Your Best Customers are Drowning: Time to End the Reference Deluge

Your Best Customers are Drowning: Time to End the Reference Deluge

Enterprise tech vendors risk exhausting their top customers with endless reference requests, causing “reference fatigue”. Today’s approach is unsustainable and must change.

Today, enterprise tech vendors rely heavily on a pool of advocates at their top customers. Gartner Peer Insights alone requires 50–100 references per product or service each year, in addition to ongoing demand for sales calls, Customer Advisory Boards, Net Promoter Score surveys, PR requests and case studies.

This deluge of low-ROI requests (think survey write-ups and one-off […]

By Destrier|2025-07-17T13:56:12+01:00July 17th, 2025|

Unlocking the Power of Analyst Relations: Moving Beyond Art to Science

Unlocking the Power of Analyst Relations: Moving Beyond Art to Science

Analyst Relations (AR) is often seen as an art, but a scientific approach using power law principles can significantly enhance its effectiveness. Around 20% of AR professionals intuitively apply these principles. A structured, scientific approach can provide advantages to the remaining 80%, enabling teams to work smarter and achieve greater impact.

Our latest client advisory details the key Power Law Principles in Analyst Relations. Here’s a summary:

The 80-20 Rule (Pareto Principle): Focus on the 20% of analysts, firms, and activities that drive 80% of the most significant […]

By Destrier|2025-03-06T11:56:34+01:00February 26th, 2025|

Oh Yes There Is! Identifying the Analyst in Your Revenue Stream

Oh Yes There Is! Identifying the Analyst in Your Revenue Stream

Many tech vendor sales leaders underestimate the impact of industry analysts on their revenue stream—until a critical deal reveals their presence.

This Destrier client advisory concerns industry analysts influencing big-ticket tech buying decisions. Remember, most analysts don’t always make their involvement in deals visible to vendors, so you’ll need to use your Spidey senses.

And remember: It is surprising – not to mention unsettling – for sales executives to discover a third party embedded in a deal they are trying to close. When this occurs, AR leaders are responsible […]

By Destrier|2025-03-06T10:54:24+01:00February 20th, 2025|

Why Analyst Relations Leaders Must Properly Explain the Dark Arts of AR to Executive Teams

Why Analyst Relations Leaders Must Properly Explain the Dark Arts of AR to Executive Teams

Does your executive team genuinely grasp the power that Analyst Relations (AR) yields? 🤔 Many leaders see AR as just the flurry of activity around reports like the Gartner Magic Quadrant or Forrester Wave. But that’s only a small part of the picture.

In a new client advisory, the Destrier AR team outlines why explaining the “dark arts” of analyst relations to your executives is critical – and the potentially disastrous consequences if executives don’t correctly understand AR.

Here’s what AR professionals must […]

By Destrier|2025-03-06T11:11:50+01:00January 27th, 2025|

Gartner Peer Insights Chief Bullish About Growth in Latest Update Call

Gartner Peer Insights Chief Bullish About Growth in Latest Update Call

In January 2025’s bi-annual Gartner Peer Insights update call for vendors, #GPI boss Anatoli Olkhovets and newly-appointed Chief of Research for Markets Andrew White outlined a seismic shift in Gartner’s approach to category creation – driven by the most successful markets on Gartner Peer Insights.

Updates in the call signaled that Gartner is focusing more on crowd-sourced content to define new categories – and underline its willingness to add analyst coverage to the hottest of these new markets.

This marks a seismic change in Gartner’s approach to #categorycreation – a […]

By Destrier|2025-03-06T11:13:56+01:00January 24th, 2025|

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 […]

By Destrier|2025-02-26T15:21:43+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.

Enjoying our content? Then follow Destrier on LinkedIn. If you’d like to learn more about what we do, contact us.

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 change the MQ process

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

We predict incremental changes to the Gartner Magic Quadrant data collection process in 2025.

