Building Effective Analyst Relations

Business Growth Unleashed
Jeroen Kleinhoven
Managing Partner
+31 622241190
Jeroen.kleinhoven@6hours.nl
nl.linkedin.com/in/kleinhoven
Software VOC bijeenkomst:
Hoe kom ik in beeld? Het softwarebedrijf en de analist
May 15, 2013

6hours Associates BV – All Rights Reserved 2013 www.6hours.nl
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  Founder 6hours Associates
  Consultancy, Interim & Hands-on Investments
  Commercial productivity for Dutch b2b software companies
  Focus on go-to-market strategies, business development & CXO relationships
  Partner CIONET Nederland
  Europe’s leading network with over 4.000 CIOs & IT Decision Makers.
  CIONET Netherlands (Bloemendaal) provides an online and offline network and
knowledge exchange for over local 450 members
  www.cionet.com/join-cionet/
  CEO Treparel
  Software provider in Big Data Text Analytics and Visualization (Delft)
  www.treparel.com
  Gartner (‘02 – ’10)
  Different roles incl. Regional VP Gartner Benelux
  More information:
  http://nl.linkedin.com/in/kleinhoven
  jeroen.kleinhoven@6hours.nl
  +31 6 22241190
About Jeroen Kleinhoven

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Who is influential on what?
Big Data News Analysis on Top 4 firms (source: The Guardian)
All articles from The Guardian
newspaper that cite:
•  Gartner (575 articles)
•  Forrester (307 articles)
•  IDC (410)
•  OVUM (142)
Note: total 1.172 articles from
which 634 are published since
2010
Analysis done with KMX Analytics
& Visualization software using The
Guardian API. More info on:
www.treparel.com

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Gartner Forrester

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IDC OVUM

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Let’s Agree to Disagree…
For the technology vendor executive, there is no topic wrought with more
misinformation, misconception and fear than the role of the industry analyst in their
ultimate success.

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Agenda
1.  Who are the analysts?
2.  What do they do?
3.  Why should you work with them?
4.  When should you pay them?
5.  What are the best practices for working with them?
The term “analyst” is like the terms “software” or
“hardware”.
It works as a broad categorization, but utterly
fails to describe any of the actual capabilities or
characteristics of the firms in that category.”

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The IT Buying Ecosystem
References /
Use cases
Vision, Products,
Use Cases
References / Business
What should we
communicate?

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Three Broad Types Of Influencers
(excluding the press)
  Consultants (Management / Strategy Consultants, Security Advisors)
  Low rate of end user interaction per consultant
  But for extended periods of time (days to months)
  Driven by utilisation and revenue targets
  End User Analysts (the minority)  Gartner, Forrester
  High rate of end user interaction per analyst
  But for short periods of time (30 min ATCs to 1 or 2 day engagements)
  Driven by achieving status and influence in the industry, and targets for thought leadership,
publishing, events, press coverage, assisting with sales
  Market Analysts (the majority)  IDC, OVUM
  Generally low to no end user interaction
  Focused on publishing reports for service providers, investor community, procurement
departments
  Driven by achieving status and influence in the industry, and targets for thought leadership,
publishing, events, press coverage, assisting with sales
Senior analysts can range across more than one of the above

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Analyst Firm Revenue – World Wide
Gartner
Forester
IDC
Others
Source: Knowledge Capital Group April 2008
2011: $1.468b
2011: $283m
2011: $340m est.

