Agencies ask me, “How do I win an RFP?” The right question is “How can I lose an RFP?”

Agencies ask me, “How do I win an RFP?” The right question is “How can I lose an RFP?”

For over 12 years my firm has been conducting advertising and marketing agency RFPs and reviews on behalf of national-level advertisers. These reviews focus on print, online, search, OOH, email, branding, creative…you get the idea. My “fly-on-the-wall” perspective is a unique vantage-point to ad-agencies.

As you can imagine, many agencies I’ve worked with will ask for tips to help them become more successful in agency reviews & RFPs. “How do I win?” is what they want to know. And that response is as unique as every RFP process. And that is the response I give to each and every one of their disappointed faces. They want the proverbial philosopher’s stone. And there is one! But it’s not one that can help you win – it’s one that will help you not lose.

What is it? 

Simple.

Proof-read.

Who wouldn’t proof-read a document worth a multi-million-dollar account?

Well, evaluating and analyzing RFP responses is 90% our work and I’ll tell you our numbers are scary! 1 in 3 RFPs have typos, errors, omissions, etc. in them according to our current count. We find it astounding! Astounding not that the mistakes are made, but because in most cases the mistakes are glaring signifying that there is NO WAY anyone proof-read these RFP responses before they were sent out!

One RFP I received years ago had the prospective client's name wrong throughout the document...everywhere, every time! The client was furious with me, and rightfully so! I had recommended this agency and what they delivered was embarrassing. Due diligence demanded I call the head of the agency and the person who prepped the RFP was fired. I was stunned and riddled with guilt.

I waited until the RFP was complete and I called the head of the agency and asked if she had read the RFP before it was sent out? She hesitated and then replied, "No." I told her that I was a bit taken aback that one person would be held responsible for an RFP response worth a potential $15M in new business. I reminded her that that RFP-response represented her whole company yet no one else showed any interest in even reading it let alone proof-reading it. She agreed, and I’d bet my last penny she has multiple people proof-read everything that leaves the agency now. Yes, it's THAT important!

Always proof-read your RFP response materials for errors and content continuity. Then give it to 2 or more others not on the pitch team to proof-read before submission. Have your accounting department read it and pay close attention to your financial offer to see if it falls in line. Have your account team leaders read it and focus on your capabilities section to determine if it is inclusive. Shouldn’t your analytics team read it and gauge your proposed metrics-generating reports? Of course!
 

Remember that every RFP response is worth the whole value of the prospective account. 

So that is my #1 advice to an agency. When something represents everything you are as an agency - get everyone you can to read it! Simple things should never be forgotten or neglected. It's THAT important!

173 Chestnut Ridge Rd - Bethel, CT 06801

203-545-1032  -  www.rfpassistants.com

Everything an agency presents in an RFP is measured...everything! Here are 3 pitch-meeting examples that may surprise you!

Everything an agency presents in an RFP is measured...everything!  Here are 3 pitch-meeting examples that may surprise you!

Agency search and review services are the mainstays of our activities at RFP Assistants. Since 2004, we have worked with many industry leading companies in need of a new advertising agency or to re-evaluate their current agency relationship as part of internal, corporate due diligence.

As you can imagine, this type of consultancy has valuable insight to agencies wanting to understand how the review process works from the client-side and how to use that knowledge to garner an advantage.  The truth is the simplicity of the differentiation that occurs between agencies making one a clear winner would shock a lot of agencies. The phrase “it’s not rocket-science” is apropos in RFP conclusions and I hope that sharing a few simple “nuggets” will help you on your next new business endeavor.

---

Technology

Whether an RFP is focused on branding, creative, content, digital…or whatever, you are also being judged on your technology and your ability to use it to present in a manner in keeping with a progressive agency seeking a partnership with a prospective client.  By “technology” I mean everything that is electronic in the presentation room. Here are a couple examples.

