You have to focus on vendors even if they are narcissistic or whiny

This post by analyst relations consultant Carter Lusher, entitled You have to focus on influential analysts even if they are negative or unpleasant, totally cracked me up. There are lots of analysts with attitude, but there are also lots of vendors out there who could use some lessons from Miss Manners: in dealing with vendors, I’ve had accusations of bias, suggestions for blog post topics that come straight from the vendor’s press releases, requests to sign a non-disclosure agreement before talking about something that they want me to write about, whiny complaints when I write about another vendor instead of them, and arguments from (always large) vendors why I should pay my own expenses to attend — and blog about — their conference.

These tend to be outliers; most of the people who I deal with at vendors are professional and reasonable, and don’t treat me like the hired help (which is good, because they’re not paying me anything) or like the enemy. Having to occasionally deal with negative and unpleasant people is just part of the job for most of us; for an analyst relations specialist to pretend that all of those negative and unpleasant people are on the analyst side of the vendor-analyst relationship is disingenuous.

One thought on “You have to focus on vendors even if they are narcissistic or whiny”

  1. Hi Sandy, Thanks for the link.

    Yep, there are vendors who are equally unpleasant to deal with. Having been on both sides of the table (Gartner Research Fellow and AR director at one of the largest vendors) I have witnessed all sorts of nonsense from people regardless of job title. As my country grandmother use to say, you can get a lot more cooperation from people with a teaspoon of honey than a gallon of vinegar. 😉

    SageCircle has discussed negative habits of AR professionals as well as problem analysts (see http://sagecircle.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/how-to-manufacture-a-problem-analyst/ and linked posts). Smart analysts and AR professionals know that treating everybody with respect will enhance their ability to achieve their desired outcomes.

    Cheers, Carter Lusher

    SageCircle, experts on the analyst ecosystem and AR best practices

    http://www.sagecircle.com
    http://www.sagecircle.wordpress.com
    http://www.twitter.com/carterlusher

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