Notes on Analyst Value for Vendors

Here is another post vaguely related to analyst craft. And it is about a touchy subject – vendor perception of (industry | market | technology) analyst value. As an aside, I’ve always considered myself “a technology analyst” rather than a market one…

Here is what some security vendors think of the value of analyst relationship (let’s just say Gartner relationship here, for simplicity sake):

• An opportunity to beg an analyst to move the location of their dot on the Magic Quadrant a bit up and to the right.

Here is what the reality is [and, coincidentally what the enlightened security vendors know to be true]:

• Gather aggregated data from enterprise security teams that can be used for vendor’s product planning
• See a view of customer problems and how they are using products from different categories and vendors to solve them
• Obtain an independent “in the trenches” view of product requirements that they can factor into their pitch and marketing storytelling
• Receive analyst advice useful for multi-year roadmap planning based on long-term security architecture projects analysts see running at clients
• Get product development and product architecture advice
• Conduct comparative technology roadmap discussions focused on serving the needs of the professionals who will operate their product
• Procure advice on technical support for product evaluations and POC deployments
• Hear unbiased criticism of product capabilities and plans, based on real field studies by customers
• Test the messaging and obtain feedback (sometimes harsh, but always useful feedback) on their messaging, from use case descriptions to whitepapers and decks
• Learn what advice the analyst gives enterprise clients about this vendor’s tool category (e.g. operational practices, etc)

[this is based on the notes I’ve compiled over the years, and now I suddenly feel like sharing this]

If you find it useful, you can buy me a beer later. Or a Gartner subscription for yourself. Ideally, both 🙂

Other posts related to analyst craft:

• Why We Value Inquiry Visibility Over … Well … Over Everything Else?
• Important: How to Impress / Annoy an Analyst During a Vendor Briefing? Best / Worst Tips Here!
• “Tell Us About Your Technology” and More Analyst Briefing Tips
• Anonymous Guest Post: More Vendor Briefing Advice
• How Are We Doing Compared To Peers?