Brand Central Station

This post is going to sound a bit self-promotional – for that, I apologize.

But I think it’s important business owners and managers seriously re-think the way they’ve been looking for marketing help all of these years. We conducted a poll last year and found that only one in nine businesses regularly used the services of a marketing firm like an ad agency or pr firm. The rest (nearly 90%) picked up the help they needed when they thought they needed it.

The admitted resources used to find this help were not very sophisticated: the Yellow Pages, referrals from friends, etc. And in the unlikely event a company was looking for a more “permanent” relationship, they would often turn to the same purchasing methodology they used for buying raw materials in order to collect information from prospective marketing service providers.

The RFP (Request for Proposal).

Now, I shouldn’t have to tell you how much agencies hate RFP’s. It’s not just the document; it’s what the document stands for that drives us crazy.

RFP’s, typically, ask a number of irrelevant questions with a smattering of intentionally intrusive questions mixed in for good measure. Why clients think they can ask for details concerning everything from executive compensation to old financial statements and tax returns is, quite frankly, beyond me. To compound those intensely personal intrusions with requests for reems of price quotes for printing and production projects for which no “real” specifications exist is nothing other than adding insult to injury.

Why do agencies (especially the privately held ones) get so huffy about these questions?
Because ad agencies and PR agencies are intensely personal business ventures. Criticism of how they are managed is taken as personal criticism of the managers. And, usually, the managers own part (or all) of the company.

It’s a strange dichotomy, but agency principals usually have every earthly possession tied up in their agency. They’re letting everything (and we mean everything) hang out there for the love of the business and on faith that their clients aren’t going to let them down. When someone comes along and starts to question the salaries, perks and benefits afforded an agency owner to help dull the throbbing pain in their gut associated with the risk, it cuts like a knife.

And to question in such a cavalier method as through a generally inane and thoughtless document as an RFP, the pain is all the greater. The mere thought that the RFP responses would be shared with a number of people on a committee – or, worse yet, screened by a support or clerical person – creates a real loathing of the document that results in the worst possible reaction on the part of the agency’s management:

They lie.

Questions are asked that don’t really deserve a response. So they don’t get a real response. RFP’s typically receive vague, meaningless answers that are sometimes so untruthful they’re funny. Besides malicious intent, there are some perfectly legitimate reasons for this:

1. Many agencies attempt to create “boilerplate” answers for most RFP’s in order to cut down on the extraordinary amount of time required to answer them;
2. Many agencies delegate the RFP to lower-level people who either don’t really know the answers or can’t get superiors to provide the insight required to answer questions correctly;
3. Many RFP questions are so poorly worded that they get the answers they deserve – whether those answers are what the client really needs to know (or not);
4. Several agencies are under the impression that not all RFP answers are actually read. As a result, not every RFP question is actually answered.

What clients need to do is find a better way to find the service providers they need. That’s where we come in (and this is where things get a bit promotional).

In the past month, we’ve been working with a number of clients to find everything from public relations and advertising agencies to marketing research specialists and audio production studios. The secret (we’ve found) is to work with the client to determine exactly what their requirements are and how they expect things to work out with the new service provider.

We then structure a rubric for performing a due diligence process on a number of qualified prospects. Much of the information we gather can be culled from sources like Agencyfinder.com or similar services specializing in research, production, printing, etc. (A side note: Business Partnering, Intl. – the parent company of Agencyfinder – is a BCS client.)

At no point is there an “RFP”. If we have questions we boil them down to no more than five and then ask for some correspondence from the prospective service provider to provide an explanation of their position, methodology, resources or credentials. We also call and check on references, speaking directly to people who have worked with the service provider.

Once the preliminary research is completed, we call and talk to each candidate company on our client’s behalf to confirm our findings. Following a credentials review, a short list of prospects is presented to the client for final evaluation and selection.

The whole process is direct, professional and – believe it or not – faster than the “traditional” method involving RFP’s. And, as a side benefit, both client and service provider come into the relationship enthused, informed and ready to do business.

It’s a gratifying experience. That’s why plan on continuing to help clients and service providers make connections.

(c)2005, Brand Central Station – all rights reserved. To learn more about BCS, please visit our website.