How to: Maximize your win rate working with industry analysts (Part 1)

Maximise your win rate working with industry analysts

Following a recent discussion I had about industry analysts, I wanted to write an article about how you can best work with the industry analysts (regardless of whether you want to be included in a Gartner Magic Quadrant, Forrester Wave, or IDC MarketScape, etc.).

To make things a easier for readers, I’ve split this post into two parts: The first about why this is important (this blog post), and the second how to answer their questions in such a way that maximizes your chance of scoring highly.

Why the industry analysts are important

Industry analysts are thought leaders who help customers derisk the potential of a project failing to deliver. They are experts in the market spaces they cover and aim to provide a consistent, balanced view of the established players, up-and-coming players, and new entrants.

They analyze the key market players to determine their strengths, weaknesses, and strategic direction. It’s worth noting that the analysts who track your market can include your solution in an evaluation, even if you decide not to participate.

As a result, the analysts covering your space can greatly influence your customers' buying decisions, either directly through conversations with your customers (through a paid subscription) or through the reports they write (which are often licensed by your competitors to highlight their strengths against other players in the market).

Industry analysts provide customers with:

·      Guidance about the pros and cons of the leading products available for each market sector they cover.

·      A view of each vendor’s technology – both in terms of solving the business issues organizations face today and whether the direction each vendor is heading in will continue to meet their future requirements.

·      A view of a company’s long-term ability to compete and succeed.

How industry analysts can help

Many organizations rely on the analysts’ reports (and advice) to decide who to include in the shortlist of vendors they wish to speak to and provide an impartial view of the pros and cons of their solutions. For this reason, the industry analysts (and, therefore, your prospective customers) must know you exist and that they are updated on developments of your solutions.

If you’re not on a customer’s shortlist, you’ll have to work much harder to win (assuming you become aware of the opportunity in the first place). Your goal needs to be that the key analysts who cover your space recommend that organizations include your product in their shortlist of vendors to evaluate.

Industry analysts typically charge their end-user customers an annual fee for their advice and vendors for their market/competitive insight, along with licensing fees to distribute copies of their reports to prospects (they may also sell full reports directly to customers).

If you are rated positively, this can influence whether you make it to your prospects’ shortlist and ultimately win their business.

How should I engage with the industry analysts for my sector?

It’s worth bearing in mind:

• It’s not only paying customers who can work with industry analysts.

• Analysts have inclusion criteria for full participation in a report, which you might not currently fit.

• If you’re invited to take part in their research but decide not to participate, this can lead to misunderstandings about your solution’s capabilities, which is something you want to avoid.

To cover the first point: If you’re not a paying customer and haven’t been sent an analyst questionnaire, it’s likely you’re not yet high enough on their radar (while this is a broader topic for a subsequent article, the key takeaway is to find and build a rapport with the analysts who are most influential in your space and convince them why you’re relevant to this space).

To cover the second: In our experience, trying to persuade an analyst firm to adjust their selection criteria for a report they have started researching to accommodate your product is unlikely to be successful. However, what you might be able to succeed in doing is being included in their 'niche player' or 'new entrant' lists, which form a part of many of their reports.

Planning ahead for their next report, you may want to consider the cost/reward/benefit of fast-tracking the development of features the analysts deem mandatory in your sector (bearing in mind that their views might evolve as the market develops).

Side note: If you’re fortunate enough to be a paying customer of one or more of the leading analysts, you will have more opportunities to brief the analysts and remain top of mind (in part through the inquiry calls other vendors don’t have access to).

After the report is published

You don't even have to be in the ‘leadership’ grouping for a report to deliver benefits to sales. The industry analysts make it clear they don’t see the headline graphic as representative of the right solution for every situation.

As a result, they provide customers with a spreadsheet that allows them to weigh their individual needs and shortlist prospective suppliers relevant to them. Depending on a customer's unique requirements, a strength in one area might well trump a ‘higher scoring’ solution that doesn't cover a critical capability as well as yours (understanding how to promote niche or disruptive features to best effect through analyst reports is a very useful skill).

[At this point, it’s worth noting that industry analysts are increasingly relying on customer feedback as much as on questionnaire responses. This makes it even more important to work proactively on customer success and testimonials]

Conclusions

Engaging with industry analysts is an effective way to increase your profile and, therefore, your win rate. Read my follow-up article on how best to respond to their questions.

If you would like any help or advice with your industry analyst strategy, including being included in their reports, feel free to take advantage of our free expert advisory session to discuss this topic with one of our experts. Our experts have helped products achieve the coveted ‘leader’ category multiple times.