Do’s about using analyst research

icon-phone-headset.jpgLast week we posted some “dont’s” about using analyst written research, so it seems appropriate to follow up with some positive actions for how to use the research and recommendations from the industry analysts.

Contrary to popular belief, IT market researchers and advisory analysts do not do either lab-based product evaluations or take an academic ivory tower approach and think great thoughts in isolation. Rather, the primary research tool is talking: talking to clients, vendors, investors, and the press – the people on the front lines of creating and using technology. Doing client inquiries is not only a way to deliver client service, but also one of the best research sources that analysts have available. Every inquiry provides an analyst the opportunity to find out why a client has some vendors on or off the evaluation list, how the product they installed earlier is working out, how good the vendor’s service has been, and so on. By gathering hundreds of data points from a number of sources, analysts can quickly use pattern analysis to determine what is happening in a market or with a vendor. Knowing how this research methodology works gives research clients insights into how they can better use analyst research, either written or spoken.

For consumers of analyst research an important question to ask analysts break during an inquiry is “What are the sources of information and number of […]

Forrester and Gartner Q4 and full year earnings — Higher prices and emphasis on role-based services

The two analyst firms that are publicly held conducted earnings calls last week, Forrester (February 5) and Gartner (February 6). This analysis does not look at areas of interest to investors, but seeks to pull out insights that are relevant to clients and prospects as well as CIT vendor analyst relations (AR) teams.

For clients of both firms, one important fact jumps out of the earnings calls – price increases will be […]

Adding Twitter or other micro blogging tools to the AR tool box

icon-social-media-blue.jpgAnalyst relations (AR) has a number of tools available for interacting with the IT industry analysts ranging from prehistoric-based face-to-face meetings to the 19th century telephone to the 21st century TelePresence by Cisco. Social media (e.g., blogs, communities, wikis and so on) represents just the latest technology to come along to enhance the AR interaction tool box. While social media should be considered an opportunity, many AR teams see it as a challenge because they perceive that that cannot add one more item to their to-do list (see Why social media scares the analyst firms and vendor AR teams). However, if approached correctly, social media does not have to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.

One of the new social media tools that could be very useful is the micro-blog (e.g., Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce). Micro-blogs are easy to learn, simple to experiment with and, best of all, free. Micro-blogs could be a constructive one-to-many communications tool, especially for fast-breaking […]

Startups have unique market insights that they can use as currency with IT industry analysts [Startup Saturday]

rocket-for-startups.jpgAs we said in Should tech startups invest in analyst relations?, the currency startups should use with analysts is not euros, yuan, pounds, dollars, yen or pesos. No, the real currency is information (and the executive time to deliver the information).

Startups need to provide analysts with all the usual information such as strategy, ability to execute, product road map and so on. However, startups will be at a disadvantage to mature vendors in some areas like formal customer references. As a consequence, startups need to mix in some information or data that they are better suited to know and share. In this article, we will offer some suggestions for topics that startups might have unique insights that will appeal to […]

Gartner Quarterly AR Call Schedule

logo-gartner.gifFor several years now, Gartner Vendor Relations has held quarterly teleconferences for the analyst relations (AR) community. There is a discussion about a topic (e.g., in December it was about the policy change on surveying analysts) and Q&A on any issue. Sometimes the calls are pretty low key and other times it can get quite heated depending on […]

Know your analyst – Novice, Luminary or Sage

For IT vendor analyst relations (AR) teams, a critical success factor is treating each IT industry analyst as an individual, not some faceless member of a crowd. For example, knowing that an analyst loathes PowerPoint presentations can be an important “ah ha!” to improving a briefing by eliminating an irritation. Similar “ah ha!”s can be gleamed by knowing where an analyst is in his or her career. There are three major stages in an analyst’s growth cycle which will impact how you deal with them: Novice, Luminary and Sage. Each stage has specific motivators and the analyst comes into discussions with vendors with specific ideas, techniques, and needs.

While critical for AR teams, it is also important for research consumers – end user or vendor – to understand if the analysts they are reading or doing inquiries with are Novices, Luminaries or Sages. Each growth stage can provide different types of insights and advice.

The Novice Analyst – Motivated by knowing what their clients don’t know

Being a Novice analyst should not be considered a negative by any means. Novice analysts generally have strong industry experience – usually focused in one segment; have a sharp intellect; can be very […]

Save the date — March 10th for SageCircle’s AR Effectiveness Seminar

The goal of SageCircle’s AR Effectiveness Seminar is to teach attendees how to use powerful analyst relations best practices to leverage the analysts’ unique position in the technology marketplace to shape market perception and drive sales. Held the day before IDC’s Directions, the seminar will be in San Jose to make it convenient for folks[…]

Gartner grows 12% in 2007 — SageCircle will be microblogging during earnings announcement

Carter will be on Twitter (“follow” me at http://twitter.com/carterlusher) giving a running commentary. Even if you cannot follow live, you can see the complete commentary by clicking on my profile afterwards. The comments will be focused on the interests of members of the IT analyst ecosystem (e.g., AR managers and enterprise IT clients) not investors. The earnings call starts[…]