How Atlassian Product Marketing Leader Daniel Kuperman Built An Analyst Relations Program To Establish A Nascent Category

Context

About MindTickle

When I joined MindTickle, it was a Series A startup trying to create a new category of sales readiness software. The company provides tools for onboarding, training, and enabling sales teams. Our four founders had deep market knowledge and a clear vision for what the market needed, and that led them to start the company. At that point, however, sales readiness was a nascent category, and there was little analyst coverage on it. The sales enablement role was also still new,  though demand for sales enablement tools was growing.

The Need For an Analyst Relations Program

We aspired to be a dominant, trusted, and known company in the market, and we saw analysts as the best way to go up-market. At the same time, we were encountering issues in our sales cycle. Executives hadn’t heard of us, and wouldn’t talk to us — many of them read trusted analyst reports to know what to pay attention to. So we saw analysts as our way to build trust, gain reputation, shape the market, and promote the role of sales enablement, which, in our view, was different from L&D (learning and development) and other sales tools.

Our goals were to:

1. Establish ourselves as a leading vendor in the market and shape a new market category

2. Improve sales by improving our reputation as a trusted vendor and leader 

3. Capture market intelligence to inform our messaging and positioning

4. Acquire additional input to validate our product roadmap.

After investing in analyst relations, we succeeded in these goals:

• We earned mentions in several analyst reports and got good placement in a comparative report (even before there was a category or magic quadrant for sales readiness). And analysts were reaching out to us to get screenshots from our last demo to include in their next presentation.

• Customers began sharing that analysts they’d spoken to had favorable things to say about us, which improved our close rates.

• We generated significant leads from customers because analysts recommended us , along with leads from analyst reports in outreach.

• We refined our pitch deck and our product roadmap through feedback from analysts, which improved sales.

• We were able to raise another round of funding.

For this project, I worked with our leadership team. It was important that we involved our chief product officer, our CEO, and our chief revenue officer. While I helped to frame the narrative and provide competitive positioning, the founders were able to provide a clear vision for where they saw the market going.

Framework

Many business buyers and executives look to analysts as trusted advisors on markets and vendors. For  startups, analysts can be a way to gain reputation and build trust with buyers. And because analysts see so many vendors and hear from a number of enterprises, they can be a tremendous source of market intelligence and feedback to your team. 

Analysts Are Trusted Advisors to Enterprise Buyers

However, you must see analysts as trusted advisors in the market, not broadcasters of your messaging. It is important to understand that you can’t pay to get into a magic quadrant — the product has to earn you that spot. Analysts can be a good gut check on whether your product is as good as you think it is, which means it’s useful to have your product and exec team in the room when engaging analysts as well.

Framework Call Out

Analyst Relations Are a Long-Term Investment

Analyst relations will take time and effort. There’s a lot of preparation and foundational work (e.g. reading previous reports, getting to know the analysts, etc.). Internal alignment is also needed across different teams and execs, and there is work to set the right expectations internally. However, when leveraged properly, your analyst relations program can be one of the best strategic tools in your arsenal, as you can get competitive insights, messaging validation, an unbiased opinion about your roadmap, and even insights into potential M&A targets.

5 Step Analyst Relations Program Building Process

My analyst relations program-building process consisted of the following five key steps, and each one was crucial in shaping our success:

1. Decide to Invest: We evaluated if (and why) it was the right time to invest in an analyst relations program.

2. Define the Goals: We defined our goals for the program, and ensured everyone was aligned on them.

3. Identify 2–3 Analysts: We identified and prioritized the most influential analysts who could have the most impact on shaping market perception.

4. Engage with Analysts: We built relationships and shared insights with analysts through regular interactions, such as briefings, inquiries, and advisory sessions.

5. Maximize the Investment: We maximized our use of analysts and their reports to drive leads, and built good relationships to maintain a strong market presence and shape our strategic planning.

Diagram: Analyst Relations Program Building Process