Category: 3. Engage – AR implementation

Engage is the implementation stage of the IDEAL model. It primarily means planning and conducting tactics that support the strategy that drives the program. It also means collecting some of the data needed for evaluation.

Potential analyst inquiry topics for IT and communications vendors

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icon-phone-headset.jpgSageCircle constantly recommends that communications and IT vendors take advantage of their inquiry privileges with analysts and actively work this activity into their interactions plan.  In last Saturday’s post (click here) we encouraged startups to use inquiry and suggested some techniques that are valid for all vendors.

Inquiries are a great way to stay “top of mind” with your key analysts between major events or announcements.  In addition, you can use inquiry to enhance the analyst relationship as long as you avoid idle chit-chat and ask questions of substance. 

Some potential topics that might be appropriate for a vendor inquiry with an analyst might include  […]

You could end up buried deep in the “Niche” by insisting on being added to a MQ before you are ready

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Niche = “Losers” on the Magic QuadrantGartner’s Magic Quadrant is probably the iconic piece of analyst research. With its visibility and status, it also has enormous influence on vendor sales opportunities, especially when it comes time for IT buyers to draw up the all-important vendor short lists.

Because of this influence on short lists, communications and IT vendor executives sometimes obsess over the “MQ” for their markets and put great pressure on their AR teams to get placement on MQs they are not on. This can actually be a counterproductive move because vendors who really should not be on a MQ will get stuck in the lower left hand corner (click on graphic to enlarge). Even thought this part of the MQ is labeled “Niche,” too many IT buyers translate that label into “Loser.” Getting perceived as a “Loser” can put a vendor’s sales at a disadvantage in trying to get into an opportunity because it is so much more difficult to explain away why you are not a “Loser.” than explaining why your company was not included on a version of a MQ.

Some Gartner analysts publicly admit that this mental relabeling occurs and try to mitigate […]

Not responding to analysts can lead to major issues

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SageCircle believes strongly in ranking and tiering your analyst list and applying your resources in a reasonable and carefully thought out process.  By determining the relative importance and impact of each analyst you can decide how much of your available resource to allocate.  This allows you to give sufficient resource to the real influencers rather than spreading your energy so thin as to have no impact.

That said, it is important to determine a policy for dealing with tier three analysts other than ignoring them.  Recently an article was published about Motorola where an analyst was quoted as basically saying that they were losing talent and the entire AR had left (see article).

Investigation by SageCircle strategists determined that […]

Will you get analyst opinions in a briefing if you are not a client? [AR seminar question]

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question-mark-graphic.jpgYes… if you give them a chance to actually speak and if you take the time to ask correctly.

There is a common (mis-)understanding that analysts will only provide opinions if you are a paying client of their firm.  So can you get their opinions during a briefing? For the most part, analysts are more than happy to comment on what they hear in a briefing. The primary reasons why they don’t express their opinions are […]

Pet peeve – reporters who refer to analyst firms as consultancies

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I guess I am just a nit picker, but it always catches my eye when reporters refer to Gartner, Forrester, et cetera as consultants or consultancies. The analysts’ business and research models are typically quite different from consultants. Best to refer to analyst firms as “research and advisory firm” or “market researcher.” Also catching my eye is when[…]

Because analysts are increasingly using blogs as development platforms, AR has to participate to be part of the conversation

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icon-social-media-blue.jpgOver the weekend in a Twitter exchange, AMR Research’s Phil Fersht (Twitter, blog) told me he “uses blogging to cultivate ideas for research.” In addition, Phil said that he uses “it as a networking tool to attract and influence users.”

For AR managers who have Phil on their analyst lists – and any outsourcing vendor should – you should be following’s Phil’s blog.  If you are not, this information should send a shiver down your spine […]

AR programs should put their contact info on the company website

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A recent survey of vendor websites indicates that while PR and IR contacts are clearly listed often AR teams do not post their contact information.  When questioned some AR teams have indicated that they know their tier one analysts and do not want to be contacted directly by other analysts.

The analyst landscape is constantly changing.  We suggest that every AR team follow the PR leads and post relevant contact information on their public websites for a variety of reasons:

  • Your tier one list should be dynamic, and there could be analysts worthy of being included […]

Why do analyst consulting days? [AR Practitioner Question]

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question-mark-graphic.jpg As was briefly mentioned in Strengths and weaknesses of analyst research delivery types, analyst consulting days (aka SAS or strategic advisory service in Gartnerese) have a high risk/reward profile for vendor analyst relations (AR) teams. After that post, we received a question from an AR practitioner asking why AR would want to spend the money on an analyst consulting day.

It is important to remember that building strong analyst relationships requires a mix of interaction types.  You cannot achieve your objectives using only briefings and inquiry. Consulting days can have significant benefits when done correctly.  Because there are different reasons for purchasing analyst consulting days from the firms, vendors need to clarify the goals they want to pursue through buying consulting days. The shotgun approach of “we’ll just throw some more money at them by buying consulting time” rarely succeeds in genuinely increasing an analyst’s positive perception of a vendor.

The various reasons why vendors choose to do consulting days vary in real value:

  • To build stronger relationships with key analysts
          – Rating: high value
  • To do a Deep Dive-style uninterrupted briefing
          – Rating: none to high value
  • To have a high profile marketing event speaker
          – Rating: […]