AR & recession – it’s about refocusing priorities and activities
Recessions typically change technology and telecommunications vendors’ priorities and activities. One of the most common changes is to cut back on marketing, especially brand building and other “fluffy” activities, to reduce expenses. At the same time, there is more emphasis on selling, especially for those vendors that sell direct to large enterprises. Another change is to focus on core markets and reduce effort in secondary markets. There are several dangers for analyst relations (AR) programs in economic downturns:
- AR is associated with “fluffy” marketing and subject to headcount and budget cuts
- AR is not closely associated with driving revenues
- AR’s priorities become out-of-sync with new corporate or business unit priorities
- AR is executing its original plan (or typical activities if there was no plan)
- AR is reporting metrics that do not seem relevant to executives
If AR is to avoid been the target of budget and headcount cuts is it critical to ensure that it is aligned with corporate priorities and demonstrating positive economic contributions. While this seems obvious, too many AR programs are so caught up in reactive mode or simply doing normal day-to-day tasks that they don’t see the danger forming. As a consequence, these programs have a greater likelihood of getting cut than those AR managers and teams that proactively or preemptively move to change their focus.
When AR programs are considering what has to change during a recession they should remember to work and spend differently. Only doing one is not […]
Since 2000, SageCircle has helped analyst relations teams to focus on business value by encouraging innovative thinking that leverages insights and drives revenue.