SXSW Recap: A Better RFP?

Second in a Series

OMG Your RFP is Killing Me
Joe Rinaldi - Director of Business Development, Happy Cog
John Stephens - Marketing Director, Dell
Todd Nienkerk - Partner, Designer, and Developer, Four Kitchens

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Before I went to this session, my depth of knowledge of RFPs was not exactly encyclopedic. I knew that companies put them out and vendors reply with as much (or as little) information required. Companies (clients) often use them to distill vendors down to a common denominator, usually price.

For the leaders of the panel, that was the creative equivalent of a straight jacket. They had some ideas about building a better RFP.

From a vendor's perspective, there is often a tremendous amount of effort that goes into preparing an RFP.  In one example a firm spent 30-40/hours per request and had an opportunity cost of $5,000 - $7,000.  The numbers continued to tell a story when only 16% of their work actually came from responding to RFPs. 84% of their work came from their personal network or word of mouth.  Furthermore, they could actually go on a client visit and pitch work for $2,000 or $3,000 - much less then the opportunity cost of responding to RFPs. The vendors at this panel actually found that they got drawn into RFPs from 'sexy brands' and the likelihood of getting that work is already small.

They had some suggestions for both clients and vendors on improving the process.

For clients:

• No spec work.
• Allow for technical or creative responses.
• Don't "level the playing field" - let people be themselves.
• Require speaking to the people that will be working on your project.
• Beware of low bids.
• Pre-select, research, and evaluate vendors before putting out RFPs.

For vendors:

• Ask how many other vendors are invited to bid.
• Ask yourself: "is it really worth the time/effort to respond?"
• Are vendors with existing relationships already invited to respond?
• How did the client find out about you?
• Require a face-to-face meeting
• Offer alternatives (the evaluation process itself is often negotiable)
• It's often okay to ruffle feathers in a procurement department
• Ask: "What is the budget?" (if there is no budget, the project may be unfunded)

At the end of the session - everyone agreed, RFPs bring in a small, but not insignificant, portion of work - but, it really all comes down to personal relationships. Which is true for so many things in life!

<presentation slides available here>