Effective analyst interactions are varied and conversational. One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most in the Analyst Relations team at CCgroup has been using the McGrog analysis developed by our colleague Zoë Crichton. It’s a way of noting, evaluating and classifying the conversations which show our clients, at a glance, whether product talk dominated the briefing or if it was conversational and varied.

We’ve seen that these are two criteria which are easy to explain and hard to dispute: that makes them excellent tools to help nerdy spokespeople to flex their style a bit and engage the analysts more. Looking at interactions this way also reminds me of conversations with University of Edinburgh Business School colleagues.

Trust is one of the most powerful factors in analyst relationships, but also one of hardest things to measure objectively. Among other things, trusted analysts feel listened to by vendors. I try to show this in the chart above.

I’m not happy with the names of these quadrants, but thought leaders are the best places to develop trust because they are in a conversation with the analyst, and they are able to address a broader range of the analysts’ concerns.

What would be better names for these quadrants? #archat