Former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said “Never was so much owed by so many to so few”; in this technological age, those few are industry analysts. These B2B technology influencers are one of the “most helpful information sources” for tech decision-makers according to market researcher Foundry. But what is it about them that makes industry analysts so important? This blog post will discuss their unique market vantage point, their impact on product and sales and why you they should be treated as VIPs – very influential persons.
Why are industry analysts so influential with B2B tech buyers?
Every year, Gartner has over 465,000 client interactions, those interactions are with both technology buyers and technology products, solutions and services vendors. Those interactions are typically in the form of analyst inquiries, but they can be longer advisory sessions or consulting. When you add research subscriptions and research processes with vendors to that number, the amount of touchpoints analysts have within the tech industry grows even further. This isn’t just limited to the FIGs (Forrester, IDC and Gartner), as almost every analyst firm will have touchpoints like this, albeit on a smaller scale than the big FIG. Those interactions give industry analysts a unique vantage point with access to both buyers and vendors.
This makes analysts VIPs – very influential persons. For vendors, that means the relationship should be carefully managed. You can’t treat analysts like journalists and expect results, analyst relations is different from public relations. That’s where the AR trust triangle comes in, as an AR manager can guide those interactions between executives and analysts to ensure you get the most out of their unique vantage point.
How can vendors leverage industry analysts for product?
Their unique market vantage point gives analysts access to privileged information. They speak to technology buyers and users so they know which features are in demand. They also conduct extensive market research and can easily identify capability gaps in the market. With an analyst firm subscription, vendors can tap into that information by reading their published research or speaking to an analyst on an inquiry call or during a longer advisory session.
This makes industry analysts a great resource for product management and marketing (PMM). B2B tech vendors and service providers can engage with analysts strategically throughout the product life-cycle to benefit from all four impacts of AR.
- In the planning stages, vendors can use analyst insights to ensure their product roadmap shows technical relevance and competitive differentiation.
- When building new products or designing new offerings, vendors can deliver pre-launch analyst briefings under NDA to seed information and secure analyst quotes for press releases to increase market understanding and awareness.
- At launch, vendors can brief a larger pool of analysts to encourage third-party validation via syndicated research or press quotes.
- Post launch, vendors can enable their sales teams by enlisting analyst help with coaching on managing objections or positioning the product within specific use cases.
How do industry analysts impact B2B tech sales?
According to TechTarget, 51% of tech buyers use analyst reports to build vendor shortlists –and the analyst impact on sales doesn’t end there. B2B buying is not a funnel, and it’s not a cycle either – it’s a spaghetti monster. With the shift from individual buyers into buying groups, more and more external sources and interactions influence the buying process and analysts are present at every single stage. Sometimes, this is clear-cut, like when you measure your prospects buying journey from the download of a gated analyst report on your website, like the Gartner Magic Quadrant, Forrester Wave or IDC MarketScape, through to purchase. Other times, you won’t even know the analyst was involved.
Once analysts understand your product, they will, of their volution, advise customers when it’s appropriate to buy your product. This impact can be hard to measure but if you have not engaged with analysts and they don’t know your product, you will miss out. The analyst impact on technology buyers from trigger to exploration to evaluation and selection to purchase to implementation to repurchase is undeniable. Do you really want to let these market influencers pass you by?
So treat analysts like the VIPs they are.
Industry analysts are the original thought leaders, they see and shape conversations in the marketplace. As a tech company, if you don’t have analyst relations you run the risk of missing out. You won’t benefit from the four impacts of analyst relations and you risk being misrepresented in the market. It’s not enough to reach cruising altitude and tap out, analyst relations is an endurance sport.
Engage with analysts strategically, learn from their abundance of knowledge, yield the impacts of analyst relations. If you haven’t started already, what are you waiting for?