Dave Stein's Blog for Sales Leaders

Years ago, as VP of marketing, I was responsible for industry analyst relations. Early on 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 10 minutes left.” Ouch!

I also remember timing a semi-annual analyst briefing so my company would be the last to get in front of an often-quoted analyst just before he left to present at his firm’s big client conference. There were literally hundreds of prospects in the audience. I took a seat in the first row and grinned when 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 very mention of it) 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 are highly leveragable.

A View From the Other Side

Now that I’m running an industry analyst firm, I have confirmed, from a different perspective, what I already knew: To vendors, analysts are sales prospects. Here is a sampling of my daily activities. See if you agree.

• Receive many phone calls from vendors of all sizes
• Receive invitations to audit sales training classes of every type and in every location
• Receive invitations to breakfast seminars and web seminars
• Receive lots of autographed books by sales pundits, known and unknown
• Listen to the worst company and product pitches I have ever heard
• Listen to the best company and product pitches I have ever heard
• Regularly fend off massive doses of hype from vendors

The Bottom Line

Working with analysts is not a seat-of-the-pants activity. Reaping the rewards of an ongoing stream 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.

Here is another post on the subject.

Filed under: Account Management, Industry Analyst, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies