Stress Objectives and how to avoid them

Stress Objectives and how to avoid them

As many marketers enter planning season, a common pitfall is agreeing to so-called Stress Objectives – targets that look and sound good but are unrealistic and unattainable.

Whether you call them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound (SMART) objectives, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), the principle is the same: setting targets for the year ahead to measure success.

This is a critical part of managing any team or individual contributor – yet we often see marketers setting themselves up for failure by agreeing to what we’ve dubbed Stress […]

By Destrier|2025-01-08T11:49:45+01:00January 8th, 2025|

Predictions 2025: Crystal ball gazing by Destrier’s team

Predictions 2025: Crystal ball gazing by Destrier’s team

As a little extra, here’s a GenAI-created summary of our 2025 predictions.

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Over the past few days, we’ve been sharing Destrier’s 2025 predictions. Destrier is a leading independent provider of Analyst Relations advisory services and support to tech vendors.

Working with multiple clients in various industry areas gives us unique insight into the industry analyst firm landscape and fuels these predictions.

1. The Informa Tech and TechTarget […]

By Destrier|2024-12-12T13:12:06+01:00December 12th, 2024|

Destrier Predictions 2025: #7 Expect to see GenAI tools revolutionize AR, but don’t overlook the human side

Destrier Predictions 2025: #7 Expect to see GenAI tools revolutionize how AR teams prepare, monitor and debrief on analyst engagement – but don’t overlook the human side

No set of 2025 predictions would be complete without GenAI. But is this a prediction or a look-back? In 2025, we expect to see a deeper understanding of the benefits of AI tools in the key battleground of summarizing content – whether written or verbal – and in creating recommended actionable insights.

AR professionals who want to keep up must continually invest time and effort in learning new skills and harnessing the […]

By Destrier|2024-12-12T12:49:32+01:00December 11th, 2024|

Destrier Predictions 2025: #6 The Rise of the Document Review

Destrier Predictions 2025: #6 The Rise of the Document Review

In 2025, Document Review by industry analysts will become a compelling tool for Analyst Relations professionals. We’ve long considered Document Review to be a powerful component of the toolbox, and it is finally gaining the recognition it deserves.

Why? It’s a great way to gain insight while ensuring your target analysts properly engage with the content they’re reviewing.

Key reasons why Document Review is such a powerful tool for AR professionals

Reach the parts that inquiries cannot reach: For example, you may be separated from a top analyst by […]

By Destrier|2024-12-03T14:20:50+01:00December 10th, 2024|

Destrier Predictions 2025: #5 New alternative analyst reports will put the squeeze on IDC MarketScapes and Forrester Waves

Destrier Predictions 2025: #5 New analyst reports will put the squeeze on IDC MarketScapes and Forrester Waves

As we approach 2025, the number of challenger analyst firms continues to grow, along with the quality and relevance of their research.

This increase means that tech vendor analyst relations teams are becoming more selective about the time and effort they are prepared to dedicate to research from established firms like IDC and Forrester, particularly when evaluating the return on investment.

Although we don’t expect any specific “alternative to Gartner” analyst research request to erode the resources that AR teams dedicate to a […]

By Destrier|2024-12-12T12:50:18+01:00December 9th, 2024|

Destrier Predictions 2025: #4 Gartner will extend EMQs and change the MQ process

Destrier Predictions 2025: #4 Gartner will extend EMQs and change the MQ process

Talking of workflow, we predict that incremental changes to the Gartner Magic Quadrant data collection process will come in 2025.

After letting the total number of MQs dwindle to around 100, Gartner doubled down in adding more in 2024. You can expect even more in 2025. We believe all MQs will shift over to using the online Provider Information Portal (PIP), Gartner’s next step in industrializing vendor data collection.

In 2025, Gartner may also officially formalize the creeping return to asking vendors in Magic Quadrants for […]

By Destrier|2024-12-12T12:45:27+01:00December 5th, 2024|

Destrier Predictions 2025: #3 Gartner will extend EMQs

Destrier Predictions 2025: #3 Gartner will extend EMQs

Today’s prediction: Gartner will extend its new Emerging Market Quadrant (EMQ) reports.

Introduced mid-year, the EMQ is a new type of 2×2 quadrant from Gartner. At first, it sounded more revolutionary than it appeared. When the first EMQ appeared, we commented that it was more like a “classic” Magic Quadrant than expected.

Why? Because it’s still a 2×2 that stack-ranks vendors – and it also looks almost identical to an MQ. The only quadrant named differently from the MQ is the bottom left.

