BonFX

Typography & Graphic Design Blog

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Blog
  • Books
    • The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations
    • The Big Book of Font Combinations (Classic Fonts Edition)
  • About
  • Contact
  • Store
You are here: Home / Graphic Design / When to ignore a Request for Proposal (RFP)

When to ignore a Request for Proposal (RFP)

January 25, 2010 by Douglas Bonneville

The “request for proposal” or RFP process for many small graphic design and web design firms is fraught with huge time-wasting and dead-end traps. Have you been caught up in the excitement of getting what seems to be great project opportunity from an established company only to find out “while your offer was compelling, for strategic reasons” they chose some other firm?

This doesn’t need to happen to you again. All you need to know is a few of the methods of a dyed-in-the-wool time-wasting information leach. You can identify and avoid them and get back to real work.

So who are they and what do they do? Watch out for the following behaviors — they are great indicators they are not going to award you any business no matter how much due diligence you put into their Request for Proposal:

They ask too many detailed or technical questions

This type of potential client is asking you too many questions about technical minutia from either “What font will you use?” to “What plugin in WordPress will allow us to do XYZ?” This kind of client is looking for, and getting, free consulting out of you if you answer their questions beyond a low-level, reasonable set of questions.

They ask for too many changes in scope in the RFP

You are being snookered if the potential client comes back to you somehow “smarter” than they were in your last call. They suddenly want to add something you knew they couldn’t have known about in your last email or call. Essentially, the potential client has gotten free consulting from another designer or firm, and is playing your knowledge against theirs. They play firm against firm for free information they would otherwise have to pay for.

They are impersonal

This is a sure sign they aren’t really interested in what you do, and the value you bring, to their web or graphic design project. You are a number, the project is already awarded, and the potential client simply has to have a certain number of responses to fill some interal quota for RFP’s.

They ask for spec work

If they ask for “some samples of your design work”, you have to wonder if they have been to your website at all. If they have not reviewed your online portfolio, just stop now and don’t waste another minute.

They don’t know the basic details about your company

I got this one recently after a “we’d love to work with you” call: they didn’t know where in the country we were located. Time to hang up.

They ask for too many phone meetings

Again, these types of potential clients know that they can educate themselves at your expense. They have no conscience about wasting your time. It’s amazing people like this have the nerve to call. They are armed with just enough information to be dangerous, and try to get you to fill the blanks for them. Once you sense this is the case, it’s time to say goodbye!

They want you to talk to their IT person “for a minute”

While this isn’t necessarily related to just the RFP problem, it’s one to look out for in the bidding process. This kind of “IT” person simply wants to pick your brain and ask you if you have ever heard of some obscure open source CMS or if you have ever been to so and so’s website. They will offer you some advice you didn’t ask for. Lovely. What this means is, that even if you do get the project, this person will be “helping” by “bringing things up” to the project leader (like how the background color has a non web safe color in the gradient, and that you should be using XHTML and not HTML 4.0 Transitional, or that your PNG is not compatible with MSPaint) and essentially drag all profit potential for the project right down the drain. This person has made a career out of not knowing how to actually do anything (since learning FrontPage in 1995), and sticking themselves in the middle of every new project that comes along. As long as the project managers know less than they do, they have job security. Stop now and hang up!

Further Reading:

  • RFPs are not for underdogs
  • Top 8 Sins For RFPs
  • Suppliers Ignore “Rigged” RFP’s

Filed Under: Graphic Design

About Douglas Bonneville

Douglas has been a graphic designer since 1992, in addition to software developer and author. He is a member of Smashing Magazine's "Panel of Experts" and has contributed to over 100 articles. He is the author of "The Big Book of Font Combinations", loves cats, and plays guitar.