·        Are you prepared to PPT in style?  Ahh PowerPoint! The bane of the boardroom! The necessary evil of presentations everywhere…and also your first blunder opportunity on so many levels!

o   Did you bring your own projector? Nothing shows ineptitude more than needing a client to call for their IT department to help you set up right when you walk into a room.  Not convenient and wasteful of their time.

o   Can you run the PPT smoothly? What if your PC dies? Do you have a backup PC ready? A flash-drive? Have a 2^nd PPT set to go always! Hopefully, you’ll never need it but you’ll be thankful if you do!

o   Did you check your connectivity before beginning? If not, your embedded internet link might not work.

o   Did you check your PPT for dead internal links? Are you showing a report that is so tiny on the screen that no one can read it? If you have to say, “I know you can’t ready this. It’s in the leave-behind.” It has no value at the moment!

All of these things can make your agency look foolish and unprepared. It’s being noted!

·        Cell phones. Yup! Everyone in the room has one just like you.  And guess what? They are all set to vibrate, shimmy or chirp with each in-coming call, meeting reminder, email received and the ever constant social media channel updates. If you can, turn them off! Do it in front of the client to show them THEY are the center of your attention. This meeting will be less than 2 hours generally – you can tap out for that amount of time, right? Yes, it’s THAT important.

Oh, and make sure your whole team shuts down too! I’ve been in meetings where the agency CEO shut down but the account executive didn’t. I knew what was to come. Sure enough, the AE’s phone acted like a Mexican jumping bean on a double-shot espresso for the full presentation!! He was constantly checking whenever it bleeped, buzzed or blooped. It made the agency appear to lack in both appropriateness and respect for the client, their time and their business. Not a good look, trust me!

Team

Team assignment is probably one of the most [if not THE most] important criteria for agency selection. Assuming that your agency can carry out the client’s advertising objectives, it is the people executing those objectives that hold tremendous import to your prospective client. What constantly surprises me is that agencies will bring in their entire sales and new business development team and even their CEO but not one team member! Where are the people who’ll actually work the account? This almost always leaves the client scratching their heads in confusion. If your competitors bring members of their proposed account team in and you do not – they are ahead of you without one word being spoken or one slide being shown!

Now let’s say you do bring in a team member…or two…or ten! Be careful. More is rarely more.  You’re being judged on how your agency presents and to have non-participatory bodies in the room just to say you’ve brought in the whole account team will work against you. It looks sloppy, wasteful and confusing. Assuming you’re at the client’s office - why would you incur the cost to fly/drive them all in and have some contribute nothing? What value did they present the client? None!

Only bring in your account team superstars! You know the ones. They are innately good at presenting, or can be trained to be good. They know their area of responsibility on the account team and will make the rest of the team shine without them needing to be there. And this person does not have to be the main day-to-day agency/client contact necessarily. Once you get to pitch, you already know the main pain-points this client has – is it lack of metrics? Then bring in your superstar analytics team member[s]. Is the client in need of improved agency attention and communication? Bring in that fabulous account director.

In a nutshell, assemble your presentation team and make sure you can answer yes to questions like these:

·        Does everyone on this team have relevance to this client?

·        Does everyone on this team have a role in our presentation?

·        Does everyone on our team have the knowledge of the client, the criteria they are seeking as outlined in the RFP and the ability to field any and all anticipated questions involved in account management, program creation, and ROI metrics?

There are certainly more you can ask, but this is a good start.

Legal

The area of legal is a measurement criterion most clients and agencies do not even think about – but it can be a strong indicator of “things to come.” What I mean by this is when legal gets involved in the agency review process, it is almost always at the end of the RFP. Everything has been verbally negotiated and now a contract and SOW is on the table for agency legal and client legal to hash out.  Here are a couple tips to shed some light on this rarely considered gage:

·        Never bad-mouth your legal team to your prospective client. First of all, putting lawyer jokes aside, they are people, and they care about their work just like you do.  Saying bad things about any member of your team, including your in-house counsel, makes you look like detached entities already fighting amongst yourselves. Again, it’s not a good look.  And if your legal is not in-house but instead a firm your agency hired to represent their legal interests, you will look ridiculous insulting them to a prospect.  Your agency hired them after all!  Stick with Thumper’s quote to guide you - “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

