Practical Advice on Building Relationships With …...Gartner does make mistakes; there are good and bad ways to reconcile Fighting with the analyst rarely helps either side Analyst

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Ken Dulaney

Practical Advice on Building

Relationships With Gartner

Analysts

1 CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY I © 2015 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Gartner wants you to be successful

There is a clear path to get Gartner to recommend you

Wherever your dot lands, there is a good story to tell

Gartner does make mistakes; there are good and bad ways to reconcile

Fighting with the analyst rarely helps either side

Analyst relations should be bi directional

Engineering needs to meet the analysts

Key Tenets of the Analyst Vendor Relationship


Long term, with consistent interactions

High level but not the highest necessarily

Information is both periodic and cumulative

– Analysts can have short term memories (data overload)

Gives me insight beneath the surface and beyond their products

Knows that I don’t go to the press with what I hear

Understands Gartner’s role; invests in it.

Thinks about things that matter

Responsive

Anatomy of My Best Relationships


3

Your Analyst Tier-ing Leads to Success

Tier 1:Primary

Analysts (1-2)

Tier 2: Referral Analysts (2-10)

Tier 3: Adjacent Mkt Analysts (20+)

Your market and subject matter experts

The market(s) in which you want to compete

The markets in which you currentlycompete


Too LateBest to bring in analysts early

Plan Build Launch Manage

Engage Analysts on an ongoing, continuous basis. Start early-on in decision/development cycles!

Inbound – Applying analyst insight to help you build a better business

Solu

tion D

evelo

pm

en

t C

ycle

n Analyst VisioningGathering analyst input on emerging new solution ideas.

Inquiry

SAS

Briefings

n Early Stage HypothesisInsuring solution match with analyst perceptions; receive

early analyst feedback

n Solution Roadmapping Gaining input to assure

competitive differentiation

n Alpha Update Presenting early stage direction; demonstrate

progress

n Feedback Gaining directional

validation

n Message TestingInsuring market

resonance

n Pre-Launch Feedback Especially for “Tier 1” analysts –insure “no surprises”

with analysts

Contin

ues fo

r Each M

ajo

r Revis

ion

n Release Analyst Briefing

n Sales Deal Coaching Sales Listen-in Inquiry

Ion how to handle objections

n Sales Training Address final objections, risks,

opportunities

Part of Bid Supportn Feedback

Understand target customer feedback

n Ongoing Update analysts

on wins, customer feedback and even

eventually, retirement

Outbound – Communicating to analysts to insure they understand your company, its products and your successes


5

Vendor Briefing “Art” – Takes Practice “Brief Half As Much As You Seek Input”

Vendor Briefing Best Practices:

• Be consistent and top of mind

- Present more than annual updates on your business

- Include VBs as part of your product release schedule

• Focus on a key objective

- Narrowcast your message; narrow the analyst audience

- Speeds scheduling and improves efficacy of the briefing

- Fit into an analyst’s agenda – changing customer requirements, emerging market trends, competitive shifts, cool new technologies (ie target “Cool Vendors” special report)

• Be concise

- Focus; less is more - Maximum 2O SPH (slides per hour)

- Build in time for questions


Content scaled to my interests

Knows my positions and helps me see change

Ties the announcement to an overall product perspective

Makes sure I understand the marketing approach

Analyzes competitive position realistically

Gives me a 30 second summary to help clients

Asks me at the end what I will say to clients

Anatomy of My Best Briefings


7

As an “Advisory” Client, Utilize Inquiry

Telephone inquiries are the primary channel for two-way interaction.

Engage analysts on key market issues, trends or observations, before an expensive launch.

Less than 30% of what an analyst knows ever gets published.

Inquiries are an excellent way to obtain deeper insight, apply published research to your situation, and learn more about an analyst's views.

Use inquiry often and with your executives and stakeholders. Avoid “batching up” questions, issues, into vendor briefings or analyst days – keep those focused on 1 – 2 big issues.


• Clear agenda

• Not a briefing in disguise

• Tells me what can be changed and what cannot

• Engineering, marketing and sales all in the room with at least one decision maker

• Clear focus on business goals; how can you make money

• Notes taken and highlights and take-aways redistributed to analyst

• Followed by inquiries to show what will be done with the decisions made or recommened.

Anatomy of My Best Analyst Day


1. Should AR teams build one?

2. What elements would analysts want to see?

Updated company data

Press releases

Acquisition histories

Quarterly financials

Org charts

AR Team members – who to contact

Briefing documents

3. Good examples?

Vendor AR Websites for Analysts


1. What is best mechanism? E-mails? Tweets? Other social media postings?

2. What kind of e-mails will analysts pay attention to?

3. Good examples?

4. Tie everything back to long term themes and architectures; marketing by blog is a waste of time.

Regular Updates – How Do Analysts like to be communicated to outside of inquiry and briefings?


Social Media is One Communication Method to Build Analyst Relationships

Analysts in general don’t rely on Social Media; those that do use Twitter some Google Plus

Retweeting of credible case studies or supportable market facts/data is likely to get analysts attention – but prepare to share details and prep for analyst fact checking

Some analysts Tweet out questions to vendors; vendor tweets specifically meant for analysts will get “tweeting” analysts attention – if info is fresh and valuable!

E-mail however is still best and the more personalized the better - Analysts like getting “a scoop”

Analyst blogs give you a chance to get analysts insight in a more contextualized albeit public way. Re-tweeting a point made in an analyst blog can’t hurt your relationships with the analysts too!

1

Actions: Create a Twitter list of analysts you want to connect to and learn their topics of interest. Build relationships and “train” them to get

them to respond to your tweets. Follow their blogs and know the blogger.


Its about long relationships

Tier the analysts

Briefings shouldn’t be the main activity

Focus on “sell through” messages, not “sell in” messages

Raise the bar for gathering inbound information

Use SAS judiciously

Its not about the dot.

Key Recommendations

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Practical Advice on Building Relationships With …...Gartner does make mistakes; there are good and bad ways to reconcile Fighting with the analyst rarely helps either side Analyst