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The Fix Is In

Jun 6, 2018 | The Dive

The Facts

A very recent study of marketing directors asked if they knew which agency they were going to select prior to issuing a Request for Proposal. 84% of them responded that they had picked a winner even before reading their response in an RFP. That plays into my long-held belief that if we didn’t have a person on the inside, then somebody else did and we were wasting our time and resources competing for business we couldn’t win. Besides not being right, it’s not in your best interest to have a winner already chosen as you miss out so much on what is available for you.

Spiker Insights

Try a Chemistry meeting with a handful of agencies you may want to work with. Chemistry meetings are powerful and informative for the marketer, and not hard to put together for agencies. It’s mostly existing materials filed away in drawers. Everything you need to know about an agency you’ll find in the Chemistry round. You’ll see how they think, how they develop strategies, how they got to an idea, how that idea came to life, and the results of that idea. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Agency websites are mostly a waste of time. Because according to most agency websites, they have cured cancer and brought world peace to the free world, and they would “love to work with you” too. Well maybe we don’t want to work with you, ever worked with Ernest Gallo or Donald Trump? I have, and I don’t want to work with them again. So marketers, quit wasting my time and my competitors’ time and either tell us upfront the process is stacked against us and a decision is likely already made pending the financial details, or you are running a clean pitch because you want to work with the best for your particular situation.