SageCircle

This week's Cisco brutal layoffs remind us that recessions can be uneven, affecting different economies and markets differently. Recessions shift analysts' focus from vendors to buyers, and that has implications for #analystrelations. Despite budget pressures, there's often increased vendor demand for analyst services during recessions, especially at the solution, product and division level. And during recessions, enterprise buyers use analysts *more deeply* at different stages of the decision-making cycle. As a result, analyst firms face pressure from both increased client demands and budget constraints. In this post, we've been inspired by a post by Simon Jones and argue that AR needs to be tied more closely to lead generation and sales support, and that AR can often contribute most by focusing on growth areas rather than core business. #archat

We love working with Robin Schaffer, one of the SageCircle advisory board members, so our ears were wide open when Leadtail dropped this podcast. We picked out top ten insights, and the whole conversation is full of gold. #archat

Our colleague Duncan Chapple shared what he's learned in his Strathclyde Business School course on #ScenarioPlanning taught by Stathis Tapinos. In B2B tech, it was once common for analysts to produce alternative market scenarios to help businesses plan. With the post-credit crunch, businesses have been zigzagging in more adaptive ways. That produces a competitive advantage for competitors who are well prepared for 'predictable surprises'. #archat #bschool

Many thanks to Bill Gannon for reading the latest SageNote on the implications of Gartner and Forrester's half-year results. On his blog, he praises our "take on the Gartner/Forrester comparison from SageCircle. It’s a great read." See Bill's assessment at https://lnkd.in/gt-HrH7V #archat Truthfully, our analysis would have been much harder without Carter Lusher's regular analysis of those firms' financial results. His observations allowed us to focus on the meat of our analysis: six scenarios for the future of the analyst industry.

SageCircle recently published a Forward-Looking Analysis (FLA) Report: "Implications of Gartner's and Forrester's Q2 2024 Financial Results". As a result, we had some specific questions about how competitive analysts and advisory firms can take advantage of Forrester's deceleration. If they can't steal Gartner's market share, how can they steal from Forrester's? #archat

Last week's client-only SageTalk picked up the conversation from Barry Stuart's recent article on #salesenablement. The overarching challenge is bridging the gap between AR activities and measurable sales impact, requiring closer collaboration with sales teams and a more targeted approach to analyst engagements while maintaining core AR responsibilities. #archar

We've asked around about what #AnalystRelations people wish they had asked about #SalesEnablement. Barry Stuart found that many people have similar blinkers on, and that says a lot about AR's tactical challenges. #Archat

TrustRadius found its content contributors, vendors, and tech buyer panelists are using reviews and analyst reports less and less. Are those findings representative of all buyers? #archat

Ignore the claims that Forrester has played "game-changer for analyst buyers." Forrester has added some interactivity into its Waves, and found a cute way to reflect the three reference customers each vendor will be asked to provide. Too little, too late. Forrester needs Blue Ocean strategy, not visual tactics, to flip the script on Gartner. #archat

It's a year since the death of our former colleague Dominic Pannell, an #analystrelations alumnus of Hill & Knowlton, Unisys, and the board of The IIAR> (Institute of Influencer & Analyst Relations). In this post, we share lessons from a huge 2021 and 2022 SageCircle project where Dom helped an established tech brand to reinvest its analyst relations. #archat