Our Analyst Influence Survey asks readers to take a survey to tell us what they think of the leading analyst houses.
It is an annual survey, which Duncan Chapple first conducted in 2001. It’s primarily aimed at vendor’s staff, because we already conduct large surveys of buyers and of analysts. However, vendors’ opinions of analysts give some strong signals about how the market is moving. I’ve put one of last year’s charts in this posting.
The strength of this survey is also the weakness: it is an aggregate of individual perceptions. Every marketer knows that perception is not reality, and this survey gives an excellent idea of how vendors are seeing changes in the analyst community.
Unlike our other surveys, this study has a small sample size (there have never been more than 50 participants in any year). Furthermore, not every vendor comments on every firm – so the scores for each score only show the opinions of executives who have some familiarity with that analyst house.
This year we are opening up the survey, to see if a larger sample size changes the data. To encourage participation, we will give the results, for free, to each participant. Everyone knows the saying that free advice is worth what you pay for it. Perhaps this study is no exception. Certainly, it is a purely a subjective ‘weather-vane’. However, past studies have shown some powerful trends. I recommend you take the survey and make up your own mind when you see the results.