·        Legal IS part of your team. Agencies rarely take it upon themselves to treat, train and prepare their legal department as an extension of their New Biz Dev team. Well, they are! They are actually the final stitch in the sales process quilt! Hopefully contract negotiations are a frequent part of your agency’s everyday activities. You do want to grow, right? Working with your legal team to create a seamless, stress-free contracting process demonstrates to your soon-to-be client that you ARE the buttoned up and prepared agency they are hiring! It will instill more confidence than you can imagine right out of the gate of this new relationship.

I hope these tips whet your appetite and encourage you to take a look at some of your internal new business practices.  If you notice, there is a general theme in this post.  It establishes the need for agencies to make new business development a known process. From selecting the right team, to preparing technology to showcase your adeptness, to playing nice with all team members necessary to making this new relationship work!

It is all about dedicating time to gather your past RFP files so you can rehash why you did or didn’t win the business.  Ask your clients why they hired you! Learn! These types of actions will  strengthen the weaknesses you have identified and enable you to set in motion new procedures in addressing future RFPs. And then, practice, practice, practice!! Great agency RFP pitches are like great dancers…they look effortless and they do what they do with enthusiasm, preparedness and zeal! There is so much more I could add but hopefully reading this caused you to have an “A-ha! Moment or two!”

About RFP Assistants

Since 2004, RFP Assistants has been dedicated to assisting national-level advertisers to coordinate and conduct various types of advertising agency search and review projects. Our portfolio of services includes agency candidate reporting, RFP support services, and comparative reporting to the “full Monty” of orchestrating the entire review processes.  Our motto is “We handle the minutia involved in agency searches so that you don’t have to!”

It is important to note that while we do consult on agency review and RFP services, we are not the decision-maker on which agencies are ultimately selected to participate in our RFPs, nor do we determine the winning agency at the conclusion of the review. Our job is to provide reporting and expert opinions so that our clients can select agencies they are interested in interviewing. We facilitate the profusion of paperwork and intricate-communications involved with an RFP so our clients can focus on their daily tasks and ultimately hire the best agency to suit their needs. We welcome all manner of RFP projects and encourage advertisers and agencies to contact us to determine if there would be a benefit in our working together.  www.rfpassistants.com or email our Principal, Noelle Mullin – mullin@rfpassistants.com

173 Chestnut Ridge Rd - Bethel, CT 06801

203-545-1032  -  www.rfpassistants.com

When did you discover your “work-you?” Or have you not met yet?

Have you ever had a moment in your career when it all fell into place? When you found your “work-you?” You know what I mean. That moment when you discover that person you are at work. When you make a choice on how you will conduct yourself and how you will move forward in your desired career path….that moment! Think back, what is that moment for you?

Mine occurred about 18 years ago. Back in ‘97, I wanted to learn about computers so I could be more “competitive in the workforce.” My husband is a chiropractor and had a patient whose husband was the Director of IT at this fancy Madison Avenue law firm. So, being my biggest cheerleader, he saw an opportunity and sang my praises. He told her that I was ambitious and a quick learner. She set everything up within days…I was terrified. I saw this interview as a polite gesture, but I didn’t stand a chance!

A few days later, there I was, in the lobby of their “partner floor.” For those not familiar, these are the floors in firms and agencies that are richly appointed in wood paneling, glass conference rooms, and a perimeter lined with full wall-windowed partner offices. These are also called “client floors” because they’re the only floors clients get to see.  These floors are the shining "gloss coat" on top of the rest of the company that pretty much looks [and is treated] like a Cambodian sweatshop in the middle of summer.

Who was I kidding? Why was I here? I had ZERO computer experience other than working on DOS-based billing programs at various chiropractic and medical offices. But here I sat at a swanky NYC law firm. I had no business being there! It was a proper IT job at a law firm of 500+ people! I was going to be the punchline in a joke by the end of the day!

