Get ready, here comes another rant about RFPs!
July 24th, 2008
Okay, if you hang around us long enough, you know this: We don’t answer RFPs, unless we have the inside track or we write them.
I’d personally like to create a movement in our industry that changes this crazy, waste of time business practice.
I know there are others out there who feel the same. Oh yeah, someone will pipe up and tell me how much answering an RFP has grown their business, I welcome that point of view. Try and change my mind. Great movements need resistance.
I have no data to base this on, but I would wager that 95% of the time an RFP is issued in our industry — a decision/relationship/preference has already been made. Period.
If you are inside a big company that requires RFPs when you hit a certain threshold of spending, help me out and say it’s true. Most of the time, you know exactly who you are going to use, before you go out and solicit folks to answer an RFP. You know it. That’s why you hate them and the whole process, too.
Hmmmph. Well, once and while we get caught up and break our own rules. We see a project that has perfect fit all over it and say “This time will be different” or “It’s really just an RFQ”. Shoot me in the head! And every single time, I am reminded why WE DON’T ANSWER RFPs.
Can you imagine a world where we all just said, “Enough is enough.” Just imagine — we wake up one day and everyone refuses to answer RFPs. No more “RFP answerers” in the whole world. We simply refuse to play. It would be a better world people!
So… let’s sign a pac and start a movement here.
IF from this day forward, you agree not to answer an RFP — unless you help write it yourself. leave us a comment and make that commitment outloud. I promise it will not affect your business one bit. In fact, in our case, not answering RFPs has made us stronger and our revenues have increased. Seriously.
One last thought, what if we formed a group, comprised of sourcing agents — they’re nice people trying to do there job — and asked them to help us find a better way. A simple way that gives them easy access to pricing for competitive bids — not sure what that would look like. But maybe if we worked out something that could effortlessly (and ethically) help organizations get two extra bids, clients and agency could waste a lot less time with RFP Policies and Procedures. Is there an idea here?
Rant over.
Other posts by Robbin.
BIG Kahuna says:
Robbin, it’s your arch enemy here (can I be the Joker to your Batman?)
I CAN’T Agree more!
See my thoughts on RFP’s here:
Hey Lowe’s - RFP’s Are Not Our Bag Baby:
http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=658
I Just Turned Down Another Prospect:
http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=551
Why We Don’t Want Your RFP:
http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=359
Thanks for the rant. Can I play in your group, I’m a great enforcer….
July 24th, 2008 at 9:31 amSpike says:
And for a refresher, we started ranting about this in 2005:
http://brainsonfire.com/blog/2005/05/03/rfps-are-evil/
And again last year:
July 24th, 2008 at 9:36 amhttp://brainsonfire.com/blog/2007/05/21/rfps-are-still-evil/
Liza Jones says:
I abhor RFPs. My experience, too, is that the winning agency has already been selected before the RFP goes out. Has often seemed like a huge time waster to me. I’ll join the club!
July 24th, 2008 at 10:26 amRobbin says:
Scott, Like I said it gets to me every time I am sucked in. Doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it has me spitting nails at anyone who will listen. That’s why I’d love to find an alternate idea to help companies get there competitive bids. THEN we can all go about focusing on what really matters. Clients and Organizations alike.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:38 amEvan says:
I agree for the most part. I disagree with the caveat: “unless you help write it.” That seems to run counter to the effort you’re trying to promote. It’s like you are saying “I’ll perpetuate this silly game as long as I get to stack the deck.”
As long as we’re digging through our respective blog archives, we pointed our audience to NO!SPEC about 2 years ago. They are bringing people under a similar banner, serving as:
July 24th, 2008 at 10:38 amjeff says:
Count our signature in. We will not do an RFP for better or worse. As you mentioned there have been times we’ve broken the rules and it always bites us back.
I had a lady call us the other day asking our address so she could send us an RFP. I told her look up the address for Shred-It, send it to them, we don’t want it. Everything we teach about sales, branding and marketing goes against submitting an RFP. How can we when we tell our clients not to get involved in that game if we play it too?
We’ll be glad to be a part of your RFP FREE WORLD.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:54 amRobbin says:
So right, Evan. We will not participate PERIOD. You heard it hear first.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:17 pmRyan says:
Reminds me of Trumpet’s riff on this a while back:
http://www.trumpetgroup.com/rfp/
July 24th, 2008 at 12:30 pmBIG Kahuna says:
What makes me really laugh is how dumbfounded they react. The “Purchasing Manager” (they know so much about branding right) actually said “You know we’re Lowe’s right”? I said yea, and said a prayer for the agency that won it.
What a horrible way to start a relationship. They can’t even take the time to discuss their brand. I’m happy to never deal with these take, take, take types. You’ll always be a vendor to them.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:42 pmlogosmith.net » Blog Archive » Does one ever get work unless the deck is stacked? says:
[...] the Brains on Fire Blog has a post about how they don’t respond to RFPs as an agency (with the exception of “unless we have the inside track or we write them” [...]
July 26th, 2008 at 4:33 amGary says:
responding to BIG Kahuna - “they can’t even take the time to discuss their brand.” It’s really suspicious when the situation is much more cut and dried, yet they won’t quite give you enough to properly quote. I finally learned to walk away, but it’s a struggle.
I was inspired to blog about a similar thing - http://logosmith.net/?p=133
July 26th, 2008 at 4:37 amDouglas Karr says:
I’ve often thought that there must be a fairly simple way to build out an RFP generator. Most RFP writers that I know simply cut and paste from separate sections of previous RFPs.
I don’t have any startup cash, but I’d love to build this using a simple search, include and order application where content can be appropriately organized.
You can even have a client-facing version for DIY RFPs for corporations.
July 26th, 2008 at 1:22 pmJeffrey Summers says:
No more RFP’s period! Can we fold this into the sustainability effort and get some traction with the ban?
July 27th, 2008 at 1:48 pmJohn Hardesty says:
Amen!
July 28th, 2008 at 12:46 pmolivier blanchard says:
I agree 100%.
Publish a ‘best practices’ white paper and use it to kill RFPs outright.
July 31st, 2008 at 11:28 amDavid Jones says:
Okay - I’m going to be the disturber. I’m glad you all aren’t going to respond to RFPs. That just limits the field for those of us who actually like responding to them. :^)
I have been on both sides of the fence on RFP creation + scoring, and RFP responses. I kind of get a strange kick out of responding to them. It is the ultimate B2B marketing opportunity. You get to tell your story, and clearly demonstrate how it will solve the Requesters problem.
As has been said, there is sometimes a “pre-selected” winner, and the RFP is a nasty process to make it look like everything is above board. But, the only way you stand a chance of winning the work is to hammer away at the process. It is probably even more important now for bigger agencies as bigger clients are all in such a tight situation with SOX style governance and so forth.
I say - “figure out a way to write great RFP responses quickly and really well, and you will win big more often.”
November 25th, 2008 at 10:39 pm