ARINSIDER

Unmatched Insight for Industry Analyst Relations Professionals

 

March 9 2005, Release 4.04

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In this Issue:

AR Insider: The Rest of the Story

The Insider: Integrating Competitive Intelligence, AR, and Sales: Best Practices - Part I

Under the Influence: The Basics of Good AR

AR Insider: The Rest of the Story

By: William S. Hopkins

Gartner’s acquisition of Meta has cast a shadow over the analyst marketplace.  It is so easy to get caught up in drama and suspense of the big boys at play.   Don’t miss out on the other stuff though.  We think although there is no doubt that it is THE news in the marketplace, that there are of lot of other interesting things going on as well.   So, to catch up on the last few months and in my best Paul Harvey…  Here’s the rest of the story.

Walking Point

We recently caught up with Tony Friscia, the CEO and one of the founders of preeminent Point Player AMR Research to hear how the last year went and see where they are headed in the future.   Tony reports that their revenues were virtually flat at nearly $40 million last year, and that they are starting to move the needle on their end-user vs. vendor business back towards the buyers. 

As for the future?  AMR is committed to its independence and feels that they have a real opportunity to differentiate themselves on service and a continued focus on the enterprise apps space.  As we have said before, we think that firms like AMR, Ovum, Tower, etc. are well poised to take advantage of the vacuum created by Meta’s absorption.  We think we’ll start to see some more direct competition vs. Gartner soon.

We found Tony at AMR’s excellent, vendor only event, Strategy 21 that was held recently in the Bay Area.  For enterprise software and services vendors this remains the best event out there when it comes to useable, actionable information about where the marketplace and your competitors are going.  They are planning to take their success in vendor facing events and to re focus it with an entirely new event this fall that is oriented to end users.  Should be interesting to see how they do. 

Metamorphosis: Wake or just a ripple?

Last week, we also attended Meta’s Metamorphosis event in Downtown San Francisco.  I’ll have to admit that I went expecting a wake and ended up at a party.  The general mood was not nearly as bleak as we expected.  Yeah, there were some issues: there seemed to be a lot more vendors than end-users; there were still an alarming number of analysts handing out resumes like Halloween candy and the vendor expo was weaker than we remembered.  But hey, all of these things didn’t conspire to take away from the overall festive atmosphere.  The Meta execs seemed relaxed and all of our clients were overjoyed at the much lower level of sales rep pressure. 

By far the most significant thing to happen at Metamorphosis was the appearance of Gartner’s CEO, Gene Hall and their popular head of Research, Peter Sondergaard.  We think that this was a smart move on Gartner’s part. What better way to say “we love you” to the best clients of your newest acquisition?  Send them flowers?

They’re Baaaack.  Return of the Analysts For Hire?

After the closing of the doors of Hurwitz in the fall of 2002 and the cold-turkey dropping of the “we know what we are, we’re just arguing over the price” stance of Aberdeen as of January 2004, many vendors were left scrambling to find sources for whitepapers for hire and other outsourced marketing collateral production activities.   Take heart all you lamenting the demise of the Analysts for Hire.  We don’t know for sure, but it looks like demand is finally jump starting supply.

Hurwitz Redux - We were notified in early January that financially challenged Baroudi Bloor was merging with formerly bankrupt Hurwitz Group and that the new company would go forth as Hurwitz Group.   Well, an inauspicious beginning, but who knows?  If the demand is there, they could make real money. The resilience of the players in the AFH space is amazing. 

Datamonitor Buys Butler – Butler, long a mainstay of the UK AFH marketplace, was purchased by UK based market research firm Datamonitor in December.  Though this deal was largely overshadowed by the similarly timed Gartner/Meta deal, the impact on the UK and European marketplace is significant.  Though neither company does much business in North America, and Datamonitor is a market research firm, not an AFH, we think that the addition of the more “consultative” and directly vendor friendly business of Butler with the Datamonitor sales and marketing machine will be a win. 

Got any news to share?  Heard anything interesting in the world of AR?  Give me a call at 512.334.5927 or email me at whopkins@knowledgecap.com and let us know.

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The Insider: Integrating Competitive Intelligence, Analyst Relations, and Sales: Best Practices - Part I of II

By: Christopher R. Wilder

In this series we will look at the 7 best practices to integrate CI, AR and Sales. In Part 1 we will look at how you can get the best of both worlds from CI and AR with or without a full time CI analyst. In the final part we will look at how these two worlds can be integrated with sales.

