An inquiry is a client-initiated session in which a subscriber asks an analyst questions and receives the analyst's advice, drawn against the client's contracted inquiry allocation.
Inquiries are usually short — thirty minutes to an hour — and are consumed from an allocation attached to a subscription seat. Buyers use them to test shortlists, pressure-test requirements and ask directly about specific vendors. Vendors who subscribe use them to ask about market direction and their own positioning.
Inquiry vs. briefing
See briefing for the full distinction. In short: a briefing is you talking, and it is generally free. An inquiry is the analyst talking, and it is not.
Why inquiries matter even if you never take one
The inquiry channel is how your buyers ask analysts about you.
A buyer with a subscription can book thirty minutes and ask an analyst directly whether they should shortlist your company. That conversation happens without your knowledge, cannot be attended, and is shaped entirely by whatever impression the analyst has already formed.
Why it matters
Inquiry availability is the practical difference between being a client and being a vendor who briefs. But the more consequential fact is the one above: the most important inquiries about your company are the ones you are not in.
This is the asymmetry that makes AR unlike every other marketing channel. The decisive conversation is one you can influence months in advance and cannot influence at all in the moment.
Related: Briefing · Seat-based subscription · Inquiry volume as signal · Analyst influence
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