Slideshare: Dealing with Analysts (From Redmonk)

Hi Jeremiah,
Analyst firms (AF) seem to have a difficult time telling their story. Showing the AF's value can, at times, be a difficult conversation - especially if the outcomes are not exactly what a C-level exec. expected (remember, we do have some egos).
Also, reports are sometimes written in a way that may be targeted toward, let's say a tech audience, but not written clearly for the non-tech or marketing exec. Most times, marketing departments tend to approve engaging an AF.
I've noticed that some firms are now providing two versions of reports and/or presentations to address this issue.
I've discovered that a really good practice is to have joint conversations between the AF, the clien, the communications firm and any other parties that have buy-in for the project. It's structured somewhat like a roundtable and then kick off work from there. That way the AF gets a feel for the players and understands how to talk to the appropriate parties.
Just a few thoughts...
Just went through a process and have noticed a few things from AFs.

I know it's slightly different, but I was coaching a friend who works for one of the Big Four accountancy firms. She was advising on their global proposals, and when we compared the About text on each of the four corporate websites, it was identical. Like they were trying to be the same. Yet from the inside, they felt very different from each other.

I wonder whether there is the issue here: the supplier thinks they are radically differentiated, and the customer sees a commodity.

I think many analysts and their firms are stuck in the 90s. They think that walking loudly and wielding a big stick still works -- they don't get the democratization yielded by Web technologies unless they're covering it. [That was not apple polishing, Jeremiah.]

Andrew, regarding Big Four: as a vet, I can tell you unequivocally that the problem is generally in the marketing teams, for two reasons. Most don't understand differentiation and are responders, not thinkers; and they are avoiding emerging media like the plague. If the marketers learned how to ask the right questions, they would drag the right information out of the firms' leaders. But as long as the firms' leaders hire responders and event planners and call it marketing, they will have this problem.

So the analyst and accounting-based firms have issues, for sure. In fact, this is true for just about any professional services organizations. Law firms are another example. I would express the takeaway of your comparison as follows.

They vary slightly, but I think the common denominator is the way both types of firms regard, hire for, and do marketing.

They need to recognize that someone else on the planet may know more about marketing than the firm's principals do. They must want to hire said individuals and turn over rocks to find them -- the headhunters do not know them, by and large. And they must climb aboard the clue train. Marketing is morphing -- the cells are dividing daily.

For what it's worth this presentation, though tongue in cheek, can't get away from the primary problem with analysts: They speak some strange language that the rest of us don't understand.

Not clever, not even funny, just typical gobbledy-gook. Tell me exactly how I am going to benefit, in specifics, from shelling out the big bucks...before I shell out those bucks.

And don't send me a two foot high pile of outdated reports written in that same strange language (my actual last analyst experience).

I think that was pretty awesome.

I really enjoy the slides. Good insights to consider.

Mary - I think you're right. With such monolithic companies there's a fear of stepping out, but that's a fear all companies have to face.

Do I create a culture where some people hate us but some love us? Starting a strategy that may lose business on one hand (and maybe in the short-term) but gain business on the other (and probably more in the medium-term) is difficult for anyone, let alone monolithic firms like these.

Martin - one- and two-syllable words seems like the way to go. No one is fooled any more by pseudo-science.

One would hope, anyway...