Michael Cote interviewed me at RSDC about these topics as we (and a lot of other analysts and A/R firms) connect with each other via Social Computing.

I didn’t give it much thought at the time, as it was just a discussion about how we do the work, but it has made the rounds enough that I re-thought the relevancy. I had fun doing it and thank Cote for putting up with me.

Here is the original post

SageCircle then picked it up, thanks Carter for saying for one of the few times in my life that it is interesting and worth watching.

Today, Cote pinged me that Lighthouse Analyst Relations picked it up also, thanks guys.

In fairness, all the links are the same video, so just pick one.

For those that wonder what I do for a living, this should shed some light on it, or not.

Here is a really cool video of Sam the man at the BPLC conference. One very cool feature is the annotations that Frank puts in like the warning to Salesforce.com….look out App Exchange. Thanks Frank

Click on the Link to the video of Sam.

Here is the link to the entire blog where Frank discusses IBM’s Blue Business Platform. Watch out SaaS marketplace, this one comes with Partners, a Server, Lotus support, GBS Services….and it’s SMB focused.

Why does this matter for analyst relations? We started talking to Frank more than eight months before this got posted, so you can see the cycle of behind the scenes talks that go on about what we are doing and why the analysts know IBM so well.

One of the things we tried to do to influence analyst relations is to add new tools.  Now I readily admit that video is not a new tool, but using it is another bullet in the gun, so a tool that is expanding in our A/R arsenal at events.

Special thanks to Cote of RedMonk who did all the work here.  At the bottom is his interview of me, so have at it, I can take a joke.

Jamie Thomas on RSDC

Grady Booch on Multi Core UML

Scott Hebner on Rational Team Concert, SaaS and Jazz thinking

Laura Bennett on alphaWorks and developerWorks

Telelogic

Ashok Reddy on Rational jazz

Mike Orourke on Rational Team Concert

Dave Klavon on Testing

John Simonds, yes yours truly on Blogs, Tags, and Twitter in Analyst Relations

I wasn’t.  By the way, Ya’ll is a perfectly good word.  If you are a elitist and want to disagree, here’s a quarter call someone who cares.

With GREAT Thanks to all the purchasers of Lenovo products, the family and I are freeloading the Lenovo CEO’s/President’s club for the top sales persons in Aruba. Since a member of my family is running it and another is a top salesperson, here we are.

I suffered through a day of riding the pool slide, working out at the Hotel Gym, swimming about a mile just for fun and to stay in shape, plus eating well. Tomorrow, more suffering with deep sea fishing and more pool/ocean activities.

Here are the locals hanging around the place.

When I get back, I’ll get to some real analyst relations work, like the Forrester Partner Report where IBM’s Partner Programs took best in class in 27 of 31 categories, beating the likes of Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Salesforce.com. Being modest I’d like to say it was due to great programs and great Analyst Relations work, but I won’t ;-). I’ll let the results speak for themselves.

For those waiting to hear about the report I worked on earlier in the year, this is it. More on it when I return.

I didn’t realize how much I needed a vacation, and I did.

I’m reading wonderful books like Groundswell, that I’m reviewing and Return with Honor, by Captain Scott O’Grady. Captain O’Grady was the guest speaker to motivate the Lenovoites to sell more.

This may sound like nyah, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah, but we all need to get away. Even typing that I’m on vacation feels good, you should try it.

I enjoy reading the SageCircle blog as it has so much cogent advice for those in Analyst Relations (both for the professionals and also the rest of us). Carter Lusher writes well and has a lot to offer. I readily admit that there are times I don’t put down everything in writing, because I want to keep an ace or two up my sleeve, but Carter lays it on the line.

I was reading his recent blog on The Top 5 Mistakes that A/R (un)Professionals make (I added the UN to include me), and came across this the line in title, about narcissitic prima donnas. After soiling myself while laughing so hard, I started to think about my experiences with analysts over the years. Here is a snip..

4. Vendors use the same approach used for all analysts and all firms. Some firms have very bureaucratic briefing request procedures while others permit vendors and PR firms to call the analysts directly. Market researchers need numbers while advisory analysts provide customer success stories. Some analysts are very structured in the information they want and the briefing structure while other analysts even at the same firm are very informal.

Downside - analysts are narcissistic prima donnas who want to do things their way. Vendors who ignore basic differences between analysts and firms run the risk of irritating the analysts, not providing needed information and wasting the analysts’ time.

