Most Analyst Relations teams can tell you exactly how many briefings they ran last quarter.

Fewer can tell you which of those briefings changed what an analyst actually believed – or how.

And that’s the problem.

Briefing counts are inputs. Inquiry responses are inputs. In-person touchpoints are inputs. None of them are evidence of actual influence.

The Science of Influence – the thesis I laid out at KCG Connects – rests on a simple idea: if AR has genuinely moved from art to science, we need to measure the right thing. And the right thing isn’t activity. It’s a belief change.

Let’s be honest about what that means. Good analysts don’t change their views because a vendor ran a slick briefing or delivered a polished narrative deck.

Analysts change their views when the evidence accumulates to a point where their current position becomes indefensible. That’s not a weakness in the analyst. It’s exactly how rigorous thinking is supposed to work.

The job of a serious AR program is to provide that evidence, consistently and over time.

Not to charm. Not to lobby.

But to build a body of proof that eventually makes it harder for even the most skeptical analyst to hold their original position.

So here’s the real question: has an analyst’s view of your company demonstrably shifted?

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

– An analyst cites your positioning unprompted, in research you didn’t commission
– Inquiry tone shifts from challenge (“why should I believe this?”) to a place where they’re working out how to explain your narrative to clients
– You start appearing in comparative analyses you weren’t specifically asked to be part of
– A previously skeptical analyst updates their published view in a direction consistent with what you’ve been telling them for two years

These are signals. And yes, attribution is hard. A shifting analyst view might also reflect product progress, a competitor stumbling, or a market event. That’s not a reason to stop measuring. It’s a reason to be rigorous about how you do it.

What signals are you currently tracking? And if the honest answer is none, then what’s stopping you?

Stop measuring what you did. Start measuring what changed.