It’s always been cool to get, whoooaaahhh a super-duper RFP!  It makes us feel good.  We didn’t ask for it.  It magically appears - beckoning you to believe that your agency or team has been singled out to pull of the greatest project in the history of the web.  This...yes, THIS PROJECT is the one that is going to push you to the top!  [Earth to nimrod...Earth to nimrod..come in Nimrod]. 

Yes, we all have to know how to play the ‘game’ if we want to survive in this industry.  And, in fact, this most recent RFP that we received was probably the best written/constructed RFP I’ve ever seen for a marketing project.  I couldn’t believe it - they (probably a consultant) had really put the time and effort to write down what they wanted to happen with the project and did so with very fine and practical detail!  Thank the maker, right? 

Well, we put on our thinking caps, postponed my vacation, pulled out the big guns and started proposing, what would be, the single greatest achievement in the history of pixels. 

Skip forward a couple weeks.  I envisioned this team of decision makers huddling around 4, maybe 5 proposals from the select set of agencies that they had researched.  The decision was coming.  It wasn’t going to be the Red Ryder bb gun that my home-boy got in Christmas Story, it was going to be a, ‘You guys are the shit and completely blew us away.  You done got the job!’.  The project was freakin’ coming our way!

And then an email came…

“Due to the large number of proposals received, the Town will not select a consultant this Friday as originally scheduled...”

Uhhhh… Large number of proposals?  WTF?  Come to find out, they had send out 20RFPs!  What’s worse is that the project mysteriously hit a list-serve and they received even more proposals than they antcipated.  So they were very busy going through all the proposals sent from infinity and beyond.  Are you kidding me?

Now some readers might be saying, ‘So, what’s wrong with that?  They have the right to send the RFP out to as many prospects as they want’.  Indeed they do.  But the problem is this.  My family grew up in construction - and in this industry you have a ‘project’.  This project is fixed.  Meaning, it is not dependent on people who can do something different than any other team.  It is entirely based on pricing (to the lowest bidder) and there is only one way to (the right way) to lay down asphalt, concrete or whatever.  That said, they will often get 20+ bids for these types of projects.  In the end, it simply goes to the bidder (with all the right permits and insurance of course) who can do it for less.  In fact, many city/government projects go to the lowest bidder. 

But the difference here is that we are in the marketing/advertising realm!  Much of what we do is guided by experience, creativity and our ability to drive traffic and business to our customers.  Each proposal should be unique in its style, method and strategy.  So the question then is, ‘who in the world has the time to completely absorb 20+ proposals from agencies that are pitching unique ideas?’.  They should get off their ‘behinds’, be do their homework by researching a select few agencies to send a proposal to these agencies.  Period.

So all I have to say is this.  If a company has done their homework and sends out a proposal to a small group (or possibly a small handful) of agencies.  This is fine.  But if this company blasts out 20+ RFP’s to random agencies that they probably know nothing about, this should be a red flag to all of us.  It doesn’t mean your team shouldn’t send in a proposal, it simply means to pay closer attention to your process, which RFP’s feel right and the time you spend on knocking them out.  So one quick way to head them off at the pass (irresponsible RFP’s) - is to ask them how many RFP’s they are sending out and factor this in to the equation before you postpone your vacation.

Below is a list of links (albeit slanted) for some additional reading.

~ SP


>> Despicable RFPs
>> Why RFP’s are bad
>> Why RFP’s are a bad idea
>> Just say no
>> Scope