There was another young applicant there in the lobby waiting with me. The IT Director shook our hands and quickly began to walking back toward the elevator. Over his shoulder he warned, “Be careful they just washed the carpets. Any residual dampness may cause you to slip on the marble floors.” He was gracious but rushed and highly intimidating. In the elevator, we were told we would interview together. Great, there’d be an audience for my impending crash and burn!

We were brought into an office so small only the Director could sit at his desk. He glanced at our resumes – seemingly to secure our names in his head – and asked, “Let’s say one of our senior partners called you right now and said, “My PC is down,” what would you do?” My competition immediately starting talking about system-BIOS, control panels, and reboot procedures…at least that's all I could capture in his brilliant sounding tirade and methodical system of attack. He was dazzling, confident, and obviously able to solve any PC crisis all while also grabbing the team a latte at Starbucks to boot! I really disliked this guy.

After what seemed like a ½ hour of his tech-filled firework response, it was my turn. In one of my more horrid work-moments, I choked. Nothing. I had nothing. I extended my hand and said, “Thanks, but I’m wasting your time.” The director looked at my hand in what I could only call disgust and then told the other guy to wait outside and close the door. Once alone he said, “I want to hear your answer. You must have ONE thought.” I almost burst into tears…there was no thought, “No, I don’t have a thought because I have no knowledge of computers! The best I could do is check to make sure the computer is plugged in.” The room was spinning. I was having an out of body experience. I remember biting the inside of my cheek to keep myself lucid and from passing out.

“Why on earth would you check the plug?”

The fog in my head started to clear. I didn’t care anymore. He started this in the lobby and I was going to finish it in his hole of an office! I might not know computers, but I had a brain! “Because you said the carpets were cleaned on the partner floor. They’re still damp! I am assuming they took the computer towers off the floor to clean the carpets. They might have to unplug them to pick them up. Doesn’t that make sense?”

I vividly remember a smirk appear on his face. “You’re hired.”

I think I said “How?” or “Why” or something equally inappropriate and embarrassing. “Because you proved you listen and retain important information which you can use later, when it counts most. I can’t teach that. The rest of this job is computer crap that I can teach to any baboon. Just don't make me work so hard for it next time.”

It was a great 3-month contract. But I honestly learned more in that interview than in the 9 weeks I was there. That moment molded me into the “work me” I am today. I listen, retain what’s important and since that moment, I have the confidence to get out of my own way to get the job done. What’s your “work me” moment? Share!

___________________________________________________________________________________

www.rfpassistants.com  -  203-748-8198

Why does one agency win over another in an RFP? Hint: It's not your "culture."

For more than a decade, RFP Assistants has been coordinating and facilitating agency review processes for all types of advertising/marketing programs and projects. In that time, there is one question that both our clients and the agencies we work with ask us over and over...

“Why does one agency win over another?”

Of course, all participating agencies have to be able to accomplish the goals set forth in the RFP – but let’s face it, that’s the easy part. So what is it? The worst part of my job is informing agencies that they have not won an account….they always want to know what happened. Why didn’t they win? Many times the response I get from my clients is, “it just felt right with the other agency.” When you are not ‘the other’ agency, it is a bitter pill of randomness to swallow.
So why is one agency selected over another? The answer, in my humble opinion, is not arbitrary at all and it’s been staring us all right in the face – it’s the people and the process.

People

So many agencies talk about their mission and their culture with prospective clients. Stop it. It’s the wrong audience. That stuff is important to your recruits, your staff, your investors…prospective-clients don’t give a hoot. Trust me.
What matters to prospective-clients is the people they work with from an agency – their direct account-team. Who are these people? What do they bring to the table in the form of talent, resources and personality? And let’s face it; we all know account teams within an agency are not equal. You have your work-horse-team, your growth-sales team, your complacent-renew-as-is team, and so on… So choose the account-team you present to any prospective-client carefully and purposefully.
Talk about the value your planned account-team would offer to the program. Every RFP starts with goals for success, the dreaded KPIs. Assign a team that can achieve those goals. Demonstrate how they’ve been successful in the past. And always bring them to the pitch! Prospective clients are happy to meet the agency-head but they REALLY want to meet the people they’ll be working with daily. And let them be heavily involved in the pitch. Meeting a potential account team is the RFP-equivalent of test-driving a car. The right mix of people is crucial to RFP winning!

