Why analyst tiering is crucial – oh, and there’s more to AR than just sales

There’s been a flurry of blog entries recently about the value of analyst tiering and how you should go about it.

Jim Zimmermann wrote about it on AnalystPerspectives.

So did Dom Pannell at ARcade and Jonny Bentwood on Technobabble 2.0. (Great to see you blogging btw Jonny).

Duncan Chapple added his thoughts over at Analyst Equity.

And of course no conversation in the AR blog world would be complete without ARmadgeddon.

It is also featuring a 'guest post' from Carter Lusher.

Me? Well, I have reasonably straightforward views about analyst tiering.

First, it's a good idea. I am continually shocked by how many PR firms seem to think that all analysts are the same and make no effort to differentiate between them (before Dom, Jonny and Marc etc jump all over me, I’m not talking about the PR firms that use dedicated AR specialists).

No company has infinite resource. They cannot possibly target every analyst in the market. It’s impractical. You have to focus your time, effort and money where it will have the biggest impact.

Targeting every analyst in the market is not just impossible, it’s also pointless. They’re not all of equal relevance or value. No one firm is ‘best of breed’ across every industry sector and vertical market.

Compare an enterprise software provider with an IT services company with a telecoms operator. They will all have different views on which firms are of most value to them.

It’s not just market sector either. It also depends on what you’re trying to achieve. The holy grail of analyst relations is to influence sales. Achieving this goal should be central to any AR programme.

But we mustn’t forget that analysts are incredibly influential in lots of other ways too. It shouldn’t just be about who’s got the most sway with the technology buyer.

Our clients also talk to analysts because they want to test out messaging or take the pulse of the market. Other times it’s because they want to support their media outreach. Sometimes it’s because they want to reach out to potential partners in the IT industry.

Increasingly, I explain to clients, prospects and colleagues that analysts are important because they “shape thinking.”

They shape the thinking of a technology buyer. That helps you sell more.

They shape the thinking of the media. That helps you achieve better press coverage – and it’s not just about the quote, it’s the whole way in which the journalist approaches the story.

They shape the thinking of product managers (and apparently Bill Gates). That means you go to market with better products and services – or at least with stronger messaging.

And what about channel partners? The City and Wall Street?

Analysts contribute to the buzz in the industry. Who’s hot and what’s not. The tech world is small. Connections count. And analysts have a lot.

So yes, tiering is important. But I don’t think there’s any real disagreement over that. What's more critical is that you review your targets and your tiering on a frequent basis.

Understanding the value and relevance of analysts is an on-going process. So is the identification of those who are most important to you.

While it would be nice to think that we can package up analyst firms in nice tidy boxes marked ‘Tier 1’, Tier 2’ etc and leave them be, it's unfortunately not that simple.

As to who are the Tier 1 players? Actually, there is no one 'right' answer. It depends on what market you’re in and what objectives you’re trying to achieve.

Update on the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations

There's been a lot going on at the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations recently so it seemed an appropriate time for a quick update.

As you may have seen, we now have a website. This contains information and news on the Institute as well as various sections for members. These include an AR job shop, discussion forums, a calendar of training courses and events, as well as a library that contains (among other things) 'best practice' whitepapers and analyst firm research agendas and team directories. (Hat tip to Tekrati for providing the newsfeed we use on our homepage).

Looking ahead, we’re delighted to have Gartner presenting at our next meeting which is taking place on 15 March. Peter Sondergaard (SVP and head of research) and Aaron Yaverski (GVP, high-tech provider product management) are our guest speakers. If anyone is interested in attending, please contact us using the details on the website.

In January, at our last meeting, IIAR members and guests from companies such as BEA, BT, CA, Cisco, LogicaCMG, Oracle, T-Systems and Unisys came to hear Datamonitor executives Anthony Parslow and Tim Royston-Webb. There was obviously lots of interest in Datamonitor’s recent acquisition of Ovum and Anthony and Tim spoke openly about the company’s future plans for the business.

There’s a summary of the meeting at the IIAR Yahoo Group. Members can find more information (including the Datamonitor presentation and handouts in the Library section of the IIAR website.

---------------------------------------------------------
Disclosure: I am a board member at the IIAR along with Duncan Chapple, Susanne Huebner, Ludovic Leforestier and David Taylor. The secretary of the IIAR is Hannah Kirkman.

Free: A Guide to Industry Analysts

Clive, Bob and the rest of the Quocirca team have produced a handy guide to the world of industry analysts.

The report is called “Use and Abuse of Analysts: A Guide for Vendors” and is available to download free of charge from the Quocirca site.

Aimed primarily at those who are interested in briefing analysts (rather than buying research or consultancy), it’s a very useful introduction.

