In order to do justice to a recent podcast I decided to provide my commentary in two posts. The first post can be found here.
As an observer of the analyst industry I took notice about what the panelists thought about the future. I agreed with Michael Coté’s opinion that the most important thing to be a successful analyst is to be a prolific writer. I also agree with Phil Fersht’s assessment that the key ingredient for a successful analyst is a strong connection to his or hear audience. And from my previous discussions with these two and the moderator Derk Erbé, I know how important it is to draw conclusions based on real data and not just opinion.
My advice to anyone who wants to be an analyst is to take the above statements as gospel. Remember, being a good analyst with lots of knowledge is not enough to be successful.
I would also be discourage the belief that the market is ripe for disruption. While there are several companies that are focused on getting expertise from “communities”, I have seen only a limited number be able to actually build a strong revenue stream AND provide high quality, neutral advice for IT buyers and users. For those looking for additional ideas about how to enter the analyst market, here are two more:
- Survey Research Drives Custom Consulting: Questionnaires provide the data everyone wants to back up their analysis. Marketers will pay for charts they can use in their collateral. End users want data to benchmark themselves against. I recommend that analysts publish their basic survey research freely. This will drive use of their research, and if it is good work then prospective buyers will start asking for custom analysis and follow-up surveys, all of which will result in revenue.
- Befriend Non-professional Influencers: Kea Company’s business is based on the truth that analysts, journalists and peer evangelists all influence technology buying decisions. Yet, time and again the people who are the most influential are your peers, which in this context are the end users of technology. And how does someone influence them? You target the most influential end users by reading about them in case studies, hearing them at conferences and reading their Twitter feeds. Then, you make a direct connection with them. I suggest you offer them a speaking slot at an event and access to some awesome benchmarking report. Yes, I know this is a Dale Carnegie type approach, but if you have sincere interest in their work, they’ll pay attention to your analysis.