Now that is not the way to exploit an expensive Magic Quadrant reprint

I accidently came across an unsecured link to a PDF of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Team Collaboration and Social Software, 2007 courtesy of (vendor). This was a nice little treat because I was about ready to chat with one of (vendor)’s competitors and it good to see what Gartner had to say.

For (vendor), it is a classic mistake to not require someone who wants a copy to register so that the company can capture the potential prospect’s contact information for later use. Furthermore, Socialtext could be giving their competitors’ a free ride off their expensive reprint, because companies who do not purchase a reprint can have their sales teams simply point prospects to that link, which only displays the PDF. Oh, and if you go to (vendor)’s website the link to the MQ takes you a blank Flickr page.

BTW, the above link might be available for long as I notified (vendor) that they should take it down.

SageCircle Technique: Communications and tech vendors who license analyst research for marketing purposes should:

• Keep the link to the PDF secure
• Require people to register to get a copy
• Surround the link to the reprint with marketing content that exploits the analyst’s commentary

In addition to protecting their own reprints, vendors should also be searching for reprints by their competitors whenever a major piece of analyst research is published.

Bottom Line: Vendors should not license expensive analyst research and not treat it as a valuable asset.

Question: Vendors – Have you ever used another company’s research reprint to your advantage?

How SageCircle Can Help – SageCircle can help vendor marketing teams develop an effective program to leverage analyst reprints. This includes how to equip the sales teams with the training and tools to exploit positive commentary. Call 650-274-8309 or e-mail info (at) sagecircle dot com for more information.

SageCircle

Since 2000, SageCircle has helped analyst relations teams to focus on business value by encouraging innovative thinking that leverages insights and drives revenue.