The latest IIAR> Best Practice Paper: Analyst Relations and Industry Analysts –The 7+7+7 Golden Rules of Engagement by Ludovic Leforestier (@lludovic, LinkedIn) /  Founder, Starsight Communications and IIAR> Board Member and Caroline Dennington (@CDennington, Linkedin) / Managing Director, Dennington AR.

AR Pros and the Industry Analysts have long worked on the basis of undocumented principles. When those principles sometimes get broken or abused and then what do you do?

This IIAR> paper gathered a consensus from our community to define some rules of engagement between industry analysts and AR Pros for successful & harmonious relationships. For instance, the issue of draft reviews has been raised several times in member discussions. There was a strong and definite consensus that an analyst not providing vendors with a draft for factual review publication is not deemed a serious analyst and should be instead be dealt with by the PR department.

Other questions include:

• Is a secret recipe on how to build trust?
• When should you be transparent?
• Should analysts be afforded preferential treatment?
• And does NDA really mean, NDA?

Oh yes, there is also a section on ‘Divas’!

This IIAR> Best Practice Paper on the IIAR> Rules of Engagement With Industry Analysts is available for download <<here>> for members and <<there>> for everyone.

The 7+7+7 Rules of Engagement for Analyst Relations professionals and Industry analysts

For AR pros and analysts

1. Respect the other party’s IP and confidentiality
2. Be transparency
3. Behave with integrity
4. Avoid preferential treatments
5. Be timely
6. Be realistic

For AR professionals

1. Don’t waste analyst time
2. Enable relationships, not gate-keep them
3. Recognise different analysts play different roles
4. Enable analysts to meet their research objectives
5. Respond in a timely manner
6. Respect independence in writing
7. Be diligent during, and post publication

For industry analysts

1. NDA means NDA
2. Earn it, don’t be a diva
3. Do your homework before briefings and publishing
4. Publicise your editorial calendar
5. Give vendors the right to participate
6. Create insightful content
7. Always allow a vendor draft review

IIAR> Best Practice Paper: Analyst Relations and Industry Analysts –The 7+7+7 Golden Rules of Engagement by Ludovic Leforestier & Caroline Dennington.

See also the other IIAR> Best Practices Papers here.

IIAR> Webinar: The IIAR> Rules Of Engagement

Date: 11th September 2014
Time: 1600 BST, 1700 CET, 11am EST, 8am PST
Location: IIAR> Webinar

IIAR> Webinars are free to attend for all IIAR> Members, a good reason for joining the IIAR. For non-members there is a fee of $25/£15 (pay here) that is redeemable against IIAR> Membership over the next 12 months. Join the IIAR> via the form on this page or complete the form below. New members are always welcome !

Related resources

• IIAR> Certification
• IIAR> Primer: Who are industry analysts and what do they do?
• IIAR> Primer: What is the Analyst Relations (AR) role and the AR job description?
• IIAR> Webinar recap: What is analyst & influencer relations (AR)? (see recording below)
• IIAR> Primer: Analyst Relations and Industry Analysts – The 7+7+7  Golden Rules of Engagement
• IIAR> Primer: Future Shock: The Coming State of Analyst Relations
• IIAR> Primer: Why should startups and scale-ups have an analyst relations strategy?