The Saassy guide to analyst rankings
Analyst rankings will get your foot in the door
In enterprise sales, analyst rankings impact your revenue because they influence buying decisions. There are so many different software solutions you can choose from; and if you are not an expert (the case of most enterprise buyers), it can be overwhelming. Now imagine that an impartial, third party ranks the different solutions in the market for you.
Take the segment of API Management solutions, for example. A prospect typically starts by googling « API Management vendors», and it doesn’t take long to land on the famous Magic Quadrant. For many prospects, it is a no-brainer to leverage the leadership quadrant as their RFP shortlist. While getting to the top of the shortlist is up to you, analyst rankings can get you on that list in the first place.
In this blog post, we will look at how to approach the ranking process and how to leverage the analyst reports. Let’s be realistic: if your software is no good, you can’t hide it. This blog post is meant to explain how to show your solution in the best light, and what to expect from the analyst ranking process.
Be strategic; analyst rankings are a never-ending affair
A common misconception is that the analyst ranking process is just a few weeks of intense effort every year or two. Analyst rankings are an all-year-round affair that takes a lot of time and preparation.
Because it is so resource intensive, you need to be picky and strategic. Don’t participate in every analyst ranking out there. Choose the analyst rankings that: (1) influence your buyers’ decisions - there are typically just one or two analyst firms in each software segment that have that power; and (2) support your competitive differentiators. For example, if you want to highlight the security aspect of your solution, make sure you participate in rankings that focus on that.
Throughout the year, you should aim to:
Have regular presentations of your product roadmap and go-to-market strategy to the analysts. Anytime you have launched a new product, you should inform the analyst about it.
Always have the same representatives throughout the year so your story is consistent.
Schedule sessions where analysts give you feedback on your plans, and inform you about the wider market and competitive trends.
Collaborate your way through the assessment
Once a year or every two years, the analyst firm sends out an assessment pack to software vendors, typically consisting of: a questionnaire, a request for a presentation, and a request for a demo. Each vendor has two to four weeks to submit the questionnaire and prepare for a 60-90 minute presentation and demo session with the analyst. In addition, the analyst is going to talk to customers to get their feedback.
It does take a village to do the assessment. The best way to tackle this is to form a squad composed of a product marketer, a product manager, and an engineering expert, with the overall effort being project-managed by the analyst relations director.
The overall assessment should leave the analyst confident that your vision is clear, pioneering and in line with market trends, that you can actually deliver on it, that your business is trending upwards, that your customers are happy and numerous, and that your financials are strong.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire is long and assesses pretty much every single aspect of your solution and your company - from your vision, your ability to execute on that vision, technical aspects of your solution, your go-to-market strategy and marketing.
Product marketers are typically responsible for sections related to the overall vision, go-to-market strategy, market and competitive positioning, and sales data.
Like with any writing, your answers should be concise, to the point, clearly structured, with evidence to back up your claims.
Presentation
The presentation is essentially a concise summary of the information included in the questionnaire. The analysts will tell you to present to them like they were a prospect. I have never seen anyone who would actually do that.
This is the typical structure I have used that has worked well:
A business update on what your company and solution have achieved since the last ranking (e.g. revenue, customer growth, NPS, etc)
An overview of your GtM
An overview of your solution, highlighting your strengths and differentiators
A few recent and differentiating customer success stories supporting your « claims »
A table of major wins, which competitors you beat and why
Product roadmap
Demo
As a product marketer, you should be involved in the decision on what to demo and the overall script, but then it goes to the engineering team to build it out or the product manager to run the demo in the meeting.
Consistency, consistency, consistency
Consistency is key. There are two aspects to this: year-over-year, and your overall answer.
Let’s start with year-over-year. The analysts will be monitoring your progress by comparing your current assessment to your previous one. It is therefore important to always answer the same way - or to explain if you do change your interpretation.
Imagine that one year, you say you have 4,000 customers, but next year, you start breaking down the number of total customers by product - and suddenly you say you have 400 customers. This would be a huge red flag to the analysts, even though it is just a change in how you track the numbers.
The second consistency is within the questionnaire itself. Because different people answer different sections of the questionnaire, consistency of formatting, tone and interpretations becomes a challenge. Two pieces of good practice are:
Agree on the overall style, naming definitions, formatting and other interpretations with your squad before you start answering. It will save you a lot of time at the end!
When the submission is done, have a copy editor and a subject matter expert review the whole questionnaire.
Leverage your ranking with a marketing campaign
The analyst firm sends you the draft report at least a month before its publication. This is your chance to « appeal », and it also gives you an idea where you land. If you rank well, it is worth creating a marketing campaign around it - and you have about a month to pull it off.
Firstly, you have to decide whether to license the report, which would allow you to have a landing page where prospects can download the report for free. Licensing the report is not cheap but it is a strong lead-generation activity.
Next, you create the marketing campaign that typically includes:
External messaging and collateral
Underlying theme and messaging
A PR announcement with customer and executives’ quotes
Social tiles and banners that you put across google, social media, and your website
A landing page where prospects can download a copy of your report
A thought leadership blog post or article authored by your executives
For examples of external campaigns, check out MuleSoft, Apigee or Kong.
Internal announcement and enablement
A sales training that provides an overview of the report, how sales reps should use the reports, what strengths to highlight about your solution, how to handle objections raised about your solution, and how competitors did and what to highlight about them
An internal memo providing a detailed overview of the report, your key competitors, key points to say about your solution, and an overview of the collateral
An internal email or post from the CEO that celebrates the ranking and gets people across the company excited - this is the result of a cross-company effort.
Use a combination of rankings to beat competitors
Every analyst firm has its own criteria of judging vendors, and they are often very different from one another, meaning they rank vendors differently. This is something you should use to your advantage. Imagine that you are in a luxurious position where you are a leader in both key analyst reports in your industry; your competitor A is a leader only in the Report 1, and your competitor B is a leader only in the Report 2.
When you compete against competitor A, you focus on Report 2.
When you compete against competitor B, you focus on Report 1.
When you compete against both competitors A and B, you want to bring up the combination of the Reports 1 and 2, highlighting that you are the only vendor that is a leader across different sets of criteria.
Analyst rankings are a lot of effort but can be a real door-opener. Be strategic and consistent, and you will do well!