Process

Many agencies will say, “Hey we talk about process!” Trust me, you don’t. You talk about what you’ve done for others, case-studies…it’s not the same. Focus on how your agency tackles a new project, step-by-step. Keep it simple and walk through the steps you take to achieve goals and create success for your clients.
It shocks me how many agencies only talk about their culture, their products/services and their awards and accolades. While these things are nice, they describe nothing about your agency that is relevant to the prospective-client and the task at hand. Walking through your process for tackling a new advertising/marketing program will show the prospective client how you work. If it matches how they work [or more importantly, how they WANT to work] your agency will be the one hired. I guarantee it.

It’s really simple math! Purposeful account team + desired process methodology = winning agency.

So now when I have to tell an agency that they didn’t win and the client gives me the response of, “the other agency seems like a better fit” I can tell the agency to look at the account-team they assigned [or many times didn’t assign] and their process for getting the job done. It seems simple to include these two things, but rarely do I see an agency do it, or do it well. When they do, they tend to win new business over and over. Now go win some new business!

Agencies ask me, “How do I win an RFP?” The right question is “How can I lose an RFP?”

Agencies ask me, “How do I win an RFP?” The right question is “How can I lose an RFP?”

For over 12 years my firm has been conducting advertising and marketing agency RFPs and reviews on behalf of national-level advertisers. These reviews focus on print, online, search, OOH, email, branding, creative…you get the idea. My “fly-on-the-wall” perspective is a unique vantage-point to ad-agencies.

As you can imagine, many agencies I’ve worked with will ask for tips to help them become more successful in agency reviews & RFPs. “How do I win?” is what they want to know. And that response is as unique as every RFP process. And that is the response I give to each and every one of their disappointed faces. They want the proverbial philosopher’s stone. And there is one! But it’s not one that can help you win – it’s one that will help you not lose.

What is it? 

Simple.

Proof-read.

Who wouldn’t proof-read a document worth a multi-million-dollar account?

Well, evaluating and analyzing RFP responses is 90% our work and I’ll tell you our numbers are scary! 1 in 3 RFPs have typos, errors, omissions, etc. in them according to our current count. We find it astounding! Astounding not that the mistakes are made, but because in most cases the mistakes are glaring signifying that there is NO WAY anyone proof-read these RFP responses before they were sent out!

One RFP I received years ago had the prospective client's name wrong throughout the document...everywhere, every time! The client was furious with me, and rightfully so! I had recommended this agency and what they delivered was embarrassing. Due diligence demanded I call the head of the agency and the person who prepped the RFP was fired. I was stunned and riddled with guilt.

I waited until the RFP was complete and I called the head of the agency and asked if she had read the RFP before it was sent out? She hesitated and then replied, "No." I told her that I was a bit taken aback that one person would be held responsible for an RFP response worth a potential $15M in new business. I reminded her that that RFP-response represented her whole company yet no one else showed any interest in even reading it let alone proof-reading it. She agreed, and I’d bet my last penny she has multiple people proof-read everything that leaves the agency now. Yes, it's THAT important!

Always proof-read your RFP response materials for errors and content continuity. Then give it to 2 or more others not on the pitch team to proof-read before submission. Have your accounting department read it and pay close attention to your financial offer to see if it falls in line. Have your account team leaders read it and focus on your capabilities section to determine if it is inclusive. Shouldn’t your analytics team read it and gauge your proposed metrics-generating reports? Of course!

Remember that every RFP response is worth the whole value of the prospective account. 

So that is my #1 advice to an agency. When something represents everything you are as an agency - get everyone you can to read it! Simple things should never be forgotten or neglected. It's THAT important!