Go Hug an Analyst
Our lives, or at least what is discussed online and at conferences, have been laser-focused on media relations and blogger relations. Most of these conversations, as we all know, are typically folks moaning and whining about how bad PR people. A focus of PR that does not get much attention is analyst relations (AR). When I first started in PR one of the first elements I was forced to master was AR, since it was often times the first level of communications. Why today is this not something discussed on marketing and PR blogs, or for that matter by analysts themselves? Let’s break it down, Dr. Jack style!
Analysts are just paid-off hacks, PR shouldn’t deal with them, just cut a check
A few years ago InformationWeek published an article critical of the technology industry analyst community and looking at a more ‘open’ analyst resource. Sidenote; my favorite quote in this piece has always been from Emily Nagle Green, CEO of Yankee Group, “We’re not bloggers, although some employees are enthusiastic about them,” Green says. “I’m not a big fan of blogs, and our clients aren’t clamoring for them.” Blogs are effective in disseminating information, and there are competitive pressures for Yankee to offer its own blogs, she adds, but ultimately blogs are becoming a dime a dozen.” It’s nice to see that not only did Emily change her mind, she is now a blogger.
The piece came at the back end of what many people had been saying for several years, either behind closed doors or right out in the public air. As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Were there some analysts firms that essentially took the money to run? Definitely. But for the most part these groups were struggling to determine their relevance in an age where getting research data was much easier and smaller boutique groups were popping up with more subject matter expertise.
This led to a major shift in the industry where some research groups went under, some merged and all the survivors changed their business models. Some of the shifts were minor, but critical; creating a ‘go to market team’, becoming smart in an evolutionary industry or just becoming more transparent in your pricing. Unfortunately, while this was happening, PR firms were being removed from the process of AR, in favor of internal people who were not always in the PR group and folks who had been AR specialists for years were being pushed out or in a different direction. This has led to an era of PR void of AR knowledge and skills.
What is there to AR? You submit a vendor briefing or just become a client, it’s not rocket science!
Well, it’s not rocket science, agreed. But it is SO much more than simply submitting an online briefing form (more on those below). Often it does start with the briefing submission, but it is really critical that you take the following steps when starting down the AR path.
- Prepare–Some firms have hundreds of analysts and you won’t simply just find one analyst that needs to know about your company and what you do, you may have 5 or 6. Just like you would do, or should do, before media/blogger relations, reading as much research as possible about the different analysts and their groups will help you get to the right analysts faster.
- Promote–During the briefing the analyst(s) need to hear about your company, it is a chance to actually promote what you do…but void of marketing. I’ve found that having a very small presentation available as a guide works well, but use slides that have little text and are heavy on graphics that help tell your story. Making sure the analyst fully understands what you do is critical, particularly when you reference them with media as a third-party industry resource.
- Posture–Face it, there is a sales process when talking with analysts, not necessarily from the analyst themselves, but the customer relationship folks. It is important to bone up on your negotiation tactics, not simply to get a good deal, but to understand what the analyst can provide for your company. Is the best use of money a report, a white paper, a webinar or a half-day session? Should you bundle up some different activities or phase it out over a long period of time.
You don’t hear about analyst relations because PR people aren’t being slammed by analysts
From what I can tell this statement is true, but this is a two-fold explanation. First is what we have been talking about above, PR folks have been away from doing AR for some time now. Even if they are doing AR they seem to be doing the minimal just to make sure they have an analyst reference or a quote for the upcoming news release. Secondly, we can attribute some of the lack of vitriol to the ‘vendor briefing process’. The ability to submit to brief an analyst using an online form, whether it be extensive or simple, is a great way to begin the process. Secondly is having staff that reviews these forms and makes decisions on who should meet with whom, or if it is appropriate at all. Remember when publications had this process and they were called editorial assistants?
Analyst relations not only remains a strong discipline within PR, but one which can teach us a lot about how to fix SOME of the current issues between media/bloggers and PR. Yes the ability to create process around ‘pitching’ is important, but having dealt with analysts for more than a decade and learning how to create a strong relationship with them has only helped my media/blogger relations skills. Go hug an analyst!
