The Broken RFP System
When it comes to earning the business of many nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and larger, enterprise-level companies (those with offices across multiple cities or states), quite often the RFP process is used in soliciting professional help.
Whether RFPs are responded to, from the perspective of the digital marketing expert, or if they are being sent from the potential client, RFPs are often ineffective in fulfilling what they meant accomplish: find the best person or company to do a particular job.
In the Past
In the past when I toiled for different marketing agencies as a project manager, copywriter, or web developer or administrator, I’d often be tasked with responding to RFPs in the hope of winning a few for our agency.
Invariably, case studies aside, experience aside, ability to achieve given objectives aside, the determining factors deciding whether or not the contract would be awarded to us would always hinge on who was most known to the company doing the soliciting and secondly the decision as to whether or not awarded the contract would be based on price.
How do I know these factors played such integral roles in determining who would be given a contract or not?
I saw these factors play out from both perspectives, working for agencies, working through agencies as a white label independent contractor where I’d have to fulfill the RFP specifications (where were usually very vague), or as a solopreneur contractor responding to an RFP request on my own.
The broken RFP process is long overdue for a reboot. Especially if you need to achieve long-term business objectives.
Being known to the company as a preferred vendor, a fellow insider in some respect, or having been referred by some other party known firsthand to the potential client, always gave us a far greater chance of winning the contact.
Price, however, was always a prime consideration, as opposed to results, so that the soliciting company would almost always focus on how much something would cost rather than whether or not we could move their business forward into increasing their bottom line.
Shopping for Cheapest Prices or Trying to Get Something Meaningful Done?
Common sense would surely indicate that a company seeking help would want to increase profits; and yet I’ve never seen a single RFP in which long-term objectives were detailed.
Instead RFPs focused on such individual deliverables as type of website, type of look, how many pages, what tools should be used, how you would work, what the website and branded media should look like, and then how much it all should cost.
And yet, isn’t the digital marketing expert supposed to be the expert the company is seeking help from? How can the company in need of increased exposure diagnose their own problem, devise their own solution, dictate how you should do that job, know what tools you should use, how much time it should take, and then tell you what your time and experience are worth?
This approach, followed by most companies, suggests a level of denial. It’s almost as if they’re saying “we know we have goals we want to achieve but we need to focus only on negotiating the cheapest possible price, regardless.”
Instead of companies sending out generic “cattle call” RFPs, it might better serve them to instead initiate open conversations with (either) agencies or consultants, in video conference call with a list of anticipated long-term (and perhaps) short-term objectives in mind, then ask how that person or persons could fulfill those objectives and what it might cost to achieve those goals. After several discussions like this, the hiring company should have clarified what the common industry-wage price range should be for what they want done by agencies or individuals (and huge hint here, agencies typically will charge triple or quadruple what experienced individual consultants will charge but it’s due to their increased overhead costs).
Agencies are for when you need concrete, pre-defined structure, multiple people to work with multiple departments, and represent a corporate interest with a project simply too large for a individual or small team. A consultant is ideal for when the work focuses around the needs of a small business owner, small company, startup, nonprofit that is up to fifty or so employees with clearly-defined roles and infrastructure.
Rather telling the supposed expert whose help you need how to do their job and what tools to use and how much to charge and how long it should take them to achieve your goals, especially when the hiring company seeking help is not already an expert in digital marketing (and all that goes into it), is a recipe for disaster. Nothing of value gets delivered because no one is paid what they’re worth, the agency or individual is eager to move on to their next project so they can earn a livable wage, and since objectives are not focused on, objectives can’t be met.
The RFP Cattle Call
RFPs are also typically form letters eliciting a “cattle call” approach, usually inspiring a generic form response, and in neither case does either party actually talk about what matters most to them. The company wants to increase leads. The developer or agency wants to earn a livable industry wage and do good work. Yet the commonly accepted regimented methodology prevents that from happening. This wastes valuable time, which translates into wasting money and needing ultimately to repeat procedures (often).
A New Way
Next time your company or business determines they want to attract more leads, expand into new markets, cut overhead costs, reduce redundant operations, reach a higher ranking in Google search results, start a podcast, capitalize on paid advertising (PPC), add a newsletter to attract more subscribers or solicit more donors for a nonprofit organization, consider the value of your long-term goals being realized and whether or not taking a more organized, deliberate approach might just help you get in touch with the person(s) who can help you that much faster.
Self-Diagnosis Blocks Growth
What could a newer, more productive approach look like? Well, one approach that we started doing was simply submitting a form letter when asked to join a generic, one-size-fits-all cattle call simply stating why we feel bidding on unknown-equation RFPs is counterproductive for both parties involved, and offering a free video conference consultation to review the company goals and objectives.
If afterward they want to still focus on telling professionals how to solve their problem for them, or conduct bidding wars and then going with the cheapest possible bid in spite (or perhaps because of) an uncertain end-goal, have at it.
Regardless of what the business decides, they’d still come out further ahead than if they did not partake in the discussion.
By trying to solve the problem over hunting for cheapest bargain-basement prices while prescribing predefined tools and methods, we have a far greater chance of actually solving the problem. An RFP or initial contract can be drawn up after a few organizing discussion meetings; but it makes zero sense to do what is basically draw up a contract before you even know what’s required to solve that problem.
My RFP Solution?
What’s the solution? Believe it or not, old school dialogue solves the problem by admitting self-diagnosis doesn’t work and invites conversation between adults rather than one Father Figure / Big Boss telling Children / Underlings what to do and how to do it. It admits that if you are not already an expert you can’t diagnose your own problem and that maybe, just maybe, an expert professional might have new insights.
Ditch the RFP. Encourage open, honest dialogue; ask for referrals and testimonials and reference, check online visibility.
Ask for case studies, ask for portfolios, ask about experience, and then ask about commonly-held industry wages or price ranges for what you want to accomplish and compare the value of accomplishing your business objectives against what your company is willing to invest.
That approach is different, but it’ll deliver superior results.
Sources:
You can also view my stunning infographic on Behance.