For the 127th episode of Burning Platform, we host Robin Schaffer of Schaffer AR. She guides smaller vendors – especially Startups and Scaleups - on navigating the world of Industry Analysts
In a fast moving conversation, we discuss
• How little the average entrepreneur at a small vendor knows about the Analyst world, even the larger firms like Gartner.
• How to use analysts for competitive and market intelligence. not just for influence
• The “pay for play” perception around analysts
• How she helps her clients navigate the explosion of boutique analyst firms
• The wide range of formats analyst content is distributed in these days – reports, books, videos, podcasts etc.
• Why the time is right for the Analyst firms to reengineer the “hellish” RFI process they make vendors endure for their research reports when they should be relying more on the countless signals they themselves get from their clients.
• Her thoughts on my new book, The AI Analyst. She was one of a select group who received an Advance Preview copy.
We conclude with the observation that we pay too much attention to dots on quadrants – when they reflect merely the tip of the iceberg – and forget that it is the result of thousands of interactions between humans.
Very nicely done in a little over half an hour.
