Why Industry Analysts are Sales Tools

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  1

  travisvan

  08/07/07 | Report as spam

  only when the analyst has influence ...

  My main points (or at least, what I was trying to say ...) were that when your target customers are NOT reading the said analysts reports ... and the analysts are lifting your perspective on the landscape (without any attribution) ... you're given away valuable info in exchange for nothing. Absolutely -- it's wonderful to have an INFLUENTIAL industry analyst define the landscape on terms where your product / service / whatever really fits that description (and it IS a goal of the briefing to paint that picture and induce that outcome with THAT TYPE OF ANALYST). But what really pisses me off is when an industry analyst comes in over the transome with a briefing request ... gets 45 minutes worth of candid perspectives from a vendor spokesperson (that the analyst would NOT have derived absent from that conversation) ... then puts out a report claiming all of those perspectives as original thought ... for a report that is NOT read by the target customer. There are many charlatan analyst firms out there that are doing exactly this -- and finding some very creative ways to coerce people to buy reprint access (despite the lack of influence with the respective consumer community). It's a scam ... and the PR / marketing folks' duty to recognize those particular situations for what they are and not participate.
  
  The "How to Influence Industry Analysts" (http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/) is a great follow-on.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  08/07/07 | Report as spam

  Oy! What a missed opportunity...

  In that case, it's your job to publicize the positive report to your customers. Buy the distribution rights and put the report on your website. Pull it into sales situations where another analyst is badmouthing you. There are a least a dozen ways to use second-rate analysts and analyst reports as sales tools.
  
  But you're 100 percent right that you have to be aware of the cost-benefits. I'm a big proponent of "briefing days" being held at a central location (preferably somewhere warm in the winter). That way you get all the first and second tier analysts briefed at one time, leave them beholden to you for the free vacation, and the third tier (the guys you're worried about) don't show up because they can't afford the plane ticket.

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  travisvan

  08/07/07 | Report as spam

  respectfully disagree ...

  ... that it's 'your job' to publicize a report that no one cares about. If no one reads second-rate reports from second-rate firms, it is a low-yield exercise to participate. Instead of giving valuable time / opinions to second-rate analysts ... spend that time working with the ones that DO matter. There is no "missed opportunity" when you don't participate in reports that no one is going to read anyway. But there is an opportunity cost of diverting your time by dealing with clowns who have no conscience in wasting it.

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  Geoffrey James, Sales Machine

  08/17/07 | Report as spam

  Analysts -- who's hot and who's not

  Travis,
  
  The problem here is that most vendors have no idea of who's an influential analyst and who's not. For example, suppose you were a CEO and I said to you, say, at a wedding: "Gee, a guy I went to college with just set up his own analyst firm; you should talk to him and ask what he thinks about your product."
  
  You'd probably figure that my college friend was just some bozo exec who got fired and put out a shingle until he finds another job. But in fact, my friend is Rob Enderle, one of the most influential analysts in high tech.
  
  There are analysts who work for Gartner who are non-entities, and analysts who don't even have a business card who kick butt and will be quoted every time anything significant happens. Unless you're really familiar with the analyst community, you don't know who's worth influencing. That takes effort.
  
  Furthermore, if you get three grade B analysts to say nice things about your product -- and post that on your website -- when the grade A analyst rubbishes you, you've got numerical superiority. And at least some of your customers won't know the difference.
  
  My overall strategy: schmooze and brief everyone in the analyst community big and small; buy and post reports that praise your company; set a budget for analysts and don't exceed it; rotate money payments as necessary.

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  dave.stein@...

  08/16/07 | Report as spam

  Industry Analysts... from an Analyst

  I've been on both sides of the vendor/industry analyst relationship.
  
  In the past I?ve managed analyst relations for two technology companies and provided advice to a dozen other tech companies on their AR functions.
  
  Now I'm on the other side of the fence. Two years ago, along with a former Gartner executive, I founded an industry analyst (research and advisory services) firm covering the sales performance improvement space--sales training, tools, process consulting, performance measurement, sales-enabling technology, etc.
  
  I certainly won't make excuses for those analysts that are unethical, biased or uninformed (or all three), and there are plenty of those to go around. Over the years, I've had the same negative view as Geoffrey--at times considerably worse.
  
  On the other hand, there are analyst firms that do separate fact from hype, provide end-user clients with insights and strategies for advancing their business plans, while at the same time guide vendors in developing products and services that provide real value to the marketplace.
  
  From my current position, the line that separates my firm?s conclusions and recommendations resulting from independent research and the revenues potentially derived from vendors is clear. We have not, nor will we, cross that line. In fact, we've had several vendors offer us substantial amounts of money to write positive reports about them. We make it very clear to all that if a vendor purchases reports from us, it has no direct bearing on what we write about them.
  
  I say direct bearing because it is in the vendors? best interests to read what we write about them, their competitors and their market. Here are four of the reasons: 1) Again and again, as a result of direct interviews with end-user companies, we?ve gotten information about their requirements, opinions, challenges and opportunities that they have not shared with vendors. It?s often an issue of trust. Also vendors get answers only to the questions they ask. Being analysts, we typically dig considerably deeper into many subject areas. 2) Vendors, just like the rest of us, see the world through their own eyes. If a vendor has unique competencies in, say, the political aspect of selling, they will often view many of the sales challenges their prospects and clients have as being a result of deficiencies in the sales peoples? ability to understand and leverage corporate politics to win, while there may be other, equally as important, problems. We provide a significant dose of reality. 3) In our industry, there has been virtually no independent information about the sales training providers. As a result, vendors? opinions about their competitors are often derived from clients and even rumors. 4) When vendors do understand the whole story (or at least our take on it), they are in a much better position to articulate to us what their unique value is to their clients. It elevates the level of communication. Simply put, we are able to speak the same language. When vendors consider these four reasons, you can see that they most often choose to invest in our research reports.
  
  A final, point: Where we believe that a vendor has an approach that meets the current or future needs of our end-user clients and the market as a whole, we will first validate it with our network of clients and then potentially adopt aspects of it. Geoffrey calls it plagiarism. That?s not what it is at all. The vendors would back me up on that. They are delighted to have been recognized as a leader in that capability. Of course, if they never invest in that report, they may never see the validation we?ve provided.