version 2.0 | 103 posts since 11.03 | 
Increasingly, clients are looking at ways to outsource big parts of the marketing, PR and/or marcom function. It’s a trend that current economic and technological underpinnings support and one that’s likely to to accelerate, so figuring out what works and what doesn’t should be on every manager’s to-do list.
Some things to consider: Read more …
Talk to PR and marketing agency types, and you’ll hear all manner of moans and groans over Requests For Propopsals (RFPs) or their lesser-seen siblings, the Request For Information (RFI) or Request For Quote (RFQ).
Why? Well, part of it is just Pollyanna-ish thinking about how business comes in the door — a surprising number of agencies grow their practices through purely organic networking and word-of-mouth marketing. This isn’t a bad move (more on that in another post), but it’s hard to be known by all the right people all the time. Now and then, a great piece of work will come up and you’re going to have to walk through the beauty pageant just like everyone else.
But the other reason agencies sometimes shy away from competitive bids is a little more basic: There are a lot of unreasonable, unclear or otherwise undesirable RFPs out there. And it doesn’t have to be that way.
