For technology companies, whether in a nascent start-up stage or a big organization, the value of Analyst Relations (AR) and vendor briefings cannot be ignored. Having a thoughtful analyst relations program adds immense long-term value for the technology firms in terms of increasing visibility in the sector and finally reaching potential end-users. It is a great opportunity for the tech firms to represent themselves and create the right impression for the customers via the Analysts. That is what this blog is all about. The end goal is to inspire the readers to think seriously about planning an impactful analyst relation program.
Briefings/Analyst Briefings are an effective research tool for industry analysts to understand the technology vendors in the market they are evaluating. It allows them to gain more insights into the vendors’ technology and how they differentiate from their competitors. This way, vendors have an opportunity to present their technology and offerings, and analysts can understand the overall market.
Think of it from the buyer/end-users perspective. Navigating through a competitive landscape of a specific technology and finding the right vendor who will suit their particular needs is difficult. Relying merely on general publicly available information is also not a wise move, since one flawed decision can cost a lot to their business. They want more strategic information, backed by research and analysis, that would help them choose the right fit for their need. That is where the tech influencers such as technology bloggers or analyst firms come into the picture.
Analysts are industry experts for specific technology markets. The reports they generate feature all the relevant industry trends and dynamics pertaining to a specific technology. But most important of all, these reports highlight the players in the market based on the information they gather through briefings. They prepare a realistic picture of the competitive landscape by analyzing the tech offerings, strengths, and weaknesses of each tech vendor in the industry. They give their perspectives on the vendor’s product positioning, vision, and roadmap.
They serve as trusted advisers to the buyers of technology. Hence, briefing the analysts is also a good way of getting fairly positioned in the market and creating a third-party validation that the potential customers may rely on while making a purchase decision.
If your company is in the early stages of raising investments, you want to showcase your share in the target market and attract potential investors based on that. If you are a newly emerging company, you want to gain visibility in the market for potential buyers. If you are an already established company, you want to stay ahead of the competition by creating broad awareness among your existing and future customers about your technology offerings, product developments, achievements, new product launches, and enhanced capabilities. In any case, your goal is to reach your target audience and create awareness about your capabilities. Hence, creating an Analyst Relations strategy and making analyst briefings a critical and integral part of it is a sensible step toward this goal.
This one step will benefit you in many ways. It keeps the analysts – who in turn are the ones guiding the end-users – updated about your company and products. Another important benefit is in terms of leveraging their expertise. You get to understand the competitive landscape from their expert perspective, gather feedback on your strategies, and earn their trusted validation.
According to Apoorva Dawalbhakta, Associate Director (Research) at Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, “Vendor briefings are not just about knowing the tech vendors and their offerings. Analysts act as a robust bridge between the technology solution providers and the end-users since they have broader information and understanding of the overall market and competitive landscape. Hence, more than a mere discussion about the vendor’s offering and the relevant capabilities, the analyst briefings act as a seamless knowledge transfer session for the participating organizations. Analysts also share their research-backed perspectives on the end-to-end feasibility and growth map of the product, and its overall market standing vis-a-vis their competitors, ensuring a continued market-aligned strategy for the vendors.”
According to Divya Baranawal, VP Research at Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, “Analyst briefing serves as the foundation to create a symbiotic relationship between vendors and analyst firms. While it helps analysts get a better understanding of the vendor’s key strengths and value proposition, it also helps vendors by getting appropriately represented in their respective technology markets.”
As Sachin Birajdar, Senior Analyst at Quadrant Knowledge Solutions expresses, “In my four years of experience, I have interacted with a lot of companies in briefing calls and I strongly believe that briefing sessions are critical for solution providers to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with analysts By participating in briefings and reports, vendors can increase their visibility and credibility in the market, differentiate themselves from competitors, and position themselves as a trusted partner. Analysts’ insights on market trends and best practices can also guide them on product development and go-to-market strategies, leading to more effective solutions. Additionally, analyst engagement can help providers build stronger relationships with buyers, accelerating the sales cycle and driving revenue growth. With analyst recommendations, they can leverage their reputation and trust to increase brand awareness along with acquiring new customers. Hence, analyst briefings can prove to be a game-changing strategy for the vendors.”
To sum up, making analyst briefing an integral part of your analyst relations and product marketing strategies is the right move to gain market credibility and create the right image in the mind of your target audience. Analyst firms are the experts in this realm. With an explicit focus on technology domains and expert analysis, they hold the power to influence enterprise IT buyers. To gain all the benefits discussed in the blog and hold a fair competitive positioning in the market, reaching out to these expert analyst firms and scheduling the briefing with the key analysts in your sector has to be on your agenda.
QKS Vendor Briefings
QKS Vendor Briefings are a great opportunity for vendors to present their products, offerings, and business updates to the analysts. Vendors give their authentic input for the analyst’s market research on a particular ICT domain. For analysts, it is a concrete way of knowing the vendor, their technology, offerings, differentiators, USPs, and future roadmap.
Based on this information, our expert analysts evaluate your technology offering against the carefully designed parameters of Technology Excellence and Customer Impact so that they can assign an accurate competitive market position on the SPARK Matrix. To know more about our services and offerings, connect with our executives here.
Author: Vaishnavi Dave, Content Writer at Quadrant Knowledge Solutions.
