Require an NDA?

This depends on the client. Usually a client who approaches you, at least from my experience, usually has an NDA available to sign. It is not common for me to get a RFP on my desk without some sort of legal protection in place. This answer, however, differs based on what type and breed of client you may have. For smaller business projects, it is not common to see an NDA. Usually the potential clients for these smaller projects either:

A. Do not care about protecting their ideas in the RFP

or...

B. They are not educated to do so

or...

C. Do not have a background in issuing a legal layer into the RFP/Proposal process.


Charging for In-Depth Plans?

In this climate it is extremely hard to charge for anything in a proposal. If you are only doing a proposal, no matter how small or large, you should only be giving the client enough to ensure they understand your strategy, goals and that you are committed to meet all goals on a project, as outlined in their RFP.

If the proposal turns into a Planning/Strategy phase (hopefully the 1st phase in any project), then at that point I would bill for your time, or flat rate a fee for developing and delivering a plan to the client. Lets be clear that a Strategy Plan is different from a proposal. While the proposal includes the initial knowledge base and thinking behind the various aspects of the potential client's project, it should not include all of your knowledge and planning.

My rule of thumb: If you are working on a proposal that at some point makes you feel as though you should be getting paid, that usually means it's:

A: Not the right client for you

or...

B: You are giving too much away

The other litmus test is, "Is the client able to take my proposal, and execute my ideas with someone else?". If the answer is yes, than you are also probably giving too much away.


Trying to Weed Out "tire-kickers"

Ahh yes, the age old issue of "Is this proposal worth my firm's time and money". As a business owner of a creative agency, this is a question I continue to struggle with. As part of our initial RFP/proposal process, I rate the value of the RFP based on several factors and then weigh the value proposition against the time and cost of compiling a proposal.

Lowest Value: The RFP came in from a cold lead. If this is the case, have you done the ample amount of research on the client (i.e. budgets, years in business, other projects they have executed, spoken to others who have worked for them, etc.) The majority of these types of RFP's that come across my desk are tire-kickers.

Medium Value: The RFP came in from a new client, BUT that client was referred to you by an existing client or colleague, then the value here is increased. Clearly a direct connection through your potential new client is a critical thing to know when you decide to draft a proposal. Someone in this category is usually legit, however I have spent time on a plethora of proposals from referrals through existing clients, and conversion rates are still under 10%

Highest Value: If the RFP came from an existing client, that you are currently working for, OR have worked for in the past, this is the highest value and this is usually 100% legitimate. I would not pass up an opportunity such as this one if it was my scenario because the conversion rates are much, much higher here. Plus the fact, you have an established relationship, so there would be no reason to pass on this type of client, or change the RFP/Proposal process.

It's important to mention that my methodology above Is not an exact science, as anyone in this industry will tell you, but it has proven to work for Killswitch over the years.

Considering a New Approach?

Responding to an RFP is a process that is hard to perfect. The expectations of the potential client are never 100% known, even IF the RFP has clear guidelines. Usually the people that make the decisions on a project have nothing to do with the RFP. This is especially true for larger/instituional projects. There is a huge gap in many cases with regards to the behind-the-scenes planning a company puts into an RFP and many times that gap can be detrimental to the drafting of the proposal.

You should always think about different ways to approach the process, but don't loose sight of the initial evaluation of the RFP before making a decision on whether it is worth your time. This initial value proposition exercise, will help any team craft the right proposal for the right client for your particular firm.


This was an answer to a question originally posted on LinkedIn.

You can see the entire thread HERE.

In the communications industry, hyperbole is always abound. Having admitted that, I will now make the following statement with absolutely no intention of embellishment: We are now in the business of empowering consumers. Where as our predecessors may have focused on less than ethical means of driving sales by preying on the consumers fears and desires, today we are creating new and better ways to grant consumers power in terms of encouraging brand-ownership, striving for transparency and cultivating relationships.

Now, this was not an internal, altruistic revolution within our ranks. I'd be giving us too much credit to claim that. Consumer empowerment was not the product of any effort on our part, but rather the opposite. The World Wide Web opened up the floodgates of information and social media has connected consumers in an unprecedented manner, the cumulative result being an ever-increasingly savvy consumer. In today's marketplace, our old smoke and mirrors magic has been rendered impotent.

