No matter what your PR agency says, analysts are not the same as press. Press interviews are an opportunity to tell your company’s story in the hope of inspiring a newsworthy, clickable, headline. Analyst briefings are an opportunity to tell your company’s story in the hope that they will be able to accurately position your company in the many customer conversations they have or in a trusted, independent piece of research. This is one of the key differences between analyst relations and public relations.
To help you navigate analyst conversations effectively, we asked some of our analyst friends for their advice on delivering a top-notch analyst briefing. Whether you’re a startup delivering your first ever analyst briefing or a company with an established and successful AR programme, it is vital to strike right balance between analyst wants and your stakeholder’s bandwidth / resources. Therefore, understanding the analyst mindset is key for your planning.
Dive in below for top analyst briefing tips, check our guide on how to run analyst briefings… and do those 5 things before speaking to analysts!
What makes a vendor briefing useful?
“Benefit for my to-be-advised customers and later access to in-depth material for writing (supplementary materials).”
“Real-world case studies and customer success stories can provide valuable evidence and demonstrate the vendor’s capabilities.”
“Is AHEAD of a big announcement, and gets into the meaningful pieces of what makes the technology/announcement important.”
“A briefing is useful if it gives clear, discrete, timely pieces of information. The more specific the briefing, the better it is.”
What makes a vendor briefing memorable?
“A two-way dialog and not a pedestrian trawl-through of PPT.”
“Looking back on briefings I think the number one thing that stands out or makes a briefing memorable is the vendor’s ability to know their audience.”
“Customer panels are the most memorable component.”
“If a vendor is engaging and makes you think a different way so that you end up writing and talking about it. In the end it is about the art of storytelling.”
Common mistakes vendors make in briefings.
“The most common mistake is when a vendor talks exhaustive about generic trends in the market and other fundamentals that analysts tend to be aware of instead of focusing on its products and services, roadmap, strategy, etc.”
“Presentation content led by the marketing department rather than engineering perspective. We can quickly see through the marketing spiel.”
“Making it too technical, long demos, rehearsed points, and talking speeds, feeds and minute features rather than the larger context, backstory of the announcement.”
“Their AR hasn’t prepared them with “This is what [insert analyst firm] does, who they influence, why you are talking to them, and what goals (the AR or marketing team) are expecting to achieve. A bland sales pitch falls flat time after time to get the attention of the analyst.”
Analyst advice for vendors.
“Your briefing should have all three elements – inform, inspire, and entertain.”
“Focus on honesty, trust and brevity’”
Nigel Montgomery / Independent Analyst
“Understanding the goals and objectives of the analysts conducting the briefing enables you to tailor your messages effectively and present them in the most impactful way.”
“Be open and responsive to feedback or follow-up questions post the briefing, as the relationship with the analyst should be ongoing, not just a one-time interaction.”
Tailored content for analysts is key.
Starsight’s top three takeaways from analyst advice are:
- Don’t lecture them about the market.
- Use customer case studies to tell your product’s story.
- Understand what an analyst is and who the individual analyst is that you are speaking to.
Much of this advice can also be applied to analyst summits. From understanding your audience to presenting useful and memorable content. For more advice on running a successful vendor analyst day, we recommend you check out Jon Reed / Diginomica’s post on the topic.
Starsight delivers 100s of successful analysts briefings every year. Our team has crafted an analyst-specific spokesperson training which turns everyday executives into analyst-ready spokespeople. We have a foolproof analyst briefing template which incorporates all of the advice above and our learnings as AR practitioners. We have a full booklet of this analyst advice on briefings – just fill in the form below to get a copy. Armed with all of this information, our clients are making an impact on analysts and begin to benefit from the value of analyst relationships.
Reach out to our team to get started.
I would also recommend to try humility as a posture. I remember a regional director from a leading Antivirus editor always starting 1-1 Analyst meetings by ” Tell me something I don’t know !” He was so arrogant that he used to take quotation from Analyst report to contradict analyst comments; often from opposite Analyst houses, including during briefings. Some vendors, because they once led the market, tend to believe they will always lead the market and be always perfectly right in their decision. I believe some humility, even for Leaders, may cool down some heads & minds. Analyst do not own the Market truth but they see so much different cases & vendors & clients that they have a nice High level view on their markets.
It is definitely not a sales pitch, it is a way to communicate the value proposition in terms of the industry and your competitive advantages, paint the story so analysts can see who you truly are – they already know the industry, they eat breath and sleep it. I am X META/Gartner and sometimes even I forget, but these briefings are excellent way to get them to talk about YOU and how your technology or product FITS into the landscape of all others.