Before I digress to my spew, please go read this entire blog, as he makes some great points about how and who to contact (as usual he writes better than me). I use many of these tactics and one (or more) may be some of the aforementioned aces. You must treat different analysts and firms according to their needs and the relationship you have with them, period. Please pay attention to Carter’s point if you want to even be considered as in the A/R game.

I believe in staying a step ahead of those who sit in my seat at the competitors. For me, second place is first loser, I compete at everything, even with myself if no one is around. If I get to the Kobayashi Maru, I try to Captain Kirk it. Knowing the analysts on a relationship basis is the key to working with them properly

Now to my point. While Carter has nailed it for many of the analysts, the analyst profession has changed greatly since I’ve been in A/R. Back in the days when I was dragging my knuckles and carrying a club and building a fire in a cave, it was a tongue lashing almost every time we met with most of the analysts. After words, the executives would look to avoid those who were belligerent, unless the exec was just as much of a horses patoot (and I’ve seen a few in my days). Come contract time, the comments would fly like sparks from a bonfire about which analyst really added value or not. It is amazing the correlation in time/belligerence and value/change in how much we worked with them.

I’m going to give analysts credit now. Either I’ve run into a different crowd or they have kept the cerebral and left the hangover mentality, gnats attention span and verbal abuse behind. For example, I’m in a huge program review with one of the big three right now and the lead analyst couldn’t be more cordial. The review rules were clear, we are given our say and it has been as fair as you can be, and on time. I have nothing but good things to say.

I can site numerous other examples of analysts working with me to solve a problem rather than dumping on me, mostly because we know that it is the best way to get through it rather than just berate us on how bad we are.

I will say though, that analysts always come with a few things in their toolbox…. an opinion, a willingness to share it and most of the time more knowledge that we have about the industry. I’ll let them comment on ego, which some have (see the comment by Tom).

There must be something in the the water, or there is a plethora of new people in the A/R industry.

Just recently, I’ve received emails from Gartner, Forrester, Robin Bloor, and a number of other analyst firms (including some blogs) as well as the A/R consulting firms like Knowledge Capital Group, SageCircle, ARInsights and a new one called Alltheanalysts.com on A/R best practices. This is just in the last few weeks. There have been various other articles over time from the stalwarts like James Governer and Armadgeddon
How should i look at this? Are we that unprepared? Do we not know enough or has the profession progressed?

You can always improve.

If I look at this from the positive perspective, good council is always appreciated. No one is the end all, although from time to time, there are the Michael Jordan’s, Tiger Woods, Michael Schumacher, Pele’s who at a point in time are the undisputed champ.

Analyst relations is about relationships so that’s ever evolving. The word relations clearly implies that humans are involved, which means there is the opportunity for intangibles like feelings, emotions, ego and other influences that can make a good story bad, or a bad story stomachable (might not be a word).

What is important is time. You spend time with anyone and you begin to know likes and dislikes, favorite topics and sore points. It also let’s you know a person at a deeper plane, like I know the names of some of the analyst’s pets, or kids. It also offers the opportunity to get on ones nerves, which I’ve done more than my share of.

So, the net of it is you can’t stand still. The A/R world moves and you must move with it or left behind, so some of the information these emails and blogs are helpful, you have to parse it based on your experience level…..oh yes, and never assume you know it all.

What is the Analyst Point of View - How to work with us better?

At first, I took offense when I read some of these articles. Like how to get a briefing with Forrester since I’ve always thought that we could speak to each other with out going through the Secret Service. But I came to realize (after the ego settled down, which I never should have let out of it’s hole anyway) that the inundation was likely overwhelming. I also realized that a lot of requests to speak are rubbish anyway, a sales call, trying to get free information for nothing….generally a waste of the analyst’s time, especially when it’s my turn to speak with them (get back ego, down boy).

There also must be some bending on the analyst side as not all IT firms are the same. There are the normal firms and then there are the IBM’s, Microsoft’s and other behemoths who are like a Medusa of tentacles coming at the analyst from 500 directions. We have some of the most experienced A/R folks and also, uh-hum…some not as experienced. So one size does not fit all.

My doubting mind also wonders if there is a funnel that throws some opportunities at the sales department from this sign up process?

I also wonder if it’s a Hey, work with us on our terms ’cause we’re tired of 50 companies coming at us 150 different ways? Well, I guess there is only 28 hours in the day anyway.

What about the A/R consulting Firms?

In some cases, they are quite knowledgeable. I’ve read many of the articles from the above mentioned folks and they have good advice, some which should seem intuitive, but there are those of us who are slower learners than others, so I find them helpful…if nothing but for a reminder. Some like Carter Lusher have ventured to the dark side when he was head of A/R at HP so he knows the life we live day in and day out.

