The IIAR> Institute of Influencer & Analyst Relations / IIAR> Best Practice Paper: Engage the right audience, using analyst tiering

IIAR Discussion Group - Tiering Best Practices

The use of the tiering of analyst firms, and of specific analysts, is one of the more controversial yet basic and widely used tools by AR teams and professionals. While no analyst or firm likes to be relegated to “Tier 2” or, God forbid, “Tier 3,” no vendor can devote enough resources, budget and access to treat all analysts the same. Some analyst firms may not publicly recognize this fact, but, vendor AR teams provide analysts a free service to help analysts develop research. This includes providing vendor and market information, free access to knowledgeable executives and often, perhaps ironically, pay for subscriptions and additional services with analysts. In short, analyst firms outsource, at no cost and even often at a profit, research activities to AR. Clearly, therefore, AR teams need to prioritise which firms and analyst to invest in, and tiering is a common technique.

But how best to perform tiering? A simple but often wrong answer is to classify evaluative research lead analysts as Tier 1 and relegate everyone else to Tier 3. “Not so fast” according to the IIAR team who is updateding the IIAR best practice paper on tiering and hosting this Zoom event. While analysts authoring Gartner Magic Quadrants, Forrester Waves, IDC MarketScapes and other evaluative methodologies such as the Omdia Decision Matrices and GigaOM Radars are often key to an AR program, it’s not always the case that these analysts and firms should be considered “Tier 1;” it depends on AR priorities. In the soon to be published paper, the IIAR> Editorial Committee shows how tiering aligns with the AR Compass to help establish a baseline for AR programs.

IIAR> Members can access the paper on our Members Portal > IIAR> Best Practice Paper: Engage the right audience, using analyst tiering.

IIAR> Webinar: Engage the right audience, using analyst tiering

This IIAR> Group Discussion on Tiering Best Practices will be conducted via Zoom and the session recording will be made available to IIAR> Members on the IIAR> Members Portal (private) after the event. The event is available for free for IIAR> Members, but you must register to attend. To register, click on the button below. If you are not an IIAR> Member but are interested in joining and would like to attend this session as a “try before you buy,” kindly email evan@analystrelations.org with your request. This session will be hosted by the IIAR> Editorial Committee: