RFP Response Review

The meeting with my boss and the social media manager to discuss agencies didn’t take too long. They contributed to the development of the RFP, so we were all on the same page about what we needed. The things we were really wanted to see in the RFP responses included:
- creativity of programs
- social media experience
- understanding of SolidWorks’ needs
- personalized response
- CAD experience

The agency that sent their proposal late also sent something incomplete. After a lot of back and forth, they sent more. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. They were one of two more less “tech-focused” agencies and neither made the cut. We thought that the need to reach mainstream audiences was a good reason to branch out beyond tech agencies. In the end, the focus wasn’t the issue, it was their approach. One was very branding focused and we don’t need to redo the brand. The other had very little social media experience and it’s one of our biggest needs. Those were the “easy" choices.

Another easy choice was the first “yes.” One agency really stood out above the others. They sent us three very creative programs, demonstrated good integrated social media knowledge and presented case studies that were similar to our needs. Everything we wanted to see.

One of the other “yeses” was a big agency, which was a bit of a surprise to us. But they showed an understanding of who we are and gave us a couple great ideas. The two other bigger agencies were quite the opposite. They submitted proposals that could have been written for anyone. They lacked creativity and did not demonstrate an understanding of our needs. Surprisingly, one of them was our incumbent’s parent company. The response didn’t reflect any of the 10 years of history that we were hoping to see. Those were the next two on the “no” pile.

That left us with four “maybes” and we didn’t all feel the same way about each of them. I really wanted one, Matt wanted one and Laura thought we should bring back our parent company’s agency. One agency was left. They had a good grasp of who we were and presented a couple good ideas. But at the end of the day they had the least CAD experience or explanation of why that didn’t matter. So they didn’t make the cut.

We wound up bringing 5 back to include the agencies that currently represent pieces of the extended family. I sent out the notification emails and had calls with most of the “losers.” That part wasn’t fun.

The presentations were. Stay tuned...