So Why All the Articles at Once?

When the moon, is in the 7th house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars…..wait, this isn’t the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, there has to be a better answer. It must be that there is a need or opportunity out there, or it wouldn’t be happening. Capitalism just works that way. It must be some combination of the A/R world needing refining and the Analyst world trying to narrow the funnel. Anyway, I’d recommend that one goes to these sights, heck, you’ve already either seen them or written one of them anyway.

The Institute for Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR), specifically David Rossiter who has many links to those who have written on this subject.

He points out some indiscretions here:

• the UK company that publishes a company profile - but gives no indication that the piece was commissioned by the vendor (and for which the vendor was effectively given copy approval)
• the analyst that writes blog posts promoting a project that his consultancy is involved in - without disclosing his connection
• the division of a large group that prioritises briefings based on the likelihood of selling reprints of the resulting company profile
• the analysts that use a briefing as an opportunity to pitch their own services
• the global company that says its analysts are more likely to recommend vendor clients to prospective buyers (because the analysts know clients better than those that are non-clients)
• the vertical firm that refuses to take briefings with non-clients because it’s so busy doing consulting work it can only handle briefing requests from clients
• and what about this experience highlighted by the corporate AR team at HP?

I’ve worked in the A/R field for a few years now, so I’ve seen some of these pop up, and in some cases had to deal with it. One must always be wary if there is money on the table to keep independence in the forefront. Conversely, if there wasn’t money on the table, the analyst wouldn’t be able to stay in business, so it’s a bit of a dichotomy.

My .02
For the record, there are those on the vendor side who also take advantage of the relationship also. Like calling a consulting a briefing to get out of paying. Trying to get something for nothing, also done but should be. That swims in the pool of un-ethics (sic) also.

What about when the analyst firm comes calling?

Here’s the first clue, the account representative is on the call or initiates it. You know there is a fee or it is a paid study. That should be a clue that money is on the table and you can’t be surprised when it comes up. I’m not knocking the Account Reps. Heck, in a way, I’m the analogous person from the vendor at times. They help me get a lot of work done, but when they are there, money is on the table.

What is the A/R responsibility?

Well, it isn’t that tough to know how much you have for a budget, what’s the priority for your company or group, and what you can or can not do. What if it’s in that nebulous area or the HP example ?.  That was underhanded.  The Aberdeen example is shady, but it was paid.

You better have a good working relationship with the analyst firm to know when you are about to be asked for money, or know that you are not on good terms….. or your product is suspect and will be called out. Then you have to know how to defend and deflect.

On non paid reports, can you be caught blindsided? Yes, in fact we had a recent report published that we weren’t sent a draft for fact checking, to our detriment. We met after it was published to correct the facts and to make sure that it didn’t happen in the future, but sometimes it does slip through the cracks.

You can work through the issues of the big groups who feel the opportunity to sell is greater with another company. Yes I work for a big company, but I (l)earned my lessons at a small firm when IBM was the competition, and was the big dog during the mainframe and very early PC days. To be successful and weed through the process, you have to have a compelling reason to talk, pick and choose your openings, not be willing to settle for the brush off and don’t lie. When you promise the universe and deliver a pebble, your cover is blown as are your chances of a next briefing.

So I’m not excusing the behavior of the above listed offenses, but there are ways of dealing with it, like looking out for and beware of what the situation is before it happens.

For the most part, almost all of my dealings to the 99th percentile are ethical and even enjoyable. There are always a few bad apples, but it doesn’t spoil the whole bunch.

At least in the realm of this discussion, nothing is as bad as this.

I’m frequently asked what it’s like to make an announcement at IBM. I’m also frequently told (by analysts):

Why doesn’t IBM just do x,y,z?

Why did IBM do x,y,z?

Who is the person that does x,y,z?

Company a,b and c can do this, why can’t you?

If IBM would spend some of it’s money doing x,y,z instead of stock buybacks, buying this or that, it would make more sense.

So it is when working at a larger company, things are different, especially in a communications function. It’s like working in the military, the congress or the UN sometimes.

IBM is a Big Company

Well, d’uh. But I had to establish the premise for drawing analogies. With big comes a different set of issues. When I worked at a small company years back, many times I made the decision to do what was needed for press, analysts or marketing campaigns.  If I needed money, I just went to see my buddies in accounting that I likely had lunch with and bingo, it was done.  Not so in a biggie company.

