The Confluent Forms blog

Analytics are important but ROI is very much about...

2010-05-12T14:43:18.475-04:00

Analytics are important but ROI is very much about communication. In the "olden days", it was 'word of mouth. We have come full circle and today again, consumers are in charge of what they want to see & hear and they seek that from fellow consumers. So back in the day, it was the telephone that helped accomplish this 'word of mouth'. Today it's social media. Do companies do metrics for having telephones? Social Media is today's telephone, today's 'word of mouth'. Social Media is free, aside from the cost of an Individual to be the communicator for a company. It's an age of simplicity. My opinion.

This is a good post. As it is generic and could be...

2010-03-02T12:06:51.403-05:00

This is a good post. As it is generic and could be describing a number of "solution" types it is sound advice and provides a nice steer. In the world of digital, specifically social media RFPS, some organisations cannot be anything other than vague. This is because they just don't know what they need. It is difficult for them to be precise. So round one of tenders, usually results in a number of agencies being put through the mill (as your last paragraph describes) but without any return. If this happens, it usually results in the said organisation (having absorbed all the free consultancy and ideas) having a bash themselves...with varying degrees of success. The poor agencies, who expended a lot of time and effort, can only gaze on feeling used and abused. It's a shame there is no defined business ethics for this. Maybe, the default is to charge for the pitch? A test of how serious the organisation is and it would result in some blinding responses.

Came across your post from being pointed to it on ...

2010-01-31T16:52:27.443-05:00

Came across your post from being pointed to it on twitter as we were evaluating an opportunity to participate in an RFP. The RFP we received was excellent, well written, clear, and extremely formal. The downsides to it were that it was very demanding, and lacked a clear budget. In our line of work, budget expectations can range from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands. Budget alone was not the only concern however, and we modeled our own decision tree off of this article where this project scored a 48 out of a possible 100.

Given the investment needed to put together our proposal, along with a number of other factors, this article helped us through the decision of whether or not to participate in the RFP process. Thanks!

Hi, Great points. I also offered some advice on w...

2009-10-28T16:44:31.737-04:00

Hi,

Great points. I also offered some advice on writing great proposals in a blog posting at http://greenspringfield.com/?p=443. Hope it's also helpful to people.

Best,

Jeanne Yocum
www.yourghostwriter.com

Hi Greg, Thank you for the comment! I agree, RFPs...

2009-10-05T09:32:28.156-04:00

Hi Greg,

Thank you for the comment! I agree, RFPs aren't the only way to generate leads/sales. This article was a tongue-in-cheek swipe at those who continually decry the RFP process and actively blog about how it should be done away with. Typically those same people are employed by the larger firms in their sector with marketing and sales budgets greater than the annual sales of smaller firms who hunger for these leads. Please visit the other articles on our blog; this article is one in a series written on the subject of RFPs.

Best,

-David

Instead of comparing RFPs as 'the only way' and ga...

2009-10-05T09:25:24.030-04:00

Instead of comparing RFPs as 'the only way' and garbage marcom techicques, why not state how RFPs are part of the mix for both seller and buyer and hte pros and cons? Certainly they are not the ONLY way to conduct a purchasing cycle and they are certainly not the only way to generate leads/sales cycles. You seem like a a good business leader with a good service. RFPs are important---we should all know how to handle them successfully.

I used to hate RFP's, now I only mildly despise th...

2009-09-30T14:36:07.733-04:00

I used to hate RFP's, now I only mildly despise them. Thanks for helping David. Seriously, thanks.

Dave, Even though I hate RFP's - if clients took...

2009-09-08T09:17:45.107-04:00

Dave,

Even though I hate RFP's - if clients took this advice, I might actually consider responding. Great article.

Pete Monfre
Clarity Marketing Support
http://petemonfre.wordpress.com

Be sure to read all the great articles on RFPs ava...

2009-09-02T14:30:47.417-04:00

Be sure to read all the great articles on RFPs available on Purchasing.com! It's a great resource and we accept advertising as well (since David likes to promote his company on our site, figured we'd do the same!).

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2008-08-18T15:19:00.000-04:00

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