Two years ago, our friend and peer Dominic Pannell died. He leaves a huge gap in the influencer relations community, both for his professional contribution and his human energy. Last year I wrote a reflection on his views on analyst relations, and so did his colleagues at SageCircle. This year, with their help, I’m sharing Dominic’s influencer mapping framework. His approach underpinned what was probably the largest ever qualitative research project into influencers on B2B tech purchasing for a SageCircle client.
The analyst relations profession has long operated with a narrow definition of who constitutes an “analyst.” While most AR programs focus exclusively on traditional industry analysts from firms like Gartner, Forrester, and IDC, Dominic Pannell challenged this limited perspective. His framework for influencer ecosystem mapping revealed how multiple stakeholder categories shape buying decisions, particularly in complex outsourcing and enterprise technology purchases.
Pannell’s approach emerged from his recognition that business decisions involve multiple influencer types at different stages of the decision process. His framework provides AR professionals with a systematic method for identifying, categorizing, and engaging the full spectrum of decision influencers—not just those carrying traditional “analyst” titles.
The Outsourcing Decision Process Model
Pannell’s influencer framework centers on understanding how different stakeholder types exert influence across the four stages of complex B2B decision processes:
- Long List development,
- Short List creation,
- RFI/RFP evaluation, and
- Implementation planning.
Traditional industry analysts maintain significant influence during the early Long List stage, where their market coverage and vendor awareness help shape initial consideration sets. Their influence continues but diminishes during Short List development as more specialized expertise becomes relevant. During RFI/RFP evaluation, industry analysts provide limited value compared to domain specialists. At Implementation, their role becomes minimal.
Sourcing advisers (Third Party Advisors or TPAs) demonstrate the opposite pattern. Their involvement begins modestly during Long List development but accelerates through Short List creation and peaks during RFI/RFP evaluation and Implementation phases. These advisors bring procurement expertise, contract negotiation skills, and vendor management experience that becomes critical as decisions progress.
Business consultants maintain consistent influence across all stages, providing strategic perspective on business requirements, organizational change management, and solution fit. Their involvement often predates the formal decision process and continues through implementation.
Academics contribute specialized knowledge during early stages, particularly in emerging technology areas where research insights inform strategic direction. Lawyers become increasingly important during later stages, focusing on contract terms, compliance requirements, and risk mitigation.
Strategic Implications for AR Programs
This multi-stakeholder reality requires AR professionals to expand their engagement strategies beyond traditional analyst relations activities. Programs designed around quarterly briefings and annual summits miss opportunities to influence key decision shapers operating outside traditional analyst firm structures.
Effective influencer ecosystem engagement begins with mapping the specific decision process your target customers follow. Technology outsourcing decisions involve different stakeholder combinations than software platform selections or infrastructure investments. Understanding these variations enables more precise influencer identification and engagement planning.
AR professionals must also recognize that different influencer types require different engagement approaches. Sourcing advisers respond to detailed implementation data, cost models, and vendor comparison frameworks. Business consultants value strategic insights, industry trend analysis, and thought leadership content. Academics appreciate research collaboration opportunities, technology briefings, and access to subject matter experts.
Implementation Framework for Expanded Influencer Engagement
Successful implementation requires systematic stakeholder identification and engagement planning. Begin by analyzing your customers’ recent significant purchases to identify which non-traditional influencers participated in decision processes. Interview sales teams, customer success managers, and customers themselves to understand influence patterns.
Create influencer categories based on their role in decision processes rather than their organizational affiliations. Map these categories against decision stages to understand when each type becomes most influential. Develop engagement strategies appropriate to each category’s information needs and decision criteria.
Sourcing adviser engagement requires demonstrating vendor stability, implementation methodology, and total cost of ownership models. These advisers evaluate multiple vendors simultaneously and appreciate standardized comparison information. Consider developing TPA-specific briefing materials that address common evaluation criteria and implementation considerations.
Business consultant engagement focuses on strategic value propositions and industry expertise. These influencers often shape requirements definitions and solution architecture decisions. Engage them through thought leadership content, strategic advisory sessions, and industry trend briefings that position your organization as a strategic partner rather than just a vendor.