Coordinating communications across multiple disciplines, to different constituencies and from different area’s of the company and still seem congruent at the end of the day is also sometimes a feat. When it works, it is a charm, when it doesn’t…you wonder if we all work for the same company. Not only do you have message issues can conflict, you have executive issues…..and conflict.

There are times when the messages are actually competing with another brand or division. Co-opitiion lets you partner with your competitors and when you announce a joint project, it can upset the applecart internally. Oracle competes with our middleware, yet is a services partner. SAP uses our database technology to compete with Oracle, but again competes with our middleware stack. Microsoft is shipped with some of our servers, yet we are all about Open Source and Linux.

To make an announcement, hold an analyst day or any other form of communication, it calls for multiple revisions, making it hard to stay on track.

Working in the Congress

This is when it’s like congress. You have a bill (set of messages) and it covers many states (brands, divisions, groups) which you have to get it passed (make the announcement). There are constant negotiations, earmarks, pork where everyone has to get their message in. In case you didn’t already know, clear and concise messaging is effective, multiple and conflicting messages are not. It is up to the Comms team to keep it on track. Then you have a speaker of the house (executive) that is making the announcement, including the press secretary (announcement team) who field additional questions and clean up.

Then there are the times when we are doing say, acquisitions. We are sworn to secrecy (NDA’s), are given our marching orders (messaging) have a commander (executive in charge of the project) and are basically told when, where and how things are going down. Now drop and give me 20 push ups. This at times can actually be easier as the butt-in-ski’s from various groups don’t get to put in their 2 cents to slow things to the speed of a glacier. But to watch a big company work with the efficiency of an aircraft carrier, I’ve seen throngs of people get organized and get into action in literally minutes….. and it is some of the most effective work in the shortest amount of time you’ll see at a big company.

The UN
Then there are the communications times that remind me of raising teenagers, like nailing jello to a tree. It’s not clear who’s in charge, who’s announcing what and/or why. But we HAVE to get back to TPTB to report progress. I’m sitting back the whole time watching this train wreck waiting to happen. These announcements usually get swept under the rug or butchered if anyone finds out about them. It’s like working at the UN, people posturing about their product or announcement, but getting nothing done and and having no power to enforce anything….
How to get it to work
The net of it is coordination. A/R has to work with P/R, with the executives, with the analysts, with the press, with the WORLD to get the messaging correct and approved, The whole time the internal team has to notify everyone so that when a customer calls, we actually know what to say. All the affected product groups need to be communicated to and worked with. Timing has to be worked out because if you haven’t noticed, we pretty much announce something every day. It’s hard not to step on someone else’s toes, especially if you are communicating to the same mediums. We have to space out the announcements, and getting priority for yours is like going to court and negotiating a plea bargain. Which announcement is more important to the company? Well, what day is it.

The internal negotiations of such machinations is a skill in itself. You learn political, social, communication and flexibility skills in addition to your job. It is very difficult to make such a big company work together effectively, something that we do better than most, but still have a ways to go sometimes.

So when you ask us, why don’t you just do x, y or z, it’s because were going through the alphabet doing a,b and c,,,,plus some hieroglyphics to get it right, not because we aren’t listening to you. When you ask us who takes care of the revalvitating capitulators and I don’t know, it’s because we’re big and a lot of people do a lot of jobs. Oh yes, and since IBM stands for I’ve been moved, people change jobs and who did it last year is rarely an indicator of who’s doing it now.

It’s a good thing I can blog, the only boss I have to run that by is me.

Maybe.

I had a conversation recently with one of the major firms recently who asked me why I did what I do on my blog. Being transparent, I told them my motives, my objectives and my expectations. Let me stop and say that I fully expect them to be reading this post. I’ve been asked to present blogging as a best practice for analyst relations to a group of my peers. I do believe that it is a best practice as I accomplish many things through blogging (I’ll concede that competitive eating is pretty much motive-less, except for the spectacle of it). Mostly I was taken back that anyone would care a hoot about what I write, but I seemed to have mis-judged the audience. I know why I do what I do, but it seems that others are interested and the firm I spoke to thinks it could help the greater A/R community.

Blogging should be about transparency, but as I’ve noted before, I hate to lose. I clearly use my blog to speak to analysts as I learned well that the R in A/R doesn’t stand for reports. Yes, I write that often, so that phrase is brought to you by the department of redundancy department, but I digress. Back to hating to lose, I find that blogging gives me an additional line of communications with analysts, which I’d need to disclose to all, and it gives me a one up on the competition. I even have relationships with analysts through the blog that I don’t work day to day with.

