Is the penny dropping for AR professionals?
Carter Lusher and Skip MacAskill two long-standing Analyst relations professionals, both ex-Gartner, now heading up AR at HP and Cisco respectively. I recently linked to Carter’s post on influence here.
Skip’s recent post on influence is important because he states a belief that “the traditional business models that analyst firms have employed for years will become less relevant within the next three to five years.”
He also thinks that the “traditional” firms won’t disappear completely, but they will be hard pressed by emerging information delivery models and processes – along with a new breed of alternative influencers – that are fast-moving and in-the moment.
Finally, Skip believes that “that the number of users that buy a product or invest in a technology off the back of a traditional Gartner, Forrester or Yankee report will significantly decrease over the next five years.”
These are important comments from the AR perspective, notably so because AR stands to lose as much as analyst firms. As Skip notes, “I don’t welcome that development with any type of mirth or glee – as an Analyst Relations guy, I’m quite interested in things like job security and my function’s own continued relevance – but I definitely sense a shift in the air.”
I think that the way forward for AR is for it to broaden out into a wider understanding of where influence is actually applied, beyond analysts to encompass consultants, academics, bloggers, procurement bodies, financial authorities, regulators, government agencies, consumer groups, and the rest of the influencer community.
The difficulty is, most vendors have no idea who really influences their customers and prospects, and wouldn’t have anything to say to them if they did know. That’s why I wrote a white paper on the subject a year ago, to shake vendors out of the “Analysts equal influence” mindset. It is still pertinent today.
The question for AR now is, do you take note of what senior AR pros are saying on the shake up of influence and act on it? Or ignore it and hope for the best?
Skip’s recent post on influence is important because he states a belief that “the traditional business models that analyst firms have employed for years will become less relevant within the next three to five years.”
He also thinks that the “traditional” firms won’t disappear completely, but they will be hard pressed by emerging information delivery models and processes – along with a new breed of alternative influencers – that are fast-moving and in-the moment.
Finally, Skip believes that “that the number of users that buy a product or invest in a technology off the back of a traditional Gartner, Forrester or Yankee report will significantly decrease over the next five years.”
These are important comments from the AR perspective, notably so because AR stands to lose as much as analyst firms. As Skip notes, “I don’t welcome that development with any type of mirth or glee – as an Analyst Relations guy, I’m quite interested in things like job security and my function’s own continued relevance – but I definitely sense a shift in the air.”
I think that the way forward for AR is for it to broaden out into a wider understanding of where influence is actually applied, beyond analysts to encompass consultants, academics, bloggers, procurement bodies, financial authorities, regulators, government agencies, consumer groups, and the rest of the influencer community.
The difficulty is, most vendors have no idea who really influences their customers and prospects, and wouldn’t have anything to say to them if they did know. That’s why I wrote a white paper on the subject a year ago, to shake vendors out of the “Analysts equal influence” mindset. It is still pertinent today.
The question for AR now is, do you take note of what senior AR pros are saying on the shake up of influence and act on it? Or ignore it and hope for the best?
Labels: analyst relations, Carter Lusher, influencer relations
posted by Duncan Brown at 4:35 pm
4 Comments:
Duncan, great observation that vendors aren't really sure who influences their customers or prospects. That is a key point that we're re-examining here at Cisco. The emerging generation of customers and end users that are making purchase decisions within enterprise companies, service providers and other entities look more like consumers than traditional IT or telecom managers. They use technology in different ways and are influenced in different ways. As a vendor, I need to understand those new ways as quickly as I can to ensure I'm keeping pace with my target base. Trying to stay two steps ahead of the curve in this industry is always a challenging thing, but it's exactly what makes my job in AR so much fun.
We've reached similar conclusions over a year ago:
ARmadgeddon: Step up a geAR or disappeAR!
Skip, Thanks for your comment. As you say, it's important to recognise when the decision makers change, both in who they are and how they decide. While trying to avoid a blatant pitch, influencer idenitfication and engagement is what Influencer50 does, for SAP, IBM, BMC, Nokia, etc.
ARonaut - yep, we agree again. The point is, it's not just you and me saying this - it's beginning to affect real practice. So you can be smug and say "I told you so!"
Duncan - to think we got together as a result of your white paper a year ago...
Being serious, this is probably the key issue in AR, in my view the question for AR professionals is how to respond to the change I also think it is due in part to the fact that social media/blogging + other electronic content delivery channels are becoming more reliable and relied upon.
Post a Comment
<< Home