How to Influence Industry Analysts

Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to shell out big bucks for analyst reports in order to get them to tell your customers good things about your firm and its offerings. Based upon my extensive experience with the breed, there are five cheap ways to build good analyst relationships:

1. Give them inside information. Analysts love knowing things before anyone else because information is the coin of their realm. They write about it, and they trade it, and they use it. So if you pick up some good industry gossip, pass it along to your analysts, especially if it's stuff that they're not supposed to know. (Needless to say, don't give away any of YOUR corporate secrets!)
2. Tell the analyst's boss when you follow the analyst's advice. Most analysts are puffed up with their own importance on the surface, but full of inner insecurities. Because of this, analysts absolutely love it when companies appear to follow their advice, especially if they publicly credit the analyst. This isn't to say that you must always follow the analyst's advice, but if you do, make sure the analyst's bosses know it. And that the analyst knows you told their boss.
3. Send the analyst publicity opportunities and press contacts. Most analysts are compensated, at least in part, with how frequently they are quoted in the press. The more the quotes; the more important the analyst! So if you run across a reporter who's doing a story on your company or your industry, refer the reporter to the analysts, and then let the analysts know that you've done them the favor.
4. Give the analyst a free vacation. To do their job, analysts must be briefed by the vendors they cover. Some vendors think it's a good idea to travel around to the analyst headquarters and give briefings. Mega-dumb. Have your big analyst briefing in Miami or San Diego in the middle of winter. Since a large number of industry analysts live in Boston and New York, they'll have to fly out to where it's warm to be briefed. And chances are their own firm will pay for it.
5. Feed the analyst during the briefing. I used to present to the office automation analyst Amy Wohl, who clearly was no stranger to the pleasures of the table. I made certain that every time I presented, a plate of cookies magically appeared on the conference room table. The cookies disappeared as I went through my slides and she wrote her notes while in the throes of a major sugar high. I'm not 100 percent sure there's a connection, but she always gave my products better reviews than the products of my peers.

By the way, if you're a sales pro who wants to help your marketing team be more effective, send them the URL to this post. It's the kind of "how the world really works" insider stuff that they didn't learn in business school.