Comments

  1. David Kutcher says

    January 25, 2010 at 2:40 pm

    Great title! I wrote a similar article a while back entitled “Not all Requests for Proposals are worth a proposal”: http://blog.confluentforms.com/2008/10/not-all-requests-for-proposals-are.html

    I think we all need to remember that RFPs are plentify, (see http://www.rfpdb.com for LOTS of RFPs) and that by being selective we can focus our efforts on the RFPs that we can win. Developing a go/no-go decision tree is often helpful in this regard: http://blog.confluentforms.com/2009/10/developing-your-gono-go-decision-tree.html

    Best,

    -David

  2. Keith says

    January 28, 2010 at 1:20 pm

    Weary old cynic that I am, when I read the title, “When to ignore a Request for Proposal”, I said out loud, “Nearly always!”

    Good points, Douglas. Another one you learn to spot is the client — often a small, start-up business — who has no budget and won’t reveal that to you (however hard pressed on the matter) until you have delivered your thoughtfully crafted proposal — whereupon he reveals he thought he could get his custom-designed, content-managed, standards-compliant, accessible, full-of-bells-and-whistles web site for £200! Including hosting, of course…

  3. Douglas Bonneville says

    January 28, 2010 at 1:41 pm

    @ Keith:

    “Nearly always…”. I think I’m in your camp. What is more golden than a good referral anyway. I think if I had invested the hours into marketing that have gone into RFP crafting, we’d have a lot more clients :).

  4. Shailendra Vijayvergia says

    February 1, 2010 at 6:50 am

    Yes, it is really painful to respond RFPs.

Trackbacks

  1. When to ignore a Request for Proposal (RFP) | Design Newz says:
    January 26, 2010 at 11:46 am

    […] When to ignore a Request for Proposal (RFP) […]

  2. links for 2010-01-27 « random thoughts and casual ruminations says:
    January 27, 2010 at 7:13 am

    […] When to ignore a Request for Proposal (RFP) (tags: freelance biz advice) […]

  3. Three Ways To Get New clients (or not) | Marketing, Public Relations and Social Media Blog | Atlanta, GA says:
    February 17, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    […] Show them samples from your portfolio, client references and referrals, white papers and case studies; give them a detailed, copyrighted proposal but not the full campaign complete with the “Just Do It” tagline or a free logo on spec. If they haven’t seen your online portfolio and profiles, another red flag. […]

  4. When to ignore an RFP « CGShark says:
    August 24, 2010 at 10:35 am

    […] To read about all of these potential pit-falls, visit the article at http://localhost/wordpress/when-to-ignore-an-request-for-proposal-rfp/. […]

Drink from your favorite Font Mug

HOW TO MAKE INSPIRED FONT COMBINATIONS (without spending all day clicking things).


Font Combinations Book  

On Sale Now at
Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Or get the PDF eBook version, INSTANT ACCESS, 40% off Retail, now at the BonFX Store

Subscribe to the BonFX Newsletter

Keep tabs on the latest typography and design books and apps from BonFX. If you subscribe today, we'll also send you the classic "Typography Primer" from Adobe!

Recent Inspirations

  • The Preposterously Huge Book of Font Combinations January 13, 2021
  • Rainer Maria Rilke January 2, 2021
  • Three secrets to ignite inspiration December 22, 2020
  • How to “Draw Out” Your Creativity November 27, 2020
  • Finding Your Voice as an Artist: The Paradox of Originality October 18, 2020
  • Artist Frederick Franck on Seeing September 15, 2020
  • How to Move Beyond Creative Blocks August 10, 2020
  • Claude Bernard: The Only Way to Learn July 25, 2020
  • Ornate Leaf Sculpture and Crochet Art by Susanna Bauer June 18, 2020
  • Negative Space: Saying A Lot With Nothing May 25, 2020
  • How to choose from among all your great ideas June 17, 2019
  • What you see is not always what you are looking at June 14, 2019
  • The Key to Unleashing Your Natural Creativity June 14, 2019
  • An Artist According to Mondrian June 14, 2019
  • Henry Miller: Forget Yourself June 14, 2019

Copyright © 2021 · BonFX

  • Blog
  • Books
    • The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations
    • The Big Book of Font Combinations (Classic Fonts Edition)
  • About
  • Contact
  • Store