What’s are the best ways for services providers to influence sourcing advisors in Europe like Orbys, Morgan Chambers and TPI? These providers of custom advisory services are the fastest-growing part of the influencer landscape, and were discussed on our recent webinar.
Since these advisors don’t primarily write research, the discussion will focus on the specific issues of building rapport with these folk. As Mark Wiggins has pointed out to me recently, there are several aspects to consider. We’ll be reviewing each of them during the call:
- 1. Do the parent companies of these firms publish related syndicated research – if so, you can bet that the subsidiary draws upon this as a knowledge resource when advising clients;
- 2. Services firms can share Balanced Scoreboard, Vendor Evaluation criteria, TCO and ROI analysis white papers with other advisors. There is an opportunity for vendor-neutral analysis, from the consultants within IT Services companies, than can be given to advisory firms for them to reuse;
- 3. Are IT Services companies are sponsoring Conferences/Events where these firms might be interested in showcasing their credentials, like a vendor user conference or forum? Conversely, what are the principal events where Orbys, TPI speak, where services firms can network directly and engage with them at these events;
- 4. Services firms can engage advisors as a client on projects like Win/Loss analysis, RFI/RFP response preparation and bid situations where those advisers are not involved on the client side;
- 5. Tracking down former employees of these firms and research their information needs;
- 6. Find out what Industry Associations and neutral networking forums their principals participate in and engage with them there;
- 7. Examine the next level of association of such firms – analyst firms (as mentioned above), journalists, freelance consultants, alumni, industry associations, business associations, Big 4 firms, vendors etc – and search for common links.
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