A poor, unsuspecting Spin Sucks Community member posted that she is in-house and about to distribute an RFP—and she asked some questions about how to go about it. The community was respectful and kind, but let it be known that issuing an RFP is the absolutely wrong way for her to about it. They detailed why agencies hate them and why they do a big disservice to brands and the teams running them. I think they talked her out of doing it.
It led to a larger conversation about RFPs and how to decide if, when, or how they are useful. Sure, there are some industries where they are necessary, such as government work or where procurement has to be involved. But the rest of the world? We tend to think an RFP will level the playing field and save us a bunch of time, but it does the opposite.
You can learn far more from a conversation with an agency than from issuing an RFP. Writing and distributing an RFP takes just as long (if not longer) than having an initial 30-minute conversation with a handful of firms.
The RFP Process Is Broken
Do you remember in late November of 2022 when Dr. Pepper issued an RFP that told participating agencies that, should they win the business, they would have to “agree to 360-day payment terms or obtain financing from a third-party bank”?
Not only do large corporations expect agencies to work for free for an entire year, but they also expect said agencies to obtain financing (which, as you know, comes with fees and interest rates) to manage it all.
As it turns out, agencies are not banks, and the expectation that you would do work for an entire year without payment is ludicrous. You can’t go to a bank and get a loan without payment for 360 days. You don’t have to wait a year to get your paycheck. And yet…
The entire thing is ludicrous. I get that the big agencies that would be eligible to work with Dr. Pepper are in a different league and might be OK with bankrolling a client for an entire year, but it sets a bad precedent for everyone in the industry. It says to every other business out there, “Hey, asking for 360-day payment terms is totally fine.”
It’s not.
And this is just one of the reasons agencies despise the RFP process.
RFPs Are Time-Consuming
It’s an incredibly time-consuming and resource-intensive process. When I worked for a big agency, we had an entire team—like 10 people—who only responded to RFPs. Which is great for large agencies that can afford that kind of overhead. But if you want to work with a nimble, agile agency with strong industry expertise, they don’t have people who do that.
Typically, the business owner and one or two employees work on the RFP after hours and on their weekends. That means if you’re their client, they’re spending time responding to RFPs to grow their business, which takes their attention away from your work.
That’s not to say we aren’t willing to do what it takes to win business, but it’s an unrealistic expectation for most, especially when the odds of winning a new client from an RFP are low.
They Limit Direct Communication
The formal nature of RFPs limits direct communication with the potential client. While I understand that they are often designed on purpose (especially when procurement is involved), the nature of our business is all about relationships. If you don’t know how good we are at building rapport and, eventually, trust, how can you know if we’ll be any good at it when doing it for you and your business?
The other side of that coin is you will spend a lot of time with your agency. If you hire one after only seeing them in one presentation, it’s not enough to know if you have chemistry or will enjoy working with them. And trust me, if you do not have chemistry with them, you’ll eventually stop showing up for meetings with them, and the entire program will falter.
I know that sounds crazy, but it happens all the time. Chemistry is one of the most important things in your relationship with your agency.
They Prioritize Cost Over Value
RFPs tend to prioritize cost over value, quality, or culture fit. Agency expertise is not all the same, and neither is the experience of the people working there. While you may have a detailed scope of work and a budget of $10,000 per month, you have no idea if a solopreneur will crush it or if you need a small agency.
Most agencies have overhead and the more senior-level their talent is, the more they’ll cost. And, just like anything else, you get what you pay for.
If you have an internal comms team that will manage the agency and serve as extra arms and legs to get work done, then price-driven decision-making may work. But if your agency is expected to do strategic work, work hand-in-hand with the executive leadership team, and be a partner, you want to prioritize value, quality, and culture fit.
Otherwise, you’re racing to the bottom in pricing, which can compromise quality and the type of work that will get done.
They Create a Cookie-Cutter Approach
RFPs tend to use standardized formats that don’t allow agencies to showcase their unique strengths or creativity, resulting in a cookie-cutter approach.
For instance, if you invited us to participate in an RFP that asked how we handle media relations, it doesn’t give us room to discuss the PESO Model©, which we invented, or how we use earned media within a larger framework to get you more bang for the buck.
Similarily, another agency might not be able to speak to their unique process or how they measure results differently than the competition. It doesn’t allow the respondents to speak the nuances of their approach, process, or capabilities.
RFPs Can Be Unrealistic
Some RFPs have vague requirements or unrealistic timelines. I’ve seen many an RFP that asks for the sun, the moon, and the stars all wrapped up in a Tesla truck for $3,000/month. In that case, the agency has three choices:
- They can decline to respond to the RFP, which means you could be missing out on someone perfectly fit for your culture and needs.
