I like working with analysts from a couple of perspectives. When doing due diligence on a deal they bring a lot of domain experience on a particular subject and when building a company their insight can prevent you from sucking your own exhaust. So I'm always on the look out for those interesting boutique analysts. What happened today left me flabbergasted.
A VC is looking at funding a company doing some innovative things. One potential side benefit related to voice over IP. So off I went looking for pertinent research. I found a firm I had not heard of before, but they seemed to have some interesting titles. Normally you can look at the abstract and the table of contents, but this firm put up a registration wall. I figured they wanted to capture some leads for the sales group. Filled out the form and got an email. Didn't want to talk to me. Since I have listed "market research" on my web site, I was told I was a competitor and that was that.
Wow! A marketer's dream. Sales people who keep people from buying your product. In marketing we love to give our sales group the tools, the message, the value and let them hunt. But when they start barking at the customers, you better bring out the short leash.
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