Analyst meetings are an important part of AR strategy. These meetings are an opportunity for vendor executives and subject matter experts to meet analysts in person and build/grow relationships with one other.

In this blog, I look at objectives of analyst meetings; attendee selection; assisting analysts with preparation; setting expectations; useful content and insightful interactions; and social activities, thank you items, and surveys.  

Objectives

The objectives of analyst meetings typically include a combination of the following:

• Generating new business. For example, generating business for a new delivery center by planning a trip to the location as part of the analyst meeting
• Drawing attention to a site with a distinctive and/or new offering, such as a multi-language hub
• To provide an update on the progress of an acquisition integration
• Developing more social relationships with the analysts, which might include some fun activities planned for the analysts and executives/SMEs (beyond dinners)
• To enable clients to meet and gain insights from analysts. The analyst meeting might be combined with a client advisory board meeting with opportunities for the analysts and clients to interact
• Providing the analysts with the opportunity to hear from some of your clients as they share their stories and experiences of working with your organization
• To hold insightful discussion panels which include analyst insights
• Development of promotional items such as videos which include analyst insights
• Gaining social media posts and blogs from the analysts. 

Strategic attendee selection

Selecting the analysts to attend is a process that will likely take some thought and be tied to meeting your objectives. In most cases, it’s key to keep the group size manageable and cost effective. It’s important to remember the majority of analyst firms now organize by domain globally, so it is necessary to get the right analysts there and not only people who live near the meeting location.

Inviting the key analysts covering the topics to be discussed will add value to the discussions with your executives, subject matter experts, and clients if they are included. If social media and blog coverage is one of your key objectives, having the key analysts who cover the areas the meeting is focused on will be important.  

Helping the analysts prepare in advance of the meeting

Here are some tips for helping analysts prepare in advance, which will increase the value of your meeting:

• Provide a ‘save the date’ several months in advance, even earlier if documentation will be required to travel to a specific country (such as a business visa)
• Provide the meeting agenda as early as possible. This might help the analysts to determine if they are the best person from their organization to attend the meeting. It will also help them prepare for discussions and other interactions planned for the meeting
• Share bios of the meeting attendees. This would include attendees from your organization, client attendees, and all of the analysts. This will allow the analysts as well as the other attendees to come prepared and allow them to schedule meetings with attendees in cases where they are not already organized by your AR team
• The analysts have very busy travel schedules and project deadlines, so it is helpful if your organization can arrange flights, hotels, and ground transportation and send all of the details in one message to the analysts. I understand this might require several people from the vendor organization working together to create one message, but it truly makes a difference for the analysts.   

Setting expectations for the meeting in your invitation is important

Here, key tips are:

• Indicate if the meeting is restricted to named invitees, or if other analysts are welcome to attend
• Provide details on what expenses are being covered. Keep in mind your company is not likely to be paying for the time of the analysts, so it is best to cover their travel and accommodation if possible
• Share details if specific attire is required for some of the activities
• When inviting analysts personally, decide whether you would like them to lead a discussion, sit on a panel, or appear in a video for your promotional projects.

On the last point, please keep in mind that analysts may be restricted in what their firms allow them to do, and they will need to prepare for the activity and fit it into a busy schedule – e.g. if your organization has made plans to video an analyst, look at their travel itinerary and plan the session at a time that allows the analyst a little breathing room in their schedule. One time I had to rush from an airport to a hotel for a video shoot, and knew I was going to look very tired on camera!

Useful content and insightful interactions

Try to make the meeting sessions interactive, and please avoid death by PowerPoint. It’s great if you can share content beyond what your organization has been sharing in briefings. The opportunity to ask questions is always appreciated by analysts. When opening a session up for questions, it is important to have someone facilitate the session in an effort to stay on schedule. Also, it’s great if you can share presentation decks during the meeting.

If one of your meeting objectives is to gain social media posts and blogs from the analysts, this story will be useful… I have asked analysts why they haven’t written blogs about analyst meetings. Some of the analysts have told me they did not receive new information during the meeting, others have said most of the content shared was placed under NDA, and others said they did not receive the follow-up presentation deck in time. So, if you are looking to gain social media posts and blogs about the meeting, it is important to share new and interesting content with the analysts that they can share publicly. While analysts value information that is shared under NDA, they also need details to share publicly if you are looking for them to share social media posts and publish blogs.

The analysts will also need to have any presentation decks shared during the meeting or as they depart, because many analysts will write blogs during the meeting or during their journey home. On another note, video blogs or vlogs have become more common for analysts to post from meetings. It’s nice when a quiet place, with a backdrop showcasing the meeting, is provided for the analysts to utilize.  

One-on-one discussions between the analysts and your executives and subject matter experts are also a good idea, as they present an opportunity to build relationships, and analysts will also be more open and candid when they are not in earshot of their competitors. During these interactions, plans for future interactions are often discussed. I have heard analysts talk about needing to follow-up from these discussions, so it’s useful for AR contacts to do a debrief with the executives/SMEs to capture the follow-up items in an effort to assist both the analysts and your executives/SMEs as they return to their busy schedules.

Social activities, thank you items, and surveys

Of course, it’s also important to build social activity into the program, as an opportunity to really get to know the analysts and learn more about their research. And if the meeting is held in a location that presents opportunities for sight-seeing, that also helps facilitate relationship-building outside the formal setting of the conference room.

It’s common for analyst meeting organizers to arrange for a small thank you in the form of a gift for attendees, though this is by no means necessary. This may seem a minor point, but if you do provide a gift, it’s best to make sure that the item can be transported easily by plane (bottles can be particularly difficult to transport!), otherwise you may have to consider shipping options.

Finally, remember to survey the analysts for feedback that could be used to improve future meetings. The survey needs to be shared in a timely manner during the meeting or as the analysts depart. I do like it when both paper and digital options are offered for surveys, which allows for flexibility should the analyst not have time to complete the survey on site and needs to give feedback digitally after the event.

Hopefully, this blog will assist you in getting the most value out of your analyst meetings, helping you to obtain your objectives. Let me know if you have any questions or further thoughts on the subject!