Academic engagement leverages research interests and expertise development opportunities. University professors and research institute analysts often influence emerging technology adoption patterns and standards development. Consider research collaboration programs, guest lecture opportunities, and access to technical experts for academic projects.
Measuring Ecosystem Influence Impact
Traditional AR metrics focus on coverage volume and sentiment from industry analyst reports. Expanded influencer engagement requires broader measurement approaches that capture influence across multiple stakeholder types.
Track engagement metrics across all influencer categories, including meeting frequency, content consumption patterns, and referral activity. Monitor how different influencer types participate in customer decision processes through sales team feedback and customer interviews.
Measure business impact through opportunity progression analysis, comparing win rates and sales cycle length for deals involving engaged influencers versus those relying solely on traditional analyst influence. Track competitive positioning improvements in RFP responses and vendor selection processes.
Consider establishing advisory councils that include representatives from different influencer categories. These groups provide ongoing feedback on market positioning, competitive landscape changes, and emerging customer requirements while creating ongoing engagement opportunities.
Organizational and Resource Considerations
Expanding beyond traditional analyst relations requires additional resources and potentially different skill sets. Engaging sourcing advisers requires understanding procurement processes and contract negotiation dynamics. Business consultant engagement demands strategic business acumen and industry expertise. Academic engagement involves research program development and university relationship management.
Consider whether current AR team members possess the necessary expertise for expanded influencer engagement or whether additional hiring or training is required. Some organizations establish specialist roles for different influencer categories while maintaining centralized coordination through the AR function.
Budget allocation must reflect the broader scope of influencer engagement activities. Traditional AR programs allocate most resources to industry analyst firms through subscriptions, briefings, and events. Expanded programs require budget for academic research projects, consultant advisory services, and TPA relationship development.
Integration with Broader Marketing and Sales Activities
Pannell emphasized that expanded influencer engagement must coordinate with but not duplicate broader marketing activities. Public relations, field marketing, and digital marketing create “noise, momentum, and buzz” that supports but cannot replace strategic influencer engagement.
Coordinate messaging and positioning across all influencer engagement activities to maintain consistency while adapting content to different audience needs. Ensure that sales teams understand how to leverage relationships with non-traditional influencers during opportunity development and progression.
Consider how customer reference programs can support influencer engagement by providing access to implementation examples and success stories that resonate with different influencer types. Sourcing advisers value detailed implementation case studies, while business consultants appreciate strategic transformation narratives.
The Strategic Value of Ecosystem Thinking
Pannell’s framework recognizes that competitive advantage increasingly comes from understanding and influencing the complete decision ecosystem rather than just traditional analyst coverage. Organizations that map and engage the full spectrum of decision influencers gain competitive advantages through broader market intelligence, enhanced positioning in evaluation processes, and stronger relationships across customer organizations.
This ecosystem approach requires AR professionals to think strategically about influence patterns rather than simply managing analyst relationships. It demands deeper understanding of customer decision processes and the various expertise types that inform those decisions.
Companies implementing expanded influencer engagement often discover new competitive intelligence sources, earlier warning indicators of market shifts, and opportunities to shape emerging technology discussions before they reach traditional industry analyst coverage.
The framework also reveals how different influencer types complement each other in shaping customer perceptions. Industry analysts provide market validation and vendor awareness. Sourcing advisers offer implementation feasibility assessment. Business consultants contribute strategic fit evaluation. Academics supply technology innovation insights.
By engaging this complete ecosystem strategically, AR programs can influence customer decisions more comprehensively while developing market intelligence capabilities that extend well beyond traditional analyst relations scope. This expanded approach positions AR as a strategic business function rather than just a communications activity, delivering the kind of business impact that generates executive support and program investment.
Organizations ready to implement ecosystem-based influencer engagement should begin with careful mapping of their customers’ decision processes, systematic identification of non-traditional influencers, and pilot programs that test engagement approaches with selected influencer categories. The strategic value of this expanded perspective becomes clear as opportunities progress more favourably and competitive positioning improves across the complete spectrum of customer evaluation activities.
Dominic was at least a decade, and perhaps two, ahead of the state of the art in the B2B influence. His contributions continue to have immense value, but it’s Dominic as a person that is missed the most.
Rest in peace, Dom.