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Analyst Firm Revenue – Buy Side
Gartner
Forester
AMR
Others
“Gartner owns over 75% of the buy
side (IT dept) revenue in the
market place. Consequently their
influence and exposure is
immense”

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Segmenting Analyst Firms
(=Gartner)
Your FOCUS
when Selling /
Partnering to
other Vendors
Big 3 in 2013:
1.  Gartner
2.  Forrester
3.  IDC

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Key Global Influencers (according to Dutch SI)

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What Do Analysts Do?
  The power that the major industry analysts hold over major, multi million
dollar technology deals is unique in the business world.
  The Deal Makers and Breakers act as father confessors for CIOs,
technology professionals and vendors.
  Only 20% of the value of an industry analyst to a vendor comes from
written words - quotes, articles, reports or conferences
  80% of the value comes from spoken words -- picking up the phones and
answering the questions of the End User community.
“The most important deliverable provided by the
analysts isn’t the writing, the reports, or the
conferences – it’s picking up the phone and
answering the questions of the IT user community.”
The primary reason that End Users use the analysts is that they
provide insurance against FUD: Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt
(most often created by analysts to describe marketing and products of vendors…)

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Why would you want to work with Analysts?
  Influencing Sales
  A successful analyst relationship for a vendor isn’t one where the analysts
recommend a particular technology.
  But the sales where the Analyst includes them on a short list or give an honest,
objective, well informed assessment.
  A failing relationship is driven by the lack of information about a vendor, it’s
products and how it solves business problems for clients.
  Providing Validation and Advice
  Analysts know the market and can help vendors to figure out how to sell in to
these
  They can validate or invalidate your product, company, positioning, messaging,
partnering models, and vision or strategy
  Analysts can only give advice or at least their opinion
  Advice comes in many shapes: free advice, purchasing research, consulting or
analyst workdays

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Why would you want to work with Analysts?
  Providing Intelligence
  Information is the currency of the vendor’s relationship with the analyst: the more
information you give them, the more they likely to give back.
  Most analysts like to be showing how much they know, and how they know.
  The best competitive information that vendors can get on other vendors comes
from analysts (caution: it’s a double-edged sword!)
  Analysts have targets as well… they need to produce new research often. They
get their information from….? End users and Vendors!
A Darwin Magazine study of over 2,000 CIO’s and IT managers:
  84% of CIO’s surveyed feel that the information they received from IT
industry analysts was reliable
  55% said that they use this information to make technology purchase
decisions
  40% said they use it to guide which vendors they purchase from
  25% said they use it to choose which system integrators to work with

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What Do Analysts Like?
  Response to their survey and briefing requests
  Quarterly updates
  Products & new wins (deals)
  Easy access to “the basics”
  Access to “insights”
  AR contact list
  Upcoming events calendar
  Pre-announcement briefings
  Annual executive sessions - access to the “big cheeses”
  Regular “push” e-mails with the news
  “Behind the scenes” peeks
Motivators
HIGH:
•  Influence
•  Knowledge
•  Power
LOW:
•  Community
•  Money
•  Reciprocity
The ability to develop their knowledge, increase
thought leadership and market influence

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When to pay the analysts?
  Being a client
  Annual access to research
  Making inquiries (additional)
  Attend events
  Buy a day with an Analyst
  Invite analyst as presenter
  Tailored / strategy consulting
  Webinars, newsletters, more…
  Analyst Review on your website
“If you think that you can buy the
influence of the Deal Makers and
Breakers -- the ones that
influence revenues – you are
wrong. Their influence cannot be
bought.”

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Next? Build an effective AR function
  Target
  Assess each analyst company and individual analyst’s value based on their insight in to
your products, markets, influence to YOUR target buyers, exposure and their accessibility
  Start with Analyst briefings (free-of-charge)
  Planning
  Create the perfect pitch
  Create and maintain the analyst calendar
  How much to buy for analyst subscriptions (and negotiate!)
  What to say and how (often) to say it
  Assign one executive in your team for AR activities
  Execute
  Setting up and managing analyst interactions
  Communicate best practices and feedback internally
  Reference prospects to Analysts and visit their events…!
  Measure:
  What they Write, What they Think, What they Say.

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Appendix
Insight Experience Connection Action
More info: www.6hours.nl
Contact: Jeroen Kleinhoven, Managing Partner
Jeroen.kleinhoven@6hours.nl
+31 6 222 411 90
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kleinhoven

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