As the colloquial saying goes, "If you can't beat'em, join'em!" So we have. And why shouldn't we? Who needs focus groups when one can just spend some time on Twitter and Facebook to get candid feedback from real consumers? Why should we continue to push the 30-second spot when digital campaigns are so much more effective? Why pursue traditional, top-down communications when we can have direct dialogue with the consumer? Why am I asking so many obvious, rhetorical questions?

The one trend that I am most excited about, and the one that is most illustrative of my argument, is the use of crowdsourcing. Several big name brands have launched crowdsourcing campaigns recently, Starbucks being the one of the biggest. Starbucks launched the site "My Starbucks Idea" and encouraged visitors to post their own ideas on how to improve Starbucks service and products. Visitors where also encouraged to vote on the user-generated suggestions that they thought were the best. Starbucks has pledged to put the top-ranked ideas into action. Also, check out what Dell has been doing in this same vein over at www.ideastorm.com.

Today and moving forward, our job as communicators is to create the platforms and campaigns that drive consumer participation. I for one, find this an exciting era our industry is entering and I am genuinely proud to be a part of it. Too be honest, in my youth I used to idolize the spin doctors and admen who could sell snake oil to cure syphilis, but I find myself embracing their obsolescence. I'm sure that I sleep better at night than they did.

This article was originally published on Talentzoo.com and featured in the site's "From The Frontlines" column.

When I had just graduated from college, jobs in the Detroit communications industry were few and far between (for more on my personal, job seeking experiences, check out this Talent Zoo article). Faced with a seemingly endless stack of bills from my college years and needing an immediate source of income, I started waiting tables. I can't even begin to describe the level of humiliation and degradation I felt during that time of my life but, in retrospect, I learned many lessons that I apply to my profession today.

In the time I've spent in the communications industry, I've seen the best and the worst of how agencies deal with their respective clientele. I've seen clients over-serviced and I've seen them treated as myopic ne'er-do-wells. At its best, I've seen the agency/client relationship manifest as an equal, like-minded partnership. What still surprises me is that people in this industry forget that, under all the ancillary aspects of our work that include awards, recognition, creativity and new business, communications remains in its simplest form a service industry. Let me repeat that: This is a service industry; not that much unlike the one I worked in while waiting tables.

If you are a waiter/waitress, your ultimate responsibility is the customer's satisfaction. Providing excellent service can mitigate a sub-par meal. If the kitchen is running behind, then you can assuage the ire of your patrons by remaining attentive throughout their wait. If their meal comes out wrong or the quality poor, then you must be quick to provide them with an alternative. My managers taught me that the service I provided my guests was as important as the meal itself, and they were right.

It doesn't take much thought to substitute situations that occur in the account-side of agency life with any of the scenarios above. The creative doesn't thrill your client, your agency's workload has pushed the deadline of that client's project, the client absolutely hates your concept....see what I mean? And just as it is when dining at a restaurant, having an attentive, sympathetic and knowledgeable account person can ensure that the client, regardless of the situation, is as content as possible in the end.

Not to take this metaphor too far, but one more thing comes to mind as I write this. I started to really make money waiting tables once I had cultivated "regulars" (customers that frequented the establishment and asked for me by name). I developed these "regulars" by building up a certain level of trust and expectation. In return, these patrons were more apt to respond to up-selling. "You are much better off going with a bottle of wine if you plan on having more than one glass" or, "That is a great selection, but let me tell you about our special today that I think you will absolutely love."

Again, it doesn't require a stretch of the imagination to apply these same scenarios to account service. The most important client in this business is a repeat-client, especially in these tough economic times. Building a relationship based on trust between your account team and your client is as important to long-term success as is the quality of the work you execute on that client's behalf. Remember, many of your clients aren't as deft as you and your colleagues are in the art of communications, as such they might not be able to immediately see the big picture (or justify the big budget). It's not your job to sell them, but rather to engender an environment of trust in which they will take you at your professional word.

If this seems too obvious a metaphor, you're right: it is. Yet each of us at some point in our careers has cursed a client for ineptitude or lack of vision or for setting unreasonable expectations. Thinking of your role in this way may just help you be better at what you do.

And trust me, you don't want to have to wait tables instead.