A couple of AR people I know started new jobs this week and this got me thinking about what an AR professional should do when joining a new company. Here are some ideas for tasks that should be priorities:
1. Work with your manager to determine the current team plans, budgets, upcoming company events, and current analyst perceptions
2. Create or review the ranking and tiering for analysts related to the space to which you are assigned
3. Review the biography, coverage, and contact information for all top tier analysts
4. Inventory analyst firm contracts where your “tier 1” analysts work and obtain access 5. Conduct a quick “written word audit” of published research and press quotes of relevant analysts using the firms’ websites and search engines like Google.
6. Conduct a quick “spoken word audit” of your Tier 1 analysts using client inquiry to determine analyst perception of your new company and the space to which you are assigned
— This also gives you the chance to introduce yourself and start building the relationship
7. Obtain the corporate history of analyst interactions by accessing the ARM (analyst relationship management application like ARchitect3) to review recent past activities for all your top tier analysts
8. Meet your spokespeople
a. Determine company spokepeople who cover the space to which you are assigned
b. Introduce yourself and share contact information
c. Inquire as to their previous spokesperson training and their comfort level with analysts
d. Inventory and obtain past analyst presentations (if any)
e. Determine working relationships between company spokesperson and top analysts (e.g., is there an executive buddy program?)9. Determine previous level of involvement between sales and AR and formulate a plan to enhance level of sales support
10. Other? Feel free to drop me a line with anything I’m missing…
Bottom Line: The key items of focus should be gathering the past history, understanding the current relationship and perceptions of the key analysts, and knowing the abilities of your spokespeople.
Question: How does your company keep track of the level of training for your spokespeople? Do you have a good system for recording analyst interactions?
Since 2000, SageCircle has helped analyst relations teams to focus on business value by encouraging innovative thinking that leverages insights and drives revenue.
Just one thing to add: during the “spoken word audit”, one should ask the analyst for his/her upcoming research agenda and try get an idea of how the analyst views the company.