I know how much effort organizations put into their RFPs. Sometimes I think they take longer putting them together than they give the vendor to respond.

I’m not a fan. The immediate reason is because it is so time consuming responding to an RFP. No one compensates me for the time I put into a response. Some companies have staff dedicated to prospecting for work and writing proposals, but I don’t. I’ve whittled my organization down to the essentials – real content developers, researchers, creatives and project managers. There is no bureaucracy and little overhead. I think that’s what you want in a marketing firm. But in any case that’s what you get if you work with me.

The deeper reason that I don’t like RFPs is that they don’t give me an efficient path to getting to the point where we might actually work together. One of the big problems that both you and I suffer from in the field of educational marketing is that no two vendors define their services in the same way. Inevitably, you are forced to compare apples to oranges to pineapples. If I’m going to be working with someone I need to explain why I’m proposing the approach that I am in light of the challenges you are facing. Depending on how regimented the RFP is, it is difficult to have this conversation without first cutting through a bunch of unproductive underbrush.

When you send me an RFP you need to realize that I’m shopping too. You’re shopping for a good vendor. I’m shopping for a good client. You’re shopping for someone who will help solve your problem. I’m shopping for a teammate with whom I can do good work. A big priority for me is having fun. Contrary to what you might think, I am not so desperate for work that I will jump at a prospective project even if I have concerns that the client will be difficult or boring to work with.

Let me tell you about the approach one recent prospect, Champlain College, took toward finding a vendor. This was about a year ago. I didn’t end up getting the project, but their approach to the selection process left a lasting impression. They first contacted me via e-mail. We then set up a conference call with a small Champlain team so I could give them a sense of my capabilities and approach. Following that, they asked me to submit a brief memo with a scope of recommended services and a ballpark price. Next we set up a more extensive phone conversation during which we discussed the memo and various alternatives and options. That’s as far as this process went. Champlain decided to work with a firm with whom they had an existing relationship. I assume that if conversations had continued further, I would have submitted a formal proposal detailing terms, timelines and price.

I really admired the way Champlain handled this process. It signaled to me that they were a professional, self-confident group that would approach the actual project in a similarly straightforward and open way. In fact, I reduced my fee because they seemed like such an attractive group to work with. It was a great process that left everyone feeling that time had been used constructively. I’d love to see more institutions follow a process like this and drop the more formal RFP.