This is a response to another MUST READ article from Mr. Köse on how NOT to do product launches and analyst relations! (And a shorter version might still be found at this link on LinkedIn.)
Mr. Köse’s post was a response to a new marketing campaign from a big Intake-to-Orchestrate (I2O) vendor who sent a very insulting cold email with a cringeworthy cocktail of buzzwords (“agentic procurement orchestration”, seriously?), inflated ego (“category we created”), and the cherry on top that made this one boil over … a beg for free LinkedIn amplification.
More specifically, the request included in his LinkedIn Post.
Before we continue, I must say that I’m ecstatic that I didn’t get this PR spam, because I do not know if I would have been so civil in my response. It took every ounce of restraint to maintain even a shred of my civility last year when they released their “FREE” Intake and Procurement RFP which, as I have screamed from the rooftops, is an outright lie (and using any of these “FREE” RFPs will be the most expensive thing you ever do! [Source]).
After all, as Mr. Köse states:
- Analysts are not influencers.
- Experts are not free marketing channels.
- Your CEO ghosting emails while your marketing team spams us … is damaging you, not us.
Moreover, as Mr. Köse has stated, nothing they stated would indicate they discovered fire (which, by the way actually works), built a new category, or did anything except repackage existing automation with a fresh coat of jargon.
As Mr. Köse notes:
- it’s disrepectful to the analyst (are we so dumb and lazy we can’t do our own write-ups?)
- it’s transactional (and that should be reserved to describing specific types of ProcureTech)
- it’s dumb (the louder you shout nonsense, the louder we’re going to respond)
But most importantly, nothing sums the situation up more than when Mr. Köse states:
“If your innovation is real, show it to me!”
He’s not alone in this belief.
As I said to Pierre in a recent comment stream in one of my many (ProcureTech) AI is BS posts, “why are you the only one defending the current state of AI in ProcureTech … if the vendors in our space actually have it, and it works … why aren’t the vendors defending it … and if it’s so great, why are they all scared to show it to me?”
Any vendor can come here to Sourcing Innovation, check out any of the 300 plus reviews of over 200 providers I’ve written about over the past 19 years, and see that there isn’t a single negative post about any vendor who offered a real solution that
- did what was claimed and
- solved a problem for
- the niche they targeted
- efficiently and reliably.
(Moreover, if these vendors have a Spend Matters subscription, where I would hope that at least half of the 200+ vendor reviews I (co-) authored are still up as well, they could check those reviews out as well.)
(Side note: the I2O vendors have been as quiet as the Gen-AI wrapper vendors ever since I called them Clueless for the Popular Kids and said it was time for Revenge of the Nerds.)
In other words, if you have something great, and you want a real analyst to talk about it, then don’t spam us with (what appears to be) Gen-AI generated marketing drivel. Instead, have an intelligent human reach out with a compelling new module, use case, etc, and maybe you’ll get a response and, if you give an honest demo, a good write up. (And that’s infinitely more valuable than someone sharing your Gen-AI marketing drivel on LinkedIn.)
Otherwise, as Mr. Köse makes abundantly clear, it’s probably best that you pretend the analyst doesn’t exist until you’re ready to engage properly. Otherwise, you’re just insulting our intelligence AND our integrity, and the only result you’re going to get from that is an analyst who doesn’t want to cover you (and who will happily blow up the false illusion you are trying to create).