“I’ll Do It Myself”: Why Trial and Error Is a Poor Analyst Relations Strategy

“I’ll do it myself” can be a sensible response to a new business task. In analyst relations, the question is whether the person taking it on understands the audience, the purpose of the conversation and the preparation required. Product knowledge alone does not answer those questions.

An analyst may cover many vendors and hear competing explanations of the same market. A company that arrives with an unfocused sales presentation risks making its relevance harder to understand. The conversation becomes an avoidable lesson in how not to use the limited time available.

The cost is the impression you leave

A poor briefing is not necessarily an irreversible mistake. Relationships can recover when the company responds constructively and returns with better information. But correcting a confused first impression takes effort, especially when the analyst has little reason to prioritise another conversation.

The risk is often quite ordinary: the company spends most of the meeting explaining its history, describes features without a customer problem, or cannot distinguish available capabilities from its roadmap. The analyst leaves with unanswered questions that a better-prepared team could have anticipated.

Prepare for an informed audience

Analysts are not simply another group of prospects. Their questions may concern market structure, implementation constraints, customer adoption or the differences between your company and several alternatives. Preparation should help executives address that broader perspective without losing the point of the briefing.

• Choose a relevant analyst: understand the person’s coverage before proposing a meeting.
• Define the objective: decide what the analyst should understand more clearly by the end.
• Build a concise narrative: connect the target customer, problem, product and business outcome.
• Prepare evidence and boundaries: bring credible examples and be precise about limitations or planned capabilities.
• Leave room for questions: a useful exchange is more valuable than reaching the final slide.

In-house ownership still needs professional capability

Doing AR internally is a valid choice when the team has the experience and time to run it well. The problem is improvisation, not ownership. An internal specialist and an external adviser should both be able to explain why an analyst matters, how the interaction supports the programme and what evidence will make the discussion credible.

If that capability is missing, obtain guidance before approaching the most important analysts. A rehearsal can reveal unclear positioning or weak answers while there is still time to fix them. It also helps executives practise saying what they do not yet know without undermining confidence in what they can demonstrate.

Learn deliberately, rather than repeat mistakes

After the call, record what the analyst asked, where the story was understood and what remains unresolved. Assign ownership for any commitments and use those observations in the next briefing. Learning is essential to AR; relying on avoidable mistakes as the main learning method is an expensive way to build the capability.

Use the AR Readiness Check to assess your starting point, or talk to Kea about strengthening the programme.

Put this into practice

Give analyst engagement an owner and a next step.

Build preparation, follow-through and measurement into a sustained programme around your business priorities.

Explore AR-as-a-Service ↗

Not sure where to start? Take the eight-question AR Readiness Check.

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