The AIIM framework.
AIIM is a targeted approach to analyst relations. It scores the analysts in your market on influence, impact and market buy-in, so that you can rank them and give most of your time to the ones whose views reach buyers.
- For
- CMOs and analyst relations teams
- Scores
- Six measures, 300 points
- Format
- PDF guide and Excel template
- Written by
- Claire Williamson, Resonance
The analysts worth your time are the ones buyers listen to.
Briefing every analyst who covers your market spreads your time thin and wins you little, because only some of those analysts are heard by your buyers when they're making a decision. AIIM is a way of finding that smaller group, and it scores each analyst on evidence you can gather and check for yourself.
Analyst Influence
This measures how far an analyst's voice carries, through their reach and how often they're quoted and cited, including in AI answers. It accounts for up to 100 of the 300 points.
Impact
This measures how much an analyst changes what buyers do, judged by how often they talk to buyers and how much weight their assessments carry.
Market Buy-in
This measures how far the market trusts an analyst, shown by whether they refer buyers to vendors and sway the final decision.
The framework takes you from a long list to a plan.
The guide takes you through each step with a scoring rubric, a worked example and a worksheet, while the Excel template adds up the scores and sets the tiers for you.
List the analysts
Start with everyone who covers your market, including the large firms, the specialist and regional firms, and the sourcing advisers your buyers use. Our guide describes the firms you're likely to come across.
Gather the evidence
Collect evidence of each analyst's reach and citations in coverage and AI answers, and add what you learn from buyer conversations and customer surveys. Your sales team usually knows which analysts come up in deals.
Score and rank
Each of the six measures is worth 10, 30 or 50 points depending on the evidence. Together they give every analyst a total out of 300, which you then use to rank the list.
Tier and plan
Brief Tier 1 before every major announcement and Tier 2 twice a year, and keep Tier 3 informed in writing. Rescore every six months, because analysts change roles and coverage.
Take it into your next planning meeting.
The PDF explains the framework and scoring bands and shows how to turn the ranking into a plan with a printable worksheet, while the Excel template does the arithmetic and draws the chart. Both are free, with no form to fill in.
- Guide
- 6-page PDF
- Template
- Excel, with formulas
- Edition
- 2026
Try it with AI. Ask an assistant to help you apply AIIM to your own market.
More on analyst relations.
The analyst relations guide
A longer read on what analyst relations can return, how AI is changing it and how to build a programme.
Introducing AIIM
Claire's original article on the thinking behind the framework.
Our analyst relations agency
We can run your analyst programme and support you through ranking reports, starting with a free AR health check.
Common questions about AIIM.
What is the AIIM framework?
AIIM is Resonance's framework for deciding which industry analysts to prioritise. It scores each analyst out of 100 on Analyst Influence (reach and visibility), Impact (buyer conversations and the weight of their assessments) and Market Buy-in (referrals and influence on the final purchase), for a total out of 300.
What does AIIM stand for?
AIIM stands for Analyst Influence, Impact and Market Buy-in, which are the three things the framework scores for every analyst.
How do you score an analyst with AIIM?
Each of six measures is worth 10, 30 or 50 points depending on the evidence. The measures are reach, visibility, buyer interactions, assessment influence, referral rates and purchase influence, and you add them in pairs to get the three scores and a total out of 300.
How should you use the scores?
Rank the analysts by total score and group them into tiers. A sensible start is to brief Tier 1 (200 and above) before every major announcement and Tier 2 (120 to 199) twice a year, keeping Tier 3 informed in writing and rescoring every six months.
Is the AIIM template free?
Yes, the PDF guide and the Excel template are both free to download, and there's no form to fill in.
How does AI change which analysts matter?
Buyers now ask AI assistants for shortlists, and those assistants mostly can't read paywalled analyst research, so they rely on what analysts say in public. When you score Visibility, check which analysts and firms the assistants actually cite for the questions buyers ask in your category.
Want us to score your analysts with you?
It's a 45-minute review of your analyst relations, followed by a written report on the gaps and opportunities, including the analysts your programme should focus on.
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