The three little letters PR people dread -- RFP

I fully intended to keep up with the blog after I started my new job. I just underestimated the adjustment back to a working schedule. I thought my first “employed” blog post would address how I found my job.That post might have to wait. In a nut shell -- good ole fashion networking trumped all the social media tools.

I was prompted to blog again by the SolidWorks’ RFP. Having spent 15+ years in PR and half at agencies, I’ve been through countless RFPs before. And a good part of the last two years were spent filling out one RFP or another, including participating in a pretty massive RFP that half won. This is the first time I’ve been on the other side of the table, and I’m finding the process very interesting. So it made sense to blog about it; maybe someone will learn something. I won’t share anything until I’ve told the people involved.

Telling the existing agency was difficult. However, the wheels were already in motion before I started; I just confirmed everyone’s suspicions. Of course they were invited to pitch. I had an email conversation with the head of the agency that was a little too much like those we had with CA a year ago. “What did you like? Who do you like? Should any one be on the team if we give it to our parent agency?” I told them to field what they think is the best team. I didn’t want to put anyone through what we had gone through. The emotional turmoil was worse than the the RFP process.

I developed an RFP based on some that I liked when I was on the agency side. We started out inviting a couple of the agencies I had met during my job search. If I liked them enough to work there, it made sense to work with them in this capacity. When we added recommendations from our ad agency, branding firm and parent company, the list grew to 10 agencies.

I’ll tell you about the input calls in the next post.