–Kyle Flaherty
June 5th, 2008 at 11:04 am
[…] This article by Kyle Flaherty is useful article to share with public relations colleagues who want to getter understand the rational for AR. Kyle evaluates three common ideas about AR: [1] Analysts are just paid-off hacks, PR shouldn’t deal with them, just cut a check; [2] You submit a vendor briefing or just become a client, it’s not rocket science!; [3] You don’t hear about analyst relations because PR people aren’t being slammed by analysts. […]
June 6th, 2008 at 1:51 am
As an AR professional it was interesting to read this take on a combined PR and AR approach. I work for Metia - an end to end marketing and communications agency - and our methodology is to split out PR and AR separately but to work very closely together.
We have a strong team of PR professionals who focus purely on public relations. Whilst our AR team is made up of ex-analysts, including myself, who focus purely on analyst relations. We work together to ensure continuity and help to develop relations between journalists and analysts. Given the breadth and scope of the analyst community we have more than enough work maintaining and developing those relations alone and it makes for a much stronger relationship with the analysts than if it were simply attached on to a PR role.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Henrietta, thanks for stopping by and commenting, I was hoping an AR pro would stop on by and leave their thoughts. I certainly agree that you would have enough work doing AR alone, particularly in certain industries. But I’ll have to respectfully disagree that it ‘makes for a much stronger relationship…”. I’ve done both, individually and at the same time, I’ve also hired AR firms and PR firms and PR/AR firms. I have always found the combination helped to deliver our message in a more appropriate manner and the results seemed to reflect that combination.
But to be completely fair, I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps by using the combination the team was ‘better, stronger, faster’? I’m not sure. Also, there is a fine chance that I hired the wrong firms ;)
I would love to talk more about your findings though, I’m always open to new thinking around these topics. I’d also love to hear more about how you keep the two groups communicating properly.
Thanks again, looking forward to continuing the conversation.
Kyle Flaherty
June 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Analyst relations is a lot easier than blogger relations. And, quite right, they aren’t slamming us left and right. They treat us like pros. Thank God someone does.
June 8th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Hi Kyle, Interesting post. I think the more the PR community learns about the tech industry analysts, the better everybody will be.
I come at this issue from the point-of-view of someone who has been a Gartner analyst, an AR executive at a major vendor and an “analyst of the analysts and AR.” Here are a few comments:
Analysts are just paid-off hacks, PR shouldn’t deal with them, just cut a check – Ah, yes, analyst myth #2. While there have always been a number of “white paper for hire” analysts, it would make no sense for the major firms (e.g., AMR, Forrester, Gartner and IDC) to play that game because it would put so much of their revenue stream at risk. For more, please see “Analyst integrity issues – the urban legend that won’t die” (http://sagecircle.wordpress.com/2008/01/02/analyst-integrity-issues-the-urban-legend-that-wont-die/)
What is there to AR? You submit a vendor briefing or just become a client, it’s not rocket science! – While I agree with your response to this attitude, even what you said is too narrow. It’s not just briefing the analysts, it is using a mix of interactions (e.g., analyst consulting days aka SAS, briefings, client inquiries, deep dives and so on) to develop in the analysts a rich understanding of all the issues surrounding a vendor and its market. Not only is the goal to build understanding in the analysts, but to also give AR intelligence of what is happening inside the heads of the analysts. That is why we consider client inquiry the most underutilized interaction type available. See What is the business value of inquiry for vendors (http://sagecircle.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/what-is-the-business-value-of-inquiry-for-vendors/) for more information.
BTW, it is not the act of writing a check to an analyst firm that gets vendors any benefit. It is what they do after they have signed the check and whether they effectively leverage the access a contract provides.
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The bottom line is that AR is different from PR because their constituencies are so different in what they do and how they work. That is why many analysts loathe PR agencies, because they hate being treated like a reporter. However, there is great value when AR and PR work together as we outline in Why PR and AR need strong collaboration (http://sagecircle.wordpress.com/2007/12/20/for-pr-why-pr-and-ar-need-strong-collaboration/).