or offerings for potential engagement with companies to boost research and add to sales pipeline. Must be cautious not to overpromise on deliverability as research can take additional time and clients can become frustrated with delays and seek out another solution. Manage the expectations on deliverables and content throughout. Ongoing:

As research progresses and deeper insights become available these should be converted to content that can be utilized to create interest and move possible buyers further down the sales funnel. Engagement that is ongoing but authentic creates better results than canned marketing sequences. Narrative that matches current market activity even better as it becomes easy to tie research efforts and findings to other firm’s announcements or media coverage.

Release Timeline

Within 30 days of release of report, the provider should be able to nail down firm dates for submitting reports to editing, production and market. DTR refers to Days to Release

Sales Process:

Sales engagement should begin in earnest to all qualified leads starting at 30 DTR. The use of pre-publication discount incentives, if deemed appropriate, should begin at 30 DTR and end circa 7-10 DTR.

As Editing ideally initiates at 8-10 DTR, this is an opportune time to pre-brief clients or address other client inquiries direct with Analyst(s).

Once report is released Sales moves to handing follow ups or addressing leads generated via marketing and media campaigns.

Marketing:

Upon submission of report to the editing process (8 DTR) shift to GTM process and strategy. Research results are now available internally and can be applied to content for media, general marketing and sales messaging.

News release is drafted along with report talking points for media, social and general market activities. Suggest creation of 8-10 white board topics that can be delivered on a schedule over 13 weeks. Select forecast releases for infographics and messaging. Webinar or other marketing event planning begins here

Media outreach commences with direct contact with key media to assess interest in release and possible interviews and submitted stories by analysts. Send release to wires and cc’ your internal mailing lists. This process begins 3 DTR.

Release Day? Send out the report and go celebrate…..

Post Release:

Marketing events to present results via conference call, webinar or live interview Q&A should happen within 5-7 days of releasing the report. Analysts are at peak knowledge and messaging and the report has been marketed for several weeks. Plus, at some point the analyst is needing to move on to next project. Content drips with heavy concentrations over the first 3 weeks post release, going to one item per week the next 4 weeks and one item every 2 weeks for the next 6 weeks. This will generate both content spread and longevity to keep the report in front of its audience and stay active in marketing and messaging platforms.

Post-Release analysis:

Target list: how many companies did we get gain access to and convert in some way, i.e., sale, consult, lead for future, research, no results)? Who bought (new or returning?), Who showed interest but didn’t close? Who ignored the campaign?

What feedback from customers did we receive? Right product/wrong product? Did we surpass, match or come in under competition or alternatives. Do they want anything else?

What was the ROI for the campaign broken out by the mix employed? Which approaches produced greatest return and which ones provided the least? Which content generated best results, which angles least?

Thinking About a Career in Industry Analysis?

Nov 30, 2021 | Uncategorized

• Analytical (obviously)
• Good writer
• Able to craft narratives and communicate them in various channels and modalities
• Can see context and provide it for others
• Able to frame issues that actually matter vs hype or what some term, shiny objects
• Know how to collect quality and useful data
• Networking demon
• Capable of grasping nuance
• Critical thinking skills
• Understands the revenue side of things for markets as well as your own firm
• Can identify what is market ready vs vaporware or a science project
• Willing to grind, because sometimes that is the job
• Some aptitude for technology, more so in some sectors
• Can identify the real value proposition (if it exists) in what is being presented them
• Guards professional integrity like gold
• Knows the appropriate things to say depending on the forum or medium

Social Media and Analyst Marketing

Jul 15, 2021 | Uncategorized

Social media is an umbrella term that consists of multiple channels intended to display different types of content.  While the content per channel differs (video, infographics, text) the channels offer users the means to leverage each’s strengths to maximize reach.  The ease of repurposing content used for one channel to employ within the other channels is another benefit, one need not create multiple unique messages or inputs to engage in social media marketing.  I think this is likely well understood by most.

Social media can be a tool for announcement, awareness or engagement.  It affords users an opportunity to establish and grow a network of persons or entities with whom a person shares some common subject or business interests. The more someone feeds it with interesting, informative and well-considered content the better the chances are of reaping some benefit.

But, it is not a replacement for marketing and sales activities and nor is it a fast track to results.

I see providers posting content or announcements on social media and expecting sales of expensive reports and services to happen.  Social is an organic concept and that requires time and effort to develop. Most people and companies have to invest a fair amount of time and effort into cultivating channels that produce the results they crave.  Good brands and influencers get that.

The firms and providers that excel at leveraging social media share some common traits; frequency, quality, narrative, consideration for the brand, intention, offer, listening and care.  Also, a strategy. Their graphics are on point, their messages are consistent and there is some effort at providing value to their audience.  Good firms take pains to support their analysts’ efforts at social media by amping the posts via likes and reshares or talk them up with additional commentary.  It also doesn’t hurt that content marketing via social channels is handled via a dedicated person or group and or considered part of the marketing strategy for the firm.

Do it yourself or use an outsider?

Effective social media activity doesn’t require a dedicated marketing person or expensive agency.  In fact, I would strongly advise against using a 3^rd party that offers to run the program but has no experience in analyst or expertise based marketing as the role is highly nuanced and industry or subject specific.  If you want to engage an outsider consider what experience they have and what results you expect them to produce.  Note that the results will depend on the extent to which you own it, are willing to collaborate and listen to their suggestions and strategic inputs.

But for DIY or even if you want to use an outsider, I find it wise for people to start with or revisit their intentions for using social media as a marketing channel.  Do you want to build awareness?  Spur some type of engagement? Are you looking to build the funnel or promote the brand?  Promote a product or event?  Are you thinking that posting a lot is going to drive traffic and convert into sales?  You can choose more than one pathway but each has unique requirements and considerations.

Aside from the intentions

Does your following have adequate scale and does the following represent the constituencies you are looking to engage?   You don’t need several thousands of followers if you have the right people you want to reach. Larger numbers don’t hurt but don’t confuse large following with an effective audience.

Does the audience respond to you when you push content?  Do they reshare, comment or engage what you post?   Good audience participation should get your content an extension into their networks but it should also promote discussion, debate or some other conversation.  If the postings aren’t generating then the content is ineffective and or your following is weak.

For content, what type? How often? Messaging within it? Quality? Appearance?  This is a really important consideration and really easy to trip over.  Posting infrequently is self-defeating as is broadcasting content vs promoting discussion, putting out cloudy graphics (or clown show stuff), hashtag SPAM, posting obvious items and being inauthentic.

Social can be a great enhancement to marketing plan but it should be treated as a unique and highly nuanced channel.