- They can tell you in their RFP response that they can only do A, B, and C for your budget but will have to leave out X, Y, and Z, which may or may not be the right decision. But because they don’t know anything about your business yet, they are guessing. If they had a call with you, they’d be able to have a conversation with you about it, and together, you could decide what would be prioritized,
- They can respond to the RFP stating they can do everything you want for pennies, but that will lead to misaligned expectations and potential issues later down the road. Trust me, they will eventually become resentful, and you will become disillusioned.
They Cause IP Concerns
There are many, many intellectual property concerns when responding to an RFP. When I first started my agency, we pitched a big, well-known brand. They had us do all sorts of presentations, and by the fourth presentation, they wanted us to present a plan.
We flew to New York, and we stayed up all night rehearsing. We knew we would win the business if we crushed the meeting the next morning.
And we did. We crushed it. When we finished, people applauded. They loved our ideas, us, and the idea of working together.
Except we didn’t win the business. They told us they decided not to hire anyone and were going to do the work in-house instead.
About six months later, imagine my surprise when I read Lewis Lazare’s column in the Chicago Sun-Times that this retailer was launching a new campaign—and it was ours. The tagline, the messaging, the creative…everything was ours.
They completely stole it from us.
We had a copyright on all of our slides and verbiage that supposedly protected us. But they were a large company that just didn’t care. They dared us to sue them.
So you know what happened? We stopped sharing ideas, crafting plans, and providing spec creative, which prevents us from responding to every RFP that asks for it. We won’t do it—and we’re not alone. You lose out on some really talented agencies simply by sticking with the RFP process.
They Commoditize the Work
We’ve already discussed how the RFP process creates a race to the bottom and the commoditization of services. RFPs can reduce complex creative services to a list of deliverables, overlooking the strategic value agencies provide.
Most RFPs ask for a list of tactics without understanding that you’ll be unhappy within six months if you hire an agency based on tactics. The exception to this rule is if you need a bunch of doers—people who can do exactly what you tell them to do—or if you want an agency that can think and provide strategic counsel in addition to the doing.
It can lead to a perception that all agencies are interchangeable, overlooking important differentiators like expertise, culture, and innovation.
They Leave Little Room for Negotiating
The structured nature of RFPs often leaves little room for negotiating terms or scope. If you have detailed exactly what you want an agency to do—and how much you have budgeted, there is no room for negotiation. Either they can do it, or they cannot.
However, if you meet with a select few agencies, outline your goals, and provide a budget range, they can come back to you with a proposal of strategy, tactics, measurement, and budget. It’s in that type of back-and-forth that you have room to negotiate.
They Create a One-Size-Fits-All Approach
When you evaluate agencies that respond to your RFP, you have created a one-size-fits-all approach. While that may seem like a good idea, it prevents you from evaluating soft skills, unique strengths, or innovative approaches that don’t fit neatly into predefined categories.
Quantifying or comparing creative abilities and strategic thinking through a standardized form or accounting for the chemistry between agency and client teams can be challenging. I cannot stress enough how important this is in a successful collaboration.
Also, RFPs might overemphasize quantitative metrics (like team size or years in business) at the expense of qualitative factors that could be more relevant to project success, preventing agencies from showcasing their personality, values, and working style.
This method of evaluation may inadvertently favor larger, more established agencies that are better equipped to tick all the boxes, potentially overlooking smaller, more specialized, or innovative boutique agencies.
They Make Decision-Making Longer
What’s more, the RFP process makes decision-making much longer. The time between distributing an RFP and onboarding an agency can be six months or longer. You also have a job to do, and I’m willing to bet it doesn’t include spending half a year or longer evaluating agencies.
Consider, instead, asking for referrals and collecting a list of five to seven agencies. Research them and narrow them down to three to five, based on industry expertise, their own thought leadership, their process, and whether or not you like how they think.
Then create a list of questions and have a conversation with each of them. This will allow you to better understand if they “get” your business and evaluate their soft skills. You’ll quickly know if you like them enough to spend time with them every week, in email, on Slack or Teams, in meetings, and at events.
RFPs Create an Uneven Playing Field
More than anything, though, RFPs create an uneven playing field. They require one party to grovel, jump through hoops, and sometimes even beg. It’s often required without any clear direction or the opportunity to have conversations with the hiring team to discover their pain points and put together a proposal specifically for them.
It creates an unbalanced—and unhealthy—relationship. It creates an “us versus them” dynamic, and, as I have experienced first-hand throughout my career, it creates unmotivated and cynical team members on the agency side and entitled people on the client side.
If you want to build a long-lasting relationship with an agency that can help you grow, reconsider the RFP process. Not only will it save you time, angst, and resources, but it will also give you the opportunity to meet some agencies you wouldn’t see through the RFP process.
