Quote whores

I'm a pretty honest guy, most would say blunt. I definitely respect others who don't waste my time and don't try to misrepresent their intentions or what they want from me. I also appreciate folks who understand what their role in life is and make no bones about it.

Like the Quote Whore (here), who is basically a publicist that will right something nice on his blog about pretty much anything. And pricing starts at $15. Can't beat that with a stick. Thanks to BL Ochman for pointing this site out (here).

So what? Basically there are a lot of folks in this business that are really quote whores. They probably don't see it that way, but that's what it is. They don't understand what their role is and they get offended when you actually call them out.

But they provide a needed service, since vendors do press releases every couple of weeks and they need 3rd party "validation" for whatever nonsensical drivel they are sending over the wires. The quote whores do their thing and make a point release sound like the cure for cancer. Uninitiated readers actually think there may be some merit in the announcement.

Those of you in the trade are laughing now (or crying if this hits a bit too close to home). Those that aren't are appalled. But this stuff really happens. When I was on the vendor side, I had my favorite neighborhood Aberdeen Group analyst call me and literally ask for $2500 for their "vendor support" service. Basically it was to provide quotes, a one page write-up of a product, and all the briefings we could eat. I got them down to $1000 and went for it because you need a stable of quote whores lest anyone think that you are getting too close to any one analyst.

I've heard Aberdeen has been trying to change their business model and probably don't engage in this behavior anymore. But I don't know for sure because both of their security analysts left. Guess it was too hard to actually have to do real research and take real positions.

And it wasn't just Aberdeen. Let's just say there were lots of folks that were only too happy to provide a quote for my press releases and mention my product in very glowing terms. As long as I subscribed to their service, that is. And I can't remember even once being asked if the product actually worked or whether they could talk to a reference to verify the information. You could spin these folks like a top.

The folks from Gartner and META had it right the entire time. They never mention the vendor or product in a quote and they only talk about a problem from the perspective of user requirements. That's my policy as well.

You can call me a lot of things, but quote whore is not one of them.