What advice do you have for product marketers to ensure exposure to analyst relations at their company?

My experience at Gartner taught me that analysts are deeply passionate about the areas they cover. It is in a company’s best interest to see analysts (such as the ones at Gartner as well as other firms) as partners in the creation of a GTM strategy. These analysts are out talking to our customers and learning about the industry every single day. They have more exposure to the changes and nuances, and thus can help shape the research phase of the GTM strategy. Since working at Gartner, my approach to GTM has shifted only in that I put an exuberant amount of time into research as an input to the GTM strategy. This includes researching with customers, analyst firms, as well as leveraging internal subject matter experts. You don’t have to (and you should not) only use research from analysts to inform your GTM strategy. In fact, while at Gartner, when we advised enterprises on GTM strategy, we very often conducted Voice of Customer interviews, analyst interviews, and external surveys to help the client (the large enterprise) better understand their landscape. As a Gartner Market Strategy Consultant, we sourced the analysis from many inputs, not just Gartner research. 

My advice for PMMs who want to up-level their exposure to analysts relations (AR) is to start a regular conversation with your internal AR team. At Cisco, I meet with our AR team on a bi-weekly basis to ensure alignment on (1) how we are best leveraging analysts for our GTM strategy and (2) the narratives we want to tell them which may ultimately impact positions in vendor rankings. Even if there is not an existing open questionnaire for a vendor ranking, you should be partnering with the AR team to create a long-tailed approach leading up to the start of the next vendor ranking. Remember, the analyst firm should be thought of as a partner. Let them tell you what they are seeing in the market, then (later on) show them how you included their feedback into your GTM and Product strategies.