Vendors at the top right of the EMQ […]

By Destrier|2024-12-12T12:48:39+01:00December 5th, 2024|

Destrier Predictions 2025: #2 Uncertain times ahead for Forrester Research

Destrier Predictions 2025: #2 Uncertain times ahead for Forrester Research

2025 will be an uncertain year for Forrester Research, especially for its analysts. Unless the company’s financial outlook improves, layoffs must be inevitable.

Much has already been written about Forrester’s loss of momentum. Vendor spending is down and its events business has struggled to regain momentum post-Covid.

It’s a worrying time for Forrester analysts – especially as inquiry volumes are also down. According to Destrier’s analysis of inquiry data from one quarter this year, Forrester analysts fielded just 1% of the number of inquiries taken by their Gartner counterparts.

That’s […]

By Destrier|2024-12-12T12:50:56+01:00December 4th, 2024|

Destrier Predictions 2025: #1 The Informa Tech and TechTarget merger – will a powerhouse finally emerge in 2025?

Destrier Predictions 2025: #1 The Informa Tech and TechTarget merger – will a powerhouse finally emerge in 2025?

After almost a year’s wait, Informa Tech and TechTarget have finally merged, and the new company starts trading today (NASDAQ: TTGT). It’s great timing for a fresh start in 2025, but can Informa TechTarget become a powerhouse in terms of enterprise buyer influence?

AR veterans may – quite rightly – be skeptical, based on previous big promises from Informa Tech about how its portfolio of analyst firms will influence IT decision-makers (ITDMs).

We think the TechTarget tie-in is a little different. It’s […]

By Destrier|2024-12-12T12:51:22+01:00December 3rd, 2024|

Gartner’s first EMQ finally publishes – and it’s more similar to an MQ than we expected

Gartner’s first EMQ finally publishes – and it’s more similar to an MQ than we expected

The full title is the Innovation Guide for Generative AI Technologies, and it’s the first appearance of the Emerging Market Quadrant from research firm Gartner.

Publishing today on Gartner.com and due to update again every four weeks, the EMQ ranks vendors in a standard Gartner 2×2 that doesn’t look much different from the MQ (dare I call it the “MQ Classic”?).

The EMQ was first slated to appear in […]

By Destrier|2024-11-18T17:58:45+01:00October 2nd, 2024|

ChatGPT “helped” me write a novel – and created a ruthless serial killer

ChatGPT “helped” me write a novel – and created a ruthless serial killer

What started as a Roald Dahl-style tale of the unexpected turned into what ChatGPT describes as a “psychological thriller” featuring a nighttime chase through a forest, writes Simon Jones.

The unexpected twist was that one of the side characters turned into a cold-blooded killer. That certainly wasn’t in the story arc.

Nor were the warnings from ChatGPT that the developing narrative had violated its own usage policies, due to the graphic violence and cold-blooded nature of the killings – with moral ambiguity, too.

How quickly ChatGPT drifted to the dark […]

By Destrier|2024-11-19T10:01:12+01:00September 16th, 2024|

Gartner Peer Insights Goes AI

GPI Goes AI

Analyst firm Gartner has changed its stance on reviewers using Generative AI for Peer Insights – provided you do it their way.

The controlled use of Gen AI starts with suggestions for a review headline – something many reviewers struggle with. An AI-based spellchecker also offers assistance.

With the service in beta, Gartner says it already helped users correct 180,000 typos. That’s a good thing, for sure – but Gartner must guard against a proliferation of blander, AI-generated headlines.

According to GPI’s latest methodology update, the number of reviews is still growing steadily. One driver for adding […]

By Destrier|2024-11-18T17:57:55+01:00July 30th, 2024|

Revolutionizing Tech Marketing: Must-Read Insights from the TrustRadius 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect Report

Revolutionizing Tech Marketing: Must-Read Insights from the TrustRadius 2024 B2B Buying Disconnect Report

The B2B Buying Disconnect, a must-read report for tech marketers, is now in its eighth year. Its long-running theme highlights the differences between the reality of tech buying and vendor perception.

Each year’s report from TrustRadius is a treasure trove of insights that have, over time, become a valuable resource, as well as tracking the rise and fall of various buying mechanisms before, during and after the pandemic.

As buying cycles become shorter, tech marketers should note a couple of key findings from the report – first, […]

By Destrier|2024-11-18T18:01:23+01:00June 4th, 2024|

A potted plant for your thoughts? G2 takes a fresh approach to rewarding tech reviewers

A potted plant for your thoughts? G2 takes a fresh approach to rewarding tech reviewers

Hitting the wall in incentivizing your customers to write reviews by offering a $25 gift card? How about offering a potted plant? This is a top incentive in G2’s new tie-up with Sendoso.

