Black Book Return-On-Investment Survey of Top-Ranking Vendors Acquiring Unrestricted Report Distribution Licenses
Black Book conducts annual surveys of vendors that purchased full and unrestricted distribution licenses on the detailed drill down of the top twenty competitive vendors per category in the previous twelve months. The return on investment and market traction resulting from their acquisition and promotion of their Black Book honor is represented in the polling outcomes below (most recent results, Q3 2015)
Independent, Unbiased Crowdsourced Opinion Polling results cannot be budgeted.
83% of vendors express frustration with Black Book's policy of not communicating vendor rankings or ranking status prior to publication on Black Book's website and to the media.
21% of vendors revealed that the inability to budget planning for funds to purchase unrestricted distribution licenses for Black Book reports prevents them from purchasing research drill down.
97% of vendors surveyed state they appreciate the vendor-agnostic method of placing results in the public domain first because the Black Book policy does not permit a pay-for-placement arrangement.
38% of top 2014 ranked vendors acquired full and unrestricted report distribution licenses to supplement their announcements of #1 Black Book rated client satisfaction
94% of 2014 top ranked vendors acquiring survey report licenses developed campaigns for Black Book results. 85% of those vendors spent more than $50,000 on Black Book announcement campaigns excluding the report license cost.
Average unrestricted distribution license cost per report for IT vendors was $20,255. Average unrestricted distribution license cost for managed services vendors was $17,993 in 2014.
Typical Return-on-Investment Results from Black Book report purchases
24 healthcare technology, software and services vendors with over 50 implemented clients reported that the print distribution of 100 Black Book reports, on average, to a respective vendor's current targets and sales prospects resulted in 21 inquiries. Of those 21 average inquired, 11 escalated business development activity that resulted in sales team follow up within 60 days of initial distribution. (Print distribution includes hard copy collaterals, summarizations, abbreviated reports and full booklet reports mailed or delivered in hard copy format to a third party.)
Electronic distribution of 100 Black Book reports that feature the vendor resulting, on average, in 17 inquiries that resulted in sales team follow up. (Electronic distributions included PDF attachments and email blasts of part/whole reports.)
92% of top vendors distributing Black Book reports had, on average:
4.2X to 9.5X increase in new/incremental business interest (i.e., not targeted or in the sales funnel prior to Black Book media announcement) and/or following a Black Book announcement with availability of an online report download to all interested parties on a vendor website
28% converted those interest opportunities into sales within 9 months
15% resulted in a closed deal.
Public Companies Results
After an initial Black Book release to analyst and press outlets, publicly traded HIT companies noted a continued, increased stock value, on moving average, for a period of 8 to 25 stock trading days;
59% of vendors with report distribution licenses attribute the resulting media, investor relations, and public relations efforts from the report to improving their financial performance, in some part of significance.
Start-Ups, Private Equity and Venture Capital Seeking Firms
100% of those EHR firms pursuing private funds and/or capital investment increases at the time of a Black Book announcement were successful in their goal, and 100% of those firms in acquisition stages and/or negotiations were successful after a Black Book top honor in their strategy;
The average private investment of funds, post-Black Book top ranking exceeded $5.8M;
Top Revenue Health IT and Services Companies ROI
For companies with revenues over $500M annually, every $1 invested in their specific Black Book report returned $224 in new revenue.
Smaller Firm ROI
For companies under $10M, ever $1 invested in Black Book reports returned $80 in new revenue.
Comparing Black Book ROI to External Public Relations ROI
92% of vendors with under $10M in purchasing a Black Book report license and conducting an announcement campaign reported a return over 9x that of the results generated from external public relations firm investments in the same period, calendar year 2014.
Social media and online research investment yielded Vendors six times the ROI compared to national market research reports comparisons in the industry (average media and research investment of funds yields $8 per dollar ROI, Black Book surveyed vendors reported a yield of $67 of new business for every dollar spent in report purchases).
New Business Inquiries and Web Traffic
Vendors that required client information capture as part of the process of accessing a Black Book report online reported, on average, 315 report downloads from independent physician practices and hospitals in the 60 days following announcement.
19% of report requestors demanded follow up from the vendor's sales team. 6% converted into new business clients.
Vendors reported on average 5.8 new final deal bid inclusions from buyers who were not actively identified in their sales funnels prior to the Black Book announcement.
Vendors that did not invest in Black Book research reports but promoted their ranking still realized upticks in new business leads
Vendors that announced via press release and internal communication resources/collaterals, but did not invest in the Black Book unrestricted report distribution option, still report a 10% increase in new business leads, post release.
