January 27, 2026
Traditional expert networks like GLG and AlphaSights operate on an outdated model of renting access at premium prices. This article examines why these legacy approaches fall short in today's fast-paced business environment and how owning your research network creates lasting value and competitive advantage.
Articles
When it comes to primary market research, most professionals default to established players like GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group) and AlphaSights. These expert networks have built billion-dollar businesses connecting companies with subject matter experts. But increasingly, forward-thinking teams are questioning whether this traditional approach still makes sense in today's fast-moving business landscape.
The core problem with GLG, AlphaSights, and similar firms lies in their fundamental business model: they own the network, and you merely rent access to it.
This creates several critical issues:
When you engage with traditional expert networks, you're paying for multiple layers of markup:
According to industry insiders, the markup can be as high as 60-70% of what you pay. For a typical one-hour expert call costing $1,000-1,500, only $300-500 might reach the actual expert.
Perhaps more problematic than the cost is what happens after the engagement ends. Traditional firms explicitly prohibit you from maintaining direct relationships with the experts you connect with. Their terms of service typically include:
This means that after spending tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, you walk away with insights but no lasting network—no asset that continues to deliver value.
In today's business environment, waiting weeks for research results can mean missing critical market opportunities.
Traditional expert networks follow a process that hasn't fundamentally changed in decades:
This process typically takes 1-3 weeks for standard projects and can extend even longer for niche or specialized requirements. According to a 2022 survey by Inex One, the average time to first expert call is 4.8 business days—and that's just the first call, not the completion of a research panel.
In rapidly evolving markets—particularly in technology, consumer trends, and emerging industries—a three-week delay can render insights obsolete before they're even delivered. As one product leader at a SaaS company put it: "By the time we got the expert interviews scheduled, our competitors had already launched features based on the same market shift we were researching."
GLG, AlphaSights, and similar firms boast about their network size—often highlighting databases of hundreds of thousands or even millions of experts. But network size creates a paradoxical challenge: the bigger the database, the more likely they'll push available experts rather than perfect-fit experts.
Traditional firms operate on a "pool-first" model:
This approach works adequately for general targets but breaks down for specific, high-precision requirements. If you need to speak with "Director-level product managers at enterprise SaaS companies who have implemented usage-based pricing in the last 18 months," you'll often get experts who match some but not all criteria.
Regulatory requirements and internal compliance policies also limit who traditional networks can recruit. Many firms avoid active practitioners at public companies or restrict conversations with certain industries entirely. These limitations further narrow the available expert pool, especially for highly specific research needs.
The fundamental shift needed isn't a better version of the traditional model—it's an entirely different approach to primary research.
Forward-thinking companies are now building their own research networks. This approach:
Most organizations already have a powerful research recruitment tool they're underutilizing: their team's collective LinkedIn networks. By leveraging these connections with the right technology, companies can:
The solution isn't abandoning expert interviews—they remain an invaluable research method. The solution is changing how you source those experts.
Modern approaches like 28Experts help teams transform their LinkedIn accounts into a unified outreach engine that:
Beyond the recruitment advantages, new technology can also accelerate the synthesis phase. AI-powered tools can now transform raw interview transcripts into structured insights, charts, and actionable recommendations—turning days of analysis into hours.
Perhaps most importantly, when you own your research network, you build a compound advantage over time:
GLG and AlphaSights aren't failing because they're bad at what they do—they're failing because what they do is fundamentally misaligned with how modern companies need to operate.
In today's fast-moving business environment, renting temporary access at premium prices no longer makes sense when technology enables direct ownership of your research network.
The companies gaining competitive advantage are those shifting from the old game of rented access to the new game of owned networks, where each research project builds not just insight, but lasting relationships that continue to deliver value long after the initial engagement ends.
If you want to rent access, use a broker. If you want to build a lasting advantage, it's time to own your research network.
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