5 Essential Tips for Creating a Successful Analyst Advisory Day
Analyst Advisory Days are an important (and expensive!) strategic tool in your Analyst Relations arsenal, and particularly vital before major evaluations like Gartner's Magic Quadrant or Forrester's Wave. Creating a successful advisory day is not just about presenting and receiving information - smart Analyst Relations professionals and startup leaders aim to craft an experience that offers deep insights, leaves both sides more educated, and most importantly builds and deepens relationships.
Here are five tips I give my clients to help them make their advisory day investments really count.
1. Start With a Clear and Aligned ‘Why’
Hosting an Advisory Day isn’t just another checkbox in your AR strategy; it's a deliberate investment in achieving some part of either your Analyst Relations or your company strategy. If you’re gearing up for a Wave, Magic Quadrant, or other major evaluation, advisory time is a critical investment in my opinion, but that’s not the only time advisory can make sense. I also recommend investing in advisory time as a post-evaluation debrief wherever possible as this can help you gather post-evaluation intelligence while it is still fresh in the Analyst’s mind, down to a very specific level (i.e. “walk me through exactly what it took to earn a 5 on criteria X and what gaps you saw for us”).
For startups who may not quite be in the major evaluation frame of mind yet, Advisory Days can still be beneficial (though make sure you’re ready to engage at all - more here!) but here the goal is probably much more about relationship building and early advice. You are likely to spend more time presenting in a setup like this, because you’re trying to bring an analyst around to your way of thinking about the market. Think about bringing in a panel of customers who have adopted your new innovative approach to share their results (see #4 below).
2. What should the Analyst Present? Generic Content is your Enemy
When it comes to Advisory Day content, put some real thought into what you’re asking of the Analyst, and aim for something custom, but reasonable. What do I mean by that? Left to set an agenda on their own, analysts are humans who will often default to something they have presented before - maybe at a recent conference or some inquiry trends from another advisory day. But you are paying too much for this time to accept generic content you already have access to!
At the same time, these really aren’t set up for a completely bespoke analysis. The sweet spot is a fresh look at data the analyst already has. My gold standard? A SWOT analysis of your key competitors, as well as your company. This pushes the analyst toward original analysis, ensuring you get fresh, bespoke insights that you won't find in their published reports - but it also shouldn’t be overtaxing to the point of unreasonable.
3. What should we present? It all comes back to those goals
This one flows right from point #1, but I want to take it a step further - part of showing up well on your advisory day means you’re in the driver's seat, wringing every ounce of strategic value out of every minute. That means that not only do you have absolute clarity on what you’re trying to achieve, but everyone on your briefing team is 100% clear on how they fit into that plan.
Step 1: go grab that executive prep deck you made and delete the slides that say things like “who is Forrester? What is Gartner?” - I promise your C-Suite knows. Instead give senior leaders (1) relevant background (the last evaluation if relevant and any meaningful interaction since), and (2) a clear idea of what mark you want them to hit in this session. For example - “I need a 30 minute roadmap that highlights our progress on area X with specific emphasis on functions Y and Z where we scored poorly last time.” If you are expecting them to create content - do this two+ weeks before the session so they have time to execute the content creation required.
4. Still not sure? You can’t go wrong bringing one or more happy customers
At times when I’ve genuinely not been sure what to present, maybe because I’m saving key content to be revealed during our actual evaluation briefing, one favorite time filler I’ve found is to bring in happy customers to share firsthand how they are benefitting from your product. If you’re in person, you could even ask a local customer to give an on-site tour and show how your product is used in the field. But even if you’re stuck in a Zoom, it’s a great break and texture change to get an analyst connected with real customers who are using your product in the real world.
My advice? Do whatever you can to just get out of the way… Set the expectation with the analyst and the customer that this will be an open Q&A, and that you want the time to be valuable for both sides. Obviously you’re going to use champion level customers you trust for this, so you just want to let them fly (with a bit of prep beforehand so they are ready for any pitfall questions or highlights you want them to be sure to hit).
You know you nailed it if the customer and analyst are trading contact info at the end of the session - now you’ve seeded relationships that can become case studies, conference highlights, and more.
5. Extend a VIP Invite to your CRO
In general, bringing senior executives to an advisory day sends a strong message that this analyst’s time is something you take seriously and see value in at the highest levels of your company. I see CMOs and CPOs in this room a lot, but please consider bringing your CRO too - I see two big wins in doing so:
For the Analyst: Your CRO lives in the day-to-day of market wins and customer momentum. They are the perfect person to speak to where you are winning and why, and to share exactly the details your analyst needs to hear about how compelling your offering has been in the market lately. This data goes beyond your standard pitch deck and can arm your analyst to understand exactly who makes a great fit customer for you so they know it when they hear it in their inquiry conversations.
For your CRO: Your analyst lives in the day-to-day of customer buying behavior. They are the perfect person to speak to why you might be losing and why, or to share details about customer frictions and pain points you might not otherwise catch. It’s an incredibly valuable opportunity for your CRO to hear unfiltered, sometimes painful feedback about where your sales team, pricing model, GTM, process, or anything else might be making the buying process more painful, confusing, or frustrating than it needs to be. If your CRO can be open to the feedback, it’s absolute gold.
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Keep your eyes on your goals (and as always, the clock!). We hope you find these tips helpful in designing and hosting your next Analyst Advisory Day and leaving *the right* kind of lasting impression!
Upward (and to the right!)
Elena
