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Perspectives
Ditching the RFP When You Hire a Creative Firm By: Louisa Desson fathom.net
overview
If you are interested in hiring a creative firm, you might think the best way to compare apples to apples is to start with sending out a Request for a Proposal. While RFPs can be a timesaving way to get competitive bids for your latest initiative, there are a number of limitations when they involve creative work. We’ll outline them here and then we’ll propose a different strategy for getting a tailored proposal that is right for your organization.
... Perspectives Ditching the RFP When You Hire a Creative Firm
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limitations
You’ll get exactly what you asked for. Who said that was a bad thing, you ask? Well, when you are putting out an RFP and there’s limited room for questions and answers, you’re likely to get proposals that address every item you requested, regardless of how important it was to you. The result can be a proposal that disproportionately gives weight to items that you included simply because you thought they should be there, not because they are of critical importance to the project. For example, we’ve seen RFPs that call for websites to function in every web browser, a techni-
2 RFPs force everyone to pretend they know exactly how the project will unfold.
cal feat that – given the rapid obsolescence of browsers – is both prohibitively expensive and unnecessary. To meet that requirement and remain under consideration for your project, you may end up with a proposal that doesn’t include other creative suggestions for what your project could be – there’s simply no room for them. You’ve gotten what you asked for, but not the benefit of imagining what your project could be.
Many times, we’ve seen RFPs for specific projects that request estimating, down to the hour, how long certain elements will take. While that may be a suitable way to proceed for say, following a blueprint and constructing a building to exacting specifications, creative projects, by nature, often don’t function that way. The honest answer is that we don’t know yet. Not until we sit down together and figure out what the project is and how we can work together to best tell your story can we begin to envision how long it will take to make it happen. But if you lock us in to filling out an Excel spreadsheet, we may be closing the doors to the potential to create something unexpectedly brilliant.
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The RFP is focused on the “answer” way too soon.
It’s not a great way to get to know the creative firm. Many RFPs ask for bios and résumés for the project team, but that doesn’t really convey a sense of the culture and the fit that you would have with the firm. That understanding truly starts with a conversation, in which you can determine how you would find the experience of working with the firm and what would be your dedicated team. Conversations lead to partnerships, RFPs lead to vendor-client relationships
Responding to RFPs, by their rigid nature and formulaic structure, is diametrically opposed
where you’re likely to get what you asked for, and not much more.
to how most creative firms like to work. That’s because RFPs start with the answer – the type of project that the client requests a proposal to create. There’s no discussing which business goals made such a project necessary and whether the proposed project approach is the best way to achieve them.
In the best relationships with creative firms, your work together is not just the creative solution that appears on the screen or on the page for the world to see. It’s the creative thinking and the logic for those decisions that distinctly positions you apart from the competition and that serves as a strategic framework for your future
Sure, no one knows your company or your in-
marketing initiatives.
dustry better than you do, but the creative firm’s expertise lies in mastering the medium to get your message across. We might have some valuable insight on how to go about doing that – maybe even more cost-effectively than you thought – but it can’t be conveyed in an RFP.
RFPs make it very difficult to measure the kinds of insights and creative thinking that you would get from the creative firm. That’s because RFPs typically don’t reward that kind of thinking and the renegade creative firm might get thrown in a discard pile for not answering all of your questions.
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Lowest bid wins? Determining a scope of work for a creative project – whether it’s designing a new website, creating a social media strategy, or rebranding the organization – is very different from the more black-andwhite procurement exercises many clients go through in their daily routines. If you are choosing an enterprise-wide CRM, for example, you can evaluate the features and benefits from a handful of providers who offer similar services. The one that is the best match at the best price wins. Not so with the best creative firms, where there is no off-the-shelf, prepackaged solution for you to evaluate. You don’t want a brand strategy or a website designed like the client’s before you – you want something unique to your organization, based on what will really make a tangible difference in how you can do business.
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alternative strategy What’s the alternative? There are so many intangibles involved in work-
Narrow your list down to 3-5 firms.
ing with a creative firm. At Fathom, we’ve been responding to RFPs for over a decade, though
Contact each of them and schedule some time to
we’ve found that we’re answering fewer and fewer
discuss your project. You’ll get a chance to meet
of them today, precisely because they don’t allow
key people from the creative firm, and, chances
us to work with clients in the way that we think is
are, refine your goals for the project.
the most effective. There should be no cost for these conversations. And those that we do end up working on that
It’s a chance for both sides to get to know each
started as RFPs? The end result often bears very
other and determine if there’s a good fit. At the
limited resemblance to how it started out.
very least, you will be prepared to prepare a more knowledgeable RFP.
So, how do you proceed if you want to get a number of competitive proposals that allow you to compare multiple creative firms?
Instead of an RFP, send out a description of your challenge.
Here are some suggestions: Invite creative firms to propose the most effective way to go about solving your business challenge, whether it’s rebranding your organization or developing a global web presence. From here, you can refine your project description and invite one or two firms for a more in-depth conversation.
If you must start with an RFP, invite the finalists for an in-person meeting. You will get a sense of how the creative firms think and you may get some novel ideas for how you will ultimately choose to proceed. It’s a much better way to get to know the firm and to see if you can work well together.
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thank you
Thank you for taking the time to read this Perspective. All of us at Fathom would welcome the chance to talk with you more about how to select a creative firm. Having the right fit and creating the space where real change can take place is close to all of our hearts.
Perspectives Ditching the RFP When You Hire a Creative Firm
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about
Louisa Desson Director of Strategy and Content Marketing
About The Author
About Fathom
With a Master’s from Stanford University,
Creating an authentic future that is compelling to
Louisa’s reporter’s intuition-plus her academic’s
others is essential for unlocking an organization’s
thoroughness-never steers her (or us) wrong.
potential. Fathom’s insight and expertise in brand
We depend on Louisa for insight, dedication and, most of all, a true commitment to best rep-
development broadens the vision of what an organization can be, moving its business and its people forward.
resenting the enormous variety of clients with whom we work. Exposure to such a divergent
Regional, national and global organizations rely
group of organizations has transformed Louisa’s
on Fathom to align internal and external concepts,
love of learning into a daily happening, be it
perceptions and expectations. The result of our
to enhance her meticulous planning skills or
client partnerships is real, lasting change.
improve her expertise in the ever-evolving world of SEO and online marketing.
Our capabilities include organization-wide vision work and leadership development, strategic consulting for brand, marketing and technology initiatives, and creative direction and execution. Clients include Newman’s Own Foundation, Kaman Corporation, Covidien, Jacobs Vehicle Systems, Junior Achievement of Southwest New England and Center for Leadership Studies. Learn more at: www.fathom.net.
Perspectives Ditching the RFP When You Hire a Creative Firm
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