It’s a bold move by G2 to widen the choice of incentives for enterprise reviewers of tech software and services. It may be a proactive attempt to combat reviewer fatigue in an industry fast closing in on six million reviews – something that rival TrustRadius recently highlighted as a “hamster wheel” […]

By Destrier|2024-11-18T18:03:40+01:00March 20th, 2024|

Gartner is modernizing Peer Insights but lags G2 in evaluating AI

Gartner is modernizing Peer Insights but lags G2 in evaluating AI

This week, Gartner ran its semi-annual update for tech vendors on the Peer Insights business, promising improvements to the dashboard experience and underlining its importance as a source of insights for buyers.

Highlights include besting the 600,000 review mark and Gartner confirming that GPI is increasingly integrated with its core research and advisory business. Also, survey improvements in the works are intended to increase the relevance of review content and improve the reviewer experience by refining the questions.

By Destrier|2024-01-28T18:39:55+01:00January 2nd, 2024|

Review sites get tough with generative AI – but it’s just the beginning (updated)

Review sites get tough with generative AI – but it’s just the beginning

(Updated to add input from G2) Enterprise review sites are finally taking a firm stance against reviewers using generative AI in review submissions. It’s hardly a surprise, except it took them almost eight months. And, of course, the outright ban also raises further questions.

The story so far – it wasn’t long after ChatGPT launched in late November 2022 that people started tapping into its skills to create plausible-sounding reviews for enterprise review sites like G2, TrustRadius and Gartner Peer Insights.

With a few prompts, ChatGPT […]

By Destrier|2024-11-18T18:06:41+01:00July 28th, 2023|

Why M2M is making the perfect 5* peer review score more credible

Why M2M is making the perfect 5* peer review more credible

As strategic advisors on enterprise peer reviews, we often encounter vendors who are frustrated that competitors have achieved yet another perfect review score – the full five stars on Gartner Peer Insights (GPI) and G2, or the perfect 10 on TrustRadius.

“How can this review be real?” they question. “They can’t have THAT MANY happy customers, surely!” Their sentiment is shared by the review sites – with TrustRadius encouraging vendors to take its TRUE trust pledge (Transparent, Responsive, Unbiased and Ethical) and GPI’s Customer First initiative, which […]

By Destrier|2023-07-26T18:47:44+01:00July 4th, 2023|

The pain of a three-star vendor-sourced review

The pain of a three-star vendor-sourced review

They’re relatively rare but still come up often enough to make tech vendors wince: the dreaded three-star customer review.

Vendors hate them, yet the principal review sites maintain that a smattering of 3* reviews is healthy. We’d agree, but these more critical views don’t need to come from vendor-sourced reviews.

On Gartner Peer Insights (GPI), for example, reviews come from two primary sources – “invited by vendor” and “invited by Gartner”. The GPI team notes the importance of ensuring a balance to avoid a “vendor-centric voice”.

Also, objectivity goes out of the window […]

By Destrier|2023-06-28T14:17:59+01:00June 28th, 2023|

Ready to Lead the Pack? Your Thought Leadership Handbook is Here

Ready to Lead the Pack? Your Thought Leadership Handbook is Here

Have you ever found yourself musing over the term ‘thought leader’? Browsing through business articles and industry talks, the phrase may have sparked your interest. You might even harbor dreams of becoming a thought leader or envisage your organization stepping into that coveted role. Yet, the path to this lofty perch might seem shrouded in mystery.

Today, let’s shed light on this intriguing concept and chart a roadmap for your journey to thought leadership.

Decoding Thought Leadership: More than Just Expertise

Being a thought leader […]

By Destrier|2023-06-03T09:51:50+01:00June 1st, 2023|

Out with the new and in with the old: Gartner Peer Insights returns to focus on reviews

Out with the new and in with the old: Gartner Peer Insights returns to focus on reviews

It’s back to the future for Gartner with a return by Peer insights to focusing on reviews – and the end of a short but dramatic flirtation with a communities-led approach.

Gartner has completed the split of Peer Insights, its customer review site, from Peer Communities, the rebranded version of its Pulse Q&A acquisition.

The Communities-led version of GPI was launched in late October but proved unpopular. Gartner was backtracking by January, promising a split in “Q2”.

This is […]

By Destrier|2023-02-17T12:41:37+01:00February 17th, 2023|