No MQ? No Problem: Mastering Analyst Relations in Uncharted Territories

In the world of B2B technology, companies often find themselves in a love-hate relationship with categorization. On one hand, they’re driven by the desire to be seen as trailblazers, carving out a category all their own. On the other hand, they crave the validation of being featured at the top-right corner of every relevant Magic Quadrant (MQ), Wave, or MarketScape—essentially, the gold standard of industry recognition.

But you can’t have it both ways—you can’t simultaneously be a category of your own and expect to be featured in an established MQ. The reality is that industry analysts typically focus on well-defined categories because that’s where their clients—mostly large enterprises—are investing their budgets. So, naturally, technology companies want to be slotted into one of those categories, even as they resist being confined by them.

I’ve seen this play out time and again in my work with B2B tech companies, each facing their own version of this conundrum.

Take Betterworks, for example. We offered a modernized approach to performance management, aiming to revolutionize the field. When I initiated the analyst relations program at Betterworks, a key objective was to secure recognition in a comparative vendor report on performance management. Yet, at the same time, we didn’t want to be grouped with traditional performance management solutions because we prided ourselves on upending the status quo.

At Jive, we aimed for recognition across multiple categories—Intranets, collaboration software, document management systems—because our customers loved us for each of these use cases. But we were so much more than any single category could capture. We longed for analysts to create a category that truly reflected the full spectrum of what we offered.

Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. The question is, how do you drive tangible outcomes from an analyst relations program when your product doesn’t fit neatly into any existing MQ or Wave? Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. Play the Long Game: Let Customer Stories Build Your New Category

Creating a new category takes time, but one of the most effective ways to do this is by letting your best customers and their success stories speak for you. When I was at Betterworks, one of the first things we did in our analyst briefings was share compelling customer stories. We highlighted why these customers chose us—what problem they were trying to solve that traditional solutions couldn’t address. There’s nothing more powerful for an analyst than hearing firsthand why top buyers are flocking to your product. Use these stories to start conversations and illustrate recurring trends you’re seeing in the market. Just be careful not to come across as if you’re teaching the analyst about their own market—they’re the experts, after all.

2. Keep Analysts Engaged and Earn Referrals

Getting a category created is beyond your control as a single vendor, and it’s driven more by market maturity and the number of vendors addressing it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve other valuable outcomes. One of the most important is securing analyst referrals for your product. Since analysts are in constant conversation with buyers, you need to stay top of mind. When analysts come across a buying pattern that aligns with what you’ve discussed, you want your product to be the first one they recommend.

3. Don’t Let the Absence of an MQ/Wave Deter You

Just because there’s no MQ or Wave for your category doesn’t mean you’re out of the game. Analysts are always on the lookout for emerging technologies and trends. They frequently share their insights in market guides or cool vendor lists that you can be featured in. But more importantly, you want to be in the right category in their minds. As the Betterworks product evolved—from OKRs to Performance Enablement, and later to skills and talent optimization—we helped analysts reframe how they thought about us. This ensured they were referring the right customers our way, instead of mismatches.

4. Don’t Overlook Niche Analysts

Niche analysts might not have the name recognition of the big firms, but they can deliver tremendous value. In my experience, working with niche analysts has often yielded a higher return on investment. At Betterworks, we won three different awards, had well-known niche analysts speak at our events, and generated a significant number of leads through their networks. We even scored a favorable spot in a vendor grid report (the equivalent of an MQ) by EMEA’s leading HR analyst for the first time. These wins became valuable assets in our demand generation efforts.

5. Involve Analysts Early in the Process

Finally, involve analysts early on in the development of your product. Use them to pressure-test your taxonomy, messaging, positioning, and go-to-market strategy before they’re fully baked. When we introduced a suite of AI capabilities to enhance performance reviews and management, the feedback we received from analysts was invaluable in fine-tuning our messaging to build greater trust with buyers. After all, AI in performance reviews is a sensitive topic, tangled with compliance, cultural concerns, data privacy issues, and more. More on how we did that in another blog post.