As pointed out in past posts (see The Volume of Analyst Publishing and Quotes), analyst opinions show up in published format thousands of times each month. Unfortunately, too many AR teams are behind their colleagues in knowing when the analysts are being quoted or published. This lag can result in a CEO being embarrassed by a reporter or by a financial analyst who asks the CEO’s position on an IT industry analyst’s opinion. Another example is a sales deal gone awry because the company’s sales representative did not know that a relevant industry analyst had published a negative research note, or that his company was not on the Leaders Square of a Magic Quadrant.
The way to avoid these types of situations is for AR to know first when any Tier 1 analyst ends up in print. That way AR can prepare colleagues instead of responding to their pain. Too often, AR either ignores this requirement or does something ineffectual. Some AR departments subscribe to alerts that the analyst firms’ research engines have, but never look at the daily e-mails that are generated. Other AR departments buy a clipping service to get analyst press quotes. However, because these services typically have a delay of one to two months between the original publication and their report delivery, clipping services simply are not timely enough for effective response.
SageCircle recommends that AR put into place a program for daily monitoring of analysts’ opinions. What need to be monitored are specific analyst opinions, not just the fact that an analyst was quoted (Online SageContentTM Library clients can refer to “Why Monitoring Analyst Opinions is Critical”). Initially, AR can implement a manual process to accomplish this daily monitoring and then later use software or services to reduce the labor requirements. Junior AR staff members can be used to collect this data, but they should not be the only ones analyzing the data.
When significant analyst opinion is detected – either positive or negative – staff should have a process in place to alert their extended team, including PR and Sales. By providing context and actionable suggestions the AR team can better assist them in quickly leveraging positive commentary or responding to negative opinions. When appropriate a “silver bullet” to sales can go a long way to making the AR team a strategic partner rather than a reactive fire fighter.
SageCircle can make it easy for AR teams to jump start an analyst opinion-monitoring program that makes sense for your situation. We have plan builder workshops, best practices, SageToolsTM, examples and advice ready to help you launch an easy-to-manage opinion monitoring program. Give us a call at +44 7493 772981 or send an email to info [at] sagecircle.com to arrange a briefing.
SageCircle Technique:
- Generate a plan to monitor the opinions of key analysts on a daily basis
- Seek out software and/or third party services firms for ways to reduce your labor input
- Maintain a toolbox of templates for quickly creating actionable suggestions (Silver Bullets)
- Develop processes(e.g., alerts, newsletters and blogs) for communicating timely information to various types of colleagues (e.g., sales, executives, public relations and so on)
Bottom Line: Because speed is critical for effectively responding to published analyst comments, AR teams need to establish a daily program of monitoring analysts’ opinions.
Question: Do you have an analyst opinion program that monitors opinion on a daily basis?
Related posts on responding to analyst opinion:
- Responding to Analysts’ Published Comments – Speed is Essential
- Rebutting the spoken word – can you really know what analysts are saying? [AR practitioner question]
- Take a deep breath before responding to analyst commentary
Since 2000, SageCircle has helped analyst relations teams to focus on business value by encouraging innovative thinking that leverages insights and drives revenue.
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