The guide provides an overview of the analyst market, looks at what analysts do and when to use them. It also provides some ideas on identifying the most relevant analysts and gives tips on how to successfully interact with them.

I would say it’s a ‘must read’ if you are new to the world of AR and want to better understand who analysts are and how they work.

Those more familiar with the analyst market shouldn’t find it contains any surprises - though it’s still worth a quick read through.

Tony Lock and Joyce Becknell join Freeform Dynamics

I got called out by The AR Pro for my recent lack of posts. Quite right too.

So here's my first post of 2007.

Freeform Dynamics is expanding once again, this time adding Tony Lock and Joyce Becknell to its team. Tony and Joyce were previously at Sageza (although Tony is probably best known for his work with Bloor Research, the firm he left last year).

Both join as 'programme directors', a new role at Freeform Dynamics.

According to the website, Tony's current interests are hosting and services as well as software as a service.

Joyce meanwhile will be covering go-to-market (including SMB and mid-market sectors, emerging markets and channels) as well as server & storage infrastructure.

Analyst recommends....well, another analyst

It's not often you see an analyst organisation praising one of its competitors.

So imagine my delight recently when a colleague pointed out that a major Boston-based firm was being cited positively in the daily newsletter put out by one of its rivals.

Is there some sort of analyst-loving going on here that we need to be told about?

More likely, we think, it was just a good old fashioned 'cut and paste' botch-up. I hesitate to accuse - but parts of the the story apparently read just like a vendor press release...

Ovum's Bradshaw better than Gartner or Forrester, says Marc Benioff

Gareth Davies writes about something that happened a couple of days ago:

"A nice touch was that Marc pulled up David Bradshaw of OVUM who happened to be in the audience. Marc stated that when he wants to know what’s happening in the industry this is who he calls. The only analyst to have consistently called it right for the past few years, Marc stated much better than Gartner or Forrester."

Congratulations David. That's big praise indeed coming from the man at the top of salesforce.com

Thanks to James Governor.

Analyst moves: FS, Mobile, Security

Martha Bennett has left Forrester (where she led its European FS group) to join Datamonitor. She starts in October as research director, Financial Services Technology.

Nigel Stanley has joined Bloor Research to cover the security sector.

Current Analysis has introduced a new member to its mobile and wireless team. Mayur Sahni will be focusing on enterprise mobility in Europe. He previously covered telecoms for Current Analysis in Asia-Pacific.

Annette Zimmermann is joining Gartner as a research analyst in the Mobile Devices and Consumer Services team. As well as covering mobile devices, Annette will also be involved in consumer services research looking at fixed and mobile applications and services.

Over at Ovum, Raymond Yu has joined the mobile team as an analyst.

Another AR blog launches

There's a new AR blog in town. This one is from Hill & Knowlton, which launched ARcade earlier today.

The first post is very corporate and seems designed to demonstrate H&K's credentials in the AR market. Fingers crossed, future posts will provide some interesting reading and ARcade will live up to its positioning as

"a forum for mutual learning about all things AR. We will discuss issues that impact AR practitioners, the technology vendors we represent, and the industry analysts with whom we partner. We will review the latest developments in the analyst landscape, propose best practices for working with analysts and technology executives, and share lessons learned from fantastic mistakes."

I'm told we can expect regular postings from the global AR team which includes (among others) Josh Reynolds in the US and my old colleague Dominic Pannell in the UK.

Dom's blogged about AR before, most notably on The Serendipp Weblog and I found an article that Josh wrote last year which is a good read.

Various analyst changes

Thanks to Kim Horner of CustomerClix for these:

Mike Davis is leaving Butler Group. Sarah Burnett will now be covering the public sector beat.

Forrester is losing Hellen Omwando.

Dennis Szubert is joining Quocirca in September to cover infrastructure, servers, system management etc.

Adobe's AR Blog

I just found Adobe's AR blog, ARena (although I'm obviously a bit late off the blocks as it launched back in May).

It's being managed by Tim Brook, who heads up AR for Adobe in EMEA. In the first post, he outlined his intentions. The blog's purpose is to be:

a) a single point to communicate the latest product, solution and corporate news from Adobe.

b) a place where content and links from some of the other Adobe blogs are pulled together

c) a source of information on EMEA analyst events and briefings that are taking place.

It's a good idea and hopefully it's attracting more interest in the analyst community than a static AR webpage would. There's doesn't seem to be any public debate going on in the comments but of course that doesn't mean there's not dialogue going on via more private channels.

A tip of the hat to Dom Pannell for flagging this with me. Hopefully, he'll be back blogging soon...