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Industry Analysts: Your Best Prospects
April 20, 2007
Don't neglect analyst relations
By Dave Stein
Years ago, as a VP of marketing, I was responsible for industry analyst relations. I made plenty of mistakes, but as time went on I figured out how to effectively manage my company's relationships with industry research analysts, resulting in correct positioning, sales leads and plenty of positive coverage.
I vividly remember the penalty for being too salesy. "Don't give me a sales pitch," said the most influential analyst covering our space. "Just answer my questions and, by the way, you only have ten minutes left." Ouch!
I also remember timing a semi-annual briefing so my company would be the last to get in front of an often-quoted analyst before he left to present at his firm's big client conference. There were hundreds of prospects in the audience and the analyst mentioned my company's name twice. That endorsement was golden, leading to several critical meetings at the conference that directly resulted in new contracts several months later.
For a number of years my consulting firm engaged with companies for the purpose of preparing them for briefings with industry analyst firms. Our assertion was that industry analysts were a vendor's best prospect. If a company managed to get an influential industry analyst to publish a positive review of them, they could count on a spate of quality leads as well as use of that document (or the mere mention of its existence) as a powerful sales tool.
Mistakes Companies Make
What many of our clients didn't realize at first was that industry analyst relations requires at least the same degree of planning and management as pursuing business with any strategic account. And it requires a subtle, consultative sell. We found that our naïve clients approached analysts as they did sales opportunities: forcefully and tactically. They would mistakenly send either junior people or the CEO to do the job. We often wound up building an account management process and training appropriate company management and marketing personnel on its use so they would be more effective, as a team, in pursuit of that positive analyst rating.
Today savvy CEOs and COOs see analyst relations management as a core competency for a CMO. Proven skills in industry analyst relations have become increasingly important and highly leveragable.
The Bottom Line
Now that I'm running an analyst firm covering the sales performance improvement industry, I have confirmed what I already knew: To vendors, analysts are sales prospects.
Working with analysts is not a seat-of-the-pants activity. Reaping the rewards of positive research reports requires senior management support, competent industry analyst relations personnel, sufficient funding, a strategy, plenty of planning, effective selling and near-flawless execution.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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