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 multiple time zones, but you can easily ask them to take on a Document Review.
• Earn kudos from busy analysts. The process gives them much-needed time to pause and reflect. At Gartner, analysts get credits for Document Review and can block off hours on their calendars, creating much-welcomed breathing space.
• Focus the analyst’s attention on your subject matter: Asking an analyst for an expert opinion on a positioning paper or a PowerPoint presentation ensures they pay attention.
• Gain the outside-in perspective: Good analysts don’t drink your Kool-Aid. Document Review provides a valuable independent perspective.

Our favorite use cases for Document Review

• Sanity or reality check your messaging: Go forward with confidence that one or more analysts you trust have been through your messaging and given it the thumbs up.
• An expert opinion to help convince stakeholders: Maybe you have PMs or PMMs who are unwilling to accept input on their messaging or positioning. Sometimes, it takes an outside force to drive a point home.
• Inspiration from a different field: This is great when you’re stuck with an idea or need help completing a concept.
• A boost for your sales presentation or RFP response.
• Finding a different way of framing something: Analysts are experts in helping make a vendor stand out more in a crowded market.
• Discover what an analyst knows about your product, service or solution: Use this insight to better identify the knowledge gaps you need to close via a follow-up briefing.
• This one is a bit left field, but we love it: Use an analyst as “bad cop” to convince an executive that a concept they’re promoting needs to go back to the drawing board.

Use Document Review for faster time to results and success

AR professionals will enjoy faster time to results and success by bearing these three hygiene factors in mind:

• Stick to the rules. For example, Gartner limits each Document Review to 20 pages and rejects anything beyond this, even a cover slide or page.
• Be cautious with your redaction. Even though a Document Review is conducted under blanket non-disclosure, you should still remove confidential information unless it’s essential for the review. One key reason is to avoid conflicts of interest, as you may inadvertently ask an analyst to check a response to an RFP where the prospect is also their customer.
• Don’t rush it. When an urgent question arises, a same-day analyst inquiry is sometimes possible. However, that won’t be the case with Document Review because you need to give analysts both the time and the headspace to review. Your top analysts are busy, so you’ll need to find time in their schedule.

Remember, the AIDA model (awareness, interest, desire, action) should come into play during the review process unless they’re just the “wrong” analyst for you.

So, what kinds of output do you get from a Document Review? With Gartner, this can range from a few pithy comments via email to a full-blown inquiry call to receive feedback. We’ve also seen analysts go through and rework a document or share suggestions using track changes.

Using Document Review confirms that you’re on the right track (or flags that you’re heading into a siding), and – maybe most important of all – it gives your target analysts the headspace to review your perspectives and suggest improvements or enhancements.

And for that reason alone, Document Review is one of the top tools in the Analyst Relations toolkit, and if you’re not already using it – you should try it out in 2025.

This is the sixth in a series of 2025 predictions for the tech analyst industry from Destrier, a leading independent provider of Analyst Relations advisory services and support to tech vendors. Working across multiple clients in various areas gives us a unique insight into the industry analyst firm landscape – and fuels these predictions.

Follow Destrier on LinkedIn for more predictions in the coming days – and if you’d like to take a deeper dive, contact us.