In the last two years, the number of key, broad-based analyst firms providing advice to Fortune 1000-type buyers has been cut in half. In 2004, Forrester Research bought and
devoured Giga and, earlier this year, Gartner did the same thing to META Group.
This leads to increased pressure on technology vendors and their PR firms to gain a better and more detailed understanding of the analyst landscape and to align their target
analysts with their go-to-market focus. This applies to small technology vendors focused on specific product areas and to larger clients who sell into vertical markets - notably
to financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and the government.
Not only has a new business model grown up around supporting the strategy behind analyst-relations program development, but the ante also has been increased dramatically
because an estimated 77% of analyst "influence" (directly on deals) now is in Gartner's hands.
The battle is on to isolate and to impact the key five to seven analysts who control most of the decisions about what is bought and from whom. Gone are the days of annual
briefings configured for a long list of analysts. Today's successful programs have trained spokespeople hosting specific briefings at least monthly with a small, targeted group of
analysts. Here are the Top 10 tools senior PR execs can use to navigate the current terrain in analyst relations:
- Re-evaluate, re-target, and re-prioritize your entire analyst list - 75% of the analysts from any one of the three biggest firms probably are gone.
- Find out if your favorite analyst(s) survived the takeover. If he/she did, what areas now are being covered? Is your analyst still relevant to your business?
- Ask Gartner (or any other analyst group that has undergone big changes) for a detailed map of the analysts that cover your space. You can view Gartner's basic coverage at
- Understand exactly what value you can get from every firm or analyst with whom you work and why you work with them.
- Start looking at "point players" (smaller boutique firms), and understanding who covers the space(s) you target.
- Make sure all your spokespeople and subject-matter experts (also known as "interactors") know the new analyst landscape and your new targeting. Make sure they are trained in
best practices for interactions. - Develop realistic metrics for determining the value and impact analysts have on your sales, visibility and product-development processes.
- If you were a client of both META and Gartner, start working now with your Gartner sales rep to preserve as much of the value of your META contract as possible.
- Pay close attention to competitive offerings in the next few months as Forrester and the large point players (AMR, Yankee Group, Tower, Ovum, etc.) compete for META's share.
- Never, ever, do long-term, multi-year contracts with analyst firms unless you can modify or cancel contracts at your discretion. Mergers will continue.
Contacts: William Hopkins is CEO of Austin, Texas-based Knowledge Capital Group (KCG), which specializes in analyst relations and which has worked for more than 700
clients since launching in 1998. He can be reached at [email protected]. Stephen England, president & partner of KCG,
can be reached at [email protected].