Introduction

Your sales force needs competitive tools in the sales cycle that

1. distinguish your company from its main competitors and

2. are not too complex.

Unfortunately, most research from analyst firms tends to be dry, complicated and many times just plain wrong. In many organizations, the task of distilling this information into quick charts and graphs that will arm the sales force with weapons without confusion over how to use them comes under the aegis of Analyst Relations. Why?

Usually, the AR Manager is responsible for negotiating analyst contracts, building relationships, and maintaining passwords for the research. As a result, it is a natural assumption that Analyst Relations can handle the additional work of not only reading research on a daily basis, but turning it into white papers, power points and case studies for the sales force.

As an Analyst Relations Manager, you handle three aspects of analyst firm subscriptions (negotiation, maintenance, and renewal); coordinate meetings for inquiries, briefings and tours; fill out RFIs on a weekly basis; develop metrics to justify your budget; organize participation in analyst conferences; send out a monthly analyst e-newsletter; and supervise international analyst activity as well.

Does this scenario sound familiar?

The sales force has always contacted you when it needs certain research immediately. Just yesterday, a salesperson e-mailed you and said that a ranking in a firm’s research has caused the prospect to lean more to your competitor. This message is similar to the other four you have received about the very same ranking. You have contacted the analyst firm for an explanation of how it arrived at the conclusion, but you have not yet received a response. You, too, believe the report is not accurate, but the process of educating the analyst is a lengthy, arduous and in most cases unchangeable process.  Further, the VP of Sales contacts you wondering when this poor rating will be changed.  You then start the internal battle of telling them that you have no control over the rankings, that they are often subjective and that your company did everything it was supposed to do: purchase of subscription to get on analyst’s “database radar,” regular briefings over the phone, bi-yearly tours and visits to the firm’s main conference.

However, when that research does not necessarily “glow” about your company, then complaints arise. It is not your job to alter research to suit the needs of your salespeople. The best you can do is save them time by presenting confusing information in a clear, condensed format. Even so, no one seems to be elated with your efforts, especially when the research is not so flattering to your company. Instead of hearing,” Thanks for warning us about how we are perceived,” it becomes “Kill the messenger.”

Who decided that just because you manage the passwords that you are also responsible for competitive intelligence? Usually, Analyst Relations handles this job out of convenience and habit. No one in your company ever established a plan for how research is disseminated to the sales force. To compound this some salespeople create their own tools; some rely on AR for distilled research charts; some use nothing at all. Nevertheless, when a deal is on the line, salespeople will look to you to rescue them. If you cannot, they will blame you.

A trend we have seen within savvy companies is the creation of the Competitive Intelligence Analyst (CIA) position that works with AR and the sales force—and is responsible solely for the creation of necessary tools. Saddling Analyst Relations with a job that should involve a separate resource only diminishes AR’s capability to build relationships and educate analysts effectively. A CIA that focuses only on competition and the development of tools can deliver results quicker to needy salespeople. Most organizations simply do not have the time to build comprehensive sales tools so we recommend having CIA report to the Director of Analyst Relations. This way, one can concentrate on internal sales needs (CIA) and the other can manage the external world of analysts (AR).

While many companies have dedicated market intelligence, groups the position of CIA is one that is becoming more and more of a tactical need, especially as IAR becomes strategic in the sales process.  If considering developing this position in your organization below is a list of best practices for you to consider:

Hire a Dedicated Competitive Intelligence Analyst (CIA): If budget issues preclude you from acquiring this resource, think about sharing the cost from different departments—Sales and Analyst Relations.

If you cannot afford a CIA, then establish internally what AR can and cannot do for the sales force: Provide expectations about the level of competitive intelligence you can achieve, given AR’s other duties and limited time.

Combing analyst websites for research relating to your company takes time: Having a dedicated person to perform this task is invaluable; especially when that person can also turn the information into tools that better your company’s sales cycle.

In the next issue we will look at:

• Transformation of analytical research into viable sales tools

• Analyst Relations as a logistical department

• Never outsource or farm-out your Competitive Intelligence

• Measuring Where you Are and Building Outward

If you have question or comments on vendor briefings, please give us a call at 512.334.5943 or email us at inquiry@knowledgecap.com. We’ll be happy to talk.

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