“Influencing the Influencers” reviewed
Just finished reading “Influencing the Influencers” by Bill Hopkins, CEO at Knowledge Capital Group (KCG). KCG is an Analysts Relations firm, and the book is a guide to AR in the technology industry.
I think that if you’re in AR you’ll get a lot of value from the book. It categorises the various types of analyst, provides best and worst practice examples, and even offers careers advice. All in all an excellent volume on Analyst Relations.
It’s a pity about the title, then. At face value, it’s a cosmetic thing – “Influencing the Analysts” is much less pithy. But it’s the assertion that analysts are the most important influencers that concerns, because our clients and our research tell us (at Influencer50) that it ain’t always so.
Perhaps it’s just that our perspectives are different. Bill examines the reach of various influencer types into IT deals. Bill estimates that peer groups influence decision-making in 80% of IT deals, analysts influence decision-making in 60-80% of IT deals, and so on. Systems integrators and consultants influence 20% of IT deals.
Note that these deals relate to Global5000 firms. Does anyone know of an IT sale to a G5000 firm that wasn’t influenced by a systems integrator or consultant? Hmmm.
Influencer50’s approach is to examine the available influence on a decision, and how this influence is distributed across many influencers. So we measure the extent of influence on IT decision making, not simply its presence. Analysts may appear in 60-80% of decisions, but what’s the extent of their influence? We believe it’s overstated.
KCG’s model even allows for this: in its categorisation of analyst firms it names only Gartner and Forrester in the “Deal Maker & Breaker” segment. In other words, most other analyst firms have limited influence on decision-making. (Exceptions are granted, such as specialist point players and regional buy-side players such as Ovum.)
I suspect there is more agreement than disagreement between KCG and Influencer50. To quote from the book, “Some influencers, of course, are more vital to you than others. But, overall, the effective management of influencers has become increasingly critical to the success of any enterprise.”
That’s pretty much what Influencer50 is about.
I think that if you’re in AR you’ll get a lot of value from the book. It categorises the various types of analyst, provides best and worst practice examples, and even offers careers advice. All in all an excellent volume on Analyst Relations.
It’s a pity about the title, then. At face value, it’s a cosmetic thing – “Influencing the Analysts” is much less pithy. But it’s the assertion that analysts are the most important influencers that concerns, because our clients and our research tell us (at Influencer50) that it ain’t always so.
Perhaps it’s just that our perspectives are different. Bill examines the reach of various influencer types into IT deals. Bill estimates that peer groups influence decision-making in 80% of IT deals, analysts influence decision-making in 60-80% of IT deals, and so on. Systems integrators and consultants influence 20% of IT deals.
Note that these deals relate to Global5000 firms. Does anyone know of an IT sale to a G5000 firm that wasn’t influenced by a systems integrator or consultant? Hmmm.
Influencer50’s approach is to examine the available influence on a decision, and how this influence is distributed across many influencers. So we measure the extent of influence on IT decision making, not simply its presence. Analysts may appear in 60-80% of decisions, but what’s the extent of their influence? We believe it’s overstated.
KCG’s model even allows for this: in its categorisation of analyst firms it names only Gartner and Forrester in the “Deal Maker & Breaker” segment. In other words, most other analyst firms have limited influence on decision-making. (Exceptions are granted, such as specialist point players and regional buy-side players such as Ovum.)
I suspect there is more agreement than disagreement between KCG and Influencer50. To quote from the book, “Some influencers, of course, are more vital to you than others. But, overall, the effective management of influencers has become increasingly critical to the success of any enterprise.”
That’s pretty much what Influencer50 is about.
Labels: analyst relations, influencer marketing, influencers, KCG
posted by Duncan Brown at 4:41 pm
2 Comments:
From my time consulting at Wipro (all very large enterprise deals) - I saw analysts reports lying around many times, but they had little influence on the decision making.
Two notable exceptions to be fair - one (the firm I joined CMS Watch - their in depth reports were used to shortlist) as were Forresters on a few occasions.
I saw lots of others but so no sign of serious influence in decision making at all - not once.
Thanks for the insight, Alan.
When I was at Ovum I did some product assessment and selection, as consulting gigs. In all but one, there were multiple parties to the selection including, not least, the vendors themselves. Quite often it's the vendors that have the greatest influence, especially if they're incumbent.
There are clearly some analysts that do influence decisions. I just believe that they're not acting alone.
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