Forrester Q4 2024 Earnings Recap

Forrester faced another tough year in 2024, with revenue continuing to decline and client numbers shrinking. The company has nearly completed its transition to Forrester Decisions, but research revenue has now dropped for eight straight quarters. In response, Forrester is focusing on improving client retention, refining its sales strategy, and expanding its events business.

What You Need to Know: 

• Forrester’s revenue declined:
  • Q4 2024 revenue was $108 million, a 9% decrease from $118.1 million in Q4 2023.
  • Full-year 2024 revenue was $432.5 million, a 10% decline from $480.8 million in 2023.
  • Research-specific revenue declined – 7% for Q4 2024 compared to Q4 2023 and 5% for full-year 2024 compared to 2023. The result in Q4 2024 is the eighth consecutive quarter of decline for research-specific revenue.
• 80% of Forrester’s contract value is now in its Forrester Decisions product. The remaining 20% is tied to reprints and legacy research products.
• Forrester’s client count stands at 1,942 (as of Dec. 31, 2024), a 16% decline since year-end 2023.
• Forrester projects revenue will continue to decline. The firm’s guidance is now $400 to $415 million for 2025, a decline of 7.5% to 4.0% compared to 2024.
• Forrester reduced its headcount by 6% in January 2025.

Spotlight’s Take on the Forrester Q4 2024 Earnings:

• Product Transition: Forrester’s migration to its Forrester Decisions (FD) product (launched in 2021 in the wake of the acquisition of SiriusDecisions) is essentially complete, Forrester CEO and chairman George Colony said, given that 80% of the firm’s contract value is now in the FD product. In discussing the scope of that change, Colony commented that the transition was just as much a transition to a new company as it was a new product – ”introducing a new value proposition and a new way of working with Forrester.”
• 2025 Priorities: Forrester is focused on three initiatives in 2025:
  • Improving client retention, by the institutionalization of a retention lifecycle process.
  • Driving growth, by selling to C-level executives, standardizing sales activities, and applying new sales methodologies.
  • Boosting events to drive retention and CV growth, by expanding event content, marketing events to new audiences, and activating its salesforce to leverage events for engagement with clients and prospects.
• GenAI Engagement: Izola, Forrester’s generative AI interface, is available to all FD clients as of midyear 2024. The tool went into full availability at midyear, followed by a design refresh in Q4. Furthermore, Izola users can now access Forrester survey and Wave data. Early evidence suggests that heavy users of Izola are far likelier to renew with Forrester.
• Reprints: Last year, Forrester evolved its reprints offering to create more flexibility for clients. Vendors can now pick and choose different reports to publicize at different times, as part of a “flexible” contract.
• Vendors: Forrester reiterated its position to not sell subscriptions to vendors that have less than $50 million in revenue, largely because of such vendors’ instability in contractual relationships with Forrester. 
• Board Member Retirements: Three of Forrester’s board members (David Boyce, Robert Galford, and Yvonne Wassenaar) will retire from the Board of Directors.
• Workforce Reduction: Anecdotally, we are aware of about 10 research employees who were impacted by the 6% workforce reduction in January 2025.