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

In 2025, we expect Gartner to also officially formalize the creeping return to asking vendors in Magic Quadrants for customer references instead of – or as well as – […]

By Destrier|2025-03-06T11:22:47+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|

TrustRadius zeroes on in ESG

TrustRadius zeroes on in ESG

Until now, Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) has been largely overlooked by the peer review sites crowdsourcing reviews from enterprise buyers. It’s not one of the core evaluation questions for reviews.

But ESG is not going away. As it gains momentum, the Tech Cares initiative from TrustRadius is a start in pushing ESG up the agenda for enterprise review sites. It’s also a new metric to differentiate between vendors in heavily commoditized markets.

Established by TrustRadius in 2020, Tech Cares “recognizes B2B technology companies that go above […]

By Destrier|2022-10-07T09:38:07+01:00October 6th, 2022|

Self-serve buyers increasingly demand transparency

Self-serve buyers increasingly demand transparency

Today’s enterprise technology buyers demand more transparency than ever. This is confirmed by buyers’ three favorite resources as listed in the 2022 B2B Buying Disconnect report from enterprise review site TrustRadius.

The latest research – published today – highlights a shift in buyers’ top five most-consulted resources during a vendor evaluation process. This is the first major change since the annually updated report launched in 2017. In the sixth edition of the seminal resource for B2B marketers, Communities and Forums have displaced vendor sales reps in the top five – based on a sample size of […]

By Destrier|2022-06-14T17:28:46+01:00June 14th, 2022|

Gartner adds communities to GPI

Gartner adds communities to GPI

Gartner has given its Peer Insights homepage a new address and a fresh new look as it starts to integrate a peer reviews community, based on its mid-2021 acquisition of member knowledge community site Pulse Q&A.

The official narrative: “Gartner acquired Pulse to create an enhanced community experience and empower business and technology leaders to make peer-led decisions, beyond technology purchasing.

“Pulse brings complementary capabilities to an already vibrant review community of Peer Insights. Now you can connect with thousands of business and technology leaders through online discussions, instant polling and Q&A to share knowledge, get […]

By Destrier|2022-04-14T12:47:50+01:00April 14th, 2022|

Introducing the Enterprise Peer Reviews Insider podcast

New for 2022 – Destrier’s Enterprise Peer Reviews Insider podcast

Destrier today introduces the Enterprise Peer Reviews Insider podcast series – another first as we continue to innovate in enabling technology vendors to perform at their best in this fast-growing area.

Consumer reviews sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor and Google have been established for a while, but on the B2B side, there’s been a slower start. That’s changing fast and sites like G2, TrustRadius and Gartner Peer Insights are exerting more and more influence in the process of helping business buyers to make better, more informed decisions […]

By Destrier|2022-01-05T16:19:38+01:00January 5th, 2022|

Vendors are weaponizing enterprise peer review data – against analysts

Vendors are weaponizing enterprise peer review data – against analysts

Two years ago, Destrier’s Playbook highlighted how vendors were ‘weaponizing’ enterprise peer reviews – for example, to counter a low position in a Magic Quadrant or to highlight their strengths and exploit competitor weaknesses.

Now a new use case is emerging – vendors using Gartner Peer Insights data to put pressure on Gartner’s analysts, especially in the always emotive instance of arguing about scores in a pre-publication Magic Quadrant.

Often a source of frustration for vendors and analysts alike, the failure to reach common ground on scoring – or a vendor’s […]

By Destrier|2021-10-21T18:09:26+01:00October 21st, 2021|

Be careful what you wish for when asking customers for reviews

Be careful what you wish for when asking customers for reviews

Gartner Peer Insights is driving technology vendors to solicit reviews from enterprise customers – whether or not they want them.

The Managed Workplace Services category is an excellent case study, underlining why vendors need to focus on seeding positive reviews.

Following a torrid couple of years, customers are currently scoring DXC Technologies below the category average in several outsourcing categories – Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services, Managed Security Services, and in two of three global regions for Managed Workplace Services (in other areas, DXC is […]

By Destrier|2021-10-11T12:57:33+01:00October 11th, 2021|