It became clear in the conversation that I’m not going to worry about it that much as the discussion quickly came to the point that blogging is passion, you either are going to do it or your not. Most that do it are like the people at the gym after New Years. Here today, back at the buffet line tomorrow.

It also became clear to me who I felt were better bloggers than I, which I would point out in such a presentation, should I get asked to actually do it. But a lot comes down to whether I would discuss it or would I hold the keys to the safe of A/R tactics.

Maybe I just have delusions of adequacy?

My guess, I’d probably do it if asked to as if we can make our profession better, why not? And to answer the question is a blog influential to analyst relations, for me the answer is definitively yes…..both reading and writing.

Bill Hopkins of Knowledge Capital Group sent an email with 13 recommendations on January 10th. I like all of them, but want to address one, or one at time….we’ll see if I get through all of them. I picked the consulting day first as I get a lot of benefit from them, for the reasons that he points out.

Here is Bill’s take on it:
1. Spending a day consulting with a vendor on strategy
- Most analysts find tremendous value in these types of interactions and no, its’ not what you think - it isn’t because the firm gets paid for these days, or in some cases because the analysts gets a “spiff”. It is because they know what you should know. That by spending 8 or so hours with somebody you get a much better picture of who they are, what they do, how they do it, where they are going and how they are going to get there. You also have a much better chance of furthering a relationship at the same time.

My Take:

I find from the vendor side that these days are very helpful also for any number of reasons. Foremost of those is that we are so detached in our communications via web, social softwaring (made up a word there I think), crackberrying (’nuther new word), and any number of technological communications assistants, that we’re detached from human contact. I find there is no substitute for face to face communications. You can’t read a person’s non-verbal responses over a text message. I can see an analyst cringe when they see one of our strategies that they don’t agree with. I can also tell when they care as they either comment, start writing or lean over and speak to each other when we say something significant either positive or negative.

Conversely, if the analyst is sitting there like a sphinx, it tells us that whatever we just said was either a bomb, meaningless or a total bore. Try to get that over a phone or IM.

Digesting the Company:

Analysts get bombarded with information about a company….constantly. Not only do they have to boil the ocean, some companies have complexity as a core competency. Others just outright lie under the guise of Marketing speak. Face to face communications allows the analyst to challenge the company, and to ask further detail that is easily digestible in person, which either too hard or just not worth in via technology.

Forcing the vendor to be concise:

This is not always the case come final presentation, but it forces a vetting process to decide what to present. Logically, you would present what you want answers to or discussion on, otherwise it is a briefing as you’ve made your decision and this is an announcement. It also assumes that the thought going into a consulting day was cogent. I’m guessing that there are those with agenda’s such as trying to convince an analyst that they are better or right on their product and/or strategy and it becomes combative rather than consultive in nature. This is a total my bad for the vendor. If you’re not going to listen to the analyst and their advice, why did you ask them or pay them to be there???????

We go through endless rounds of drafts of our presentations and what we need help on before these days. It makes you decide what is important. The A/R person must step in at this point to keep the executives focused on the fact that this is a help session, not a sales presentation. My favorite ending to any fork in the road in the analyst discussion is “what do you think?”. I’ve rarely witnessed an analyst without an opinion.

One can receive immense help from a day of discussion, yet I’ve seen ego’s get in the way of objectives which should be to seek out help and advice from one that knows the subject matter.

Building a Relationship:

One of the inherent outcomes of spending a day (as Bill points out) in the room is some form of bonding. Even after we’ve been told how bad our product or offering is, we still have been able to work out a plan to make it better, not that we did it every time. Going through the process allows you to grow together as analyst/vendor.

There is a caveat when either side can be so combative, over ego’d or just belligerent that it became worse, but that is a human flaw, not a flaw in the process of the consulting day. And yes, I’ve seen guilt on both sides of the table.

I’ve found that either good or bad review of our subject matter still gives the analyst a view of what we are doing and they are more amenable to working with you come report/MQ/Wave/Whatever time. You know each other, you don’t have to start from first grade on your product and you have history together.

I always feel better before a report knowing that I’ve spent time with the analyst to discuss what we are doing. Sure I work for a big company, but even if I was at a small company I’d do the same things. We explain who we are, where we fit in, who we work with, who we compete against, what is our offering….and can you help?

The net of it is I’ve rarely felt that it wasn’t worth it. I’ll bet the analyst feels the same way, to some degree at least.