We don’t believe in pitches or tenders for B2B services. They don't work. They are a 20th century way of doing business, based on an asymmetric world. In the digital B2B market, the world is symmetrical and so tenders are anachronistic. Why do we say this?
Tenders were a way by which customers could gain market information and test market pricing in a world where that information was hard to come by (knowledge was asymmetric). If your budget was big enough, you could run a tender and use it to gather information and ideas without paying an up-front fee. In the world before the Internet this route was as good as any.
Tenders were also all about commoditised and standardised offerings. However, they eventually became a waste of time. Smart organisations developed teams whose job it was to win tenders by being super aggressive on cost, and then other teams whose job it was to wriggle out of the tender (by substituting products or services for those in the tender). This process was known as “margin recovery".
Modern B2B business is conducted in a symmetric world. We're all equally capable of researching any subject on the Internet, so we don't need to run an RFP to educate ourselves about the options available to us. So information in modern B2B business is a given, and the difference is comes in collaborating with your client to develop the best solution. The best businesses do this well, and as a result, don’t need to tender. Many marketing services businesses now refuse to play that game. Yet, so many enterprise marketing departments are still stuck in old habits, and continue to run tenders and invite pitches, and because so many established agencies are trapped in legacy thinking, they continue to respond. The bright and the capable do not need to respond that way, and so they don’t. Tenderers are left with responses from the dinosaurs and the desperate, and who wants to deal with either of them?
So, if you're tasked with sourcing inbound marketing services for your organisation, what should you do instead of sending out RFPs?
3 Steps to Avoid B2B Tenders in the Digital Era
1. Research the market
Do the same thing you would have done to select a tender list, but do it the modern way. Research online and offline, and combine the results. Look for digital references and testimonials, research their social and digital footprint, and read their literature to get a view of their approaches. Find out who is active and talking about the things that you think are important, and who can help you achieve what you need to. In doing this, you can also get a better idea of a company’s culture and whether they could be a good fit. Offline, look to colleagues and peers for references. You will gain better knowledge of a marketing company through word-of-mouth referrals and you can learn from others’ personal experiences.
2. Shortlist and meet with two or three of them
Make contact with the teams that look like a good fit, not only in terms of what services they offer, but whether they would be a good cultural fit for your company. Have a round table discussion about their services, experiences, and your expectations. It is important to establish whether their thinking dovetails with yours and whether you can work with them as individuals at this stage.
3. Make a decision
Choose the business that best understands your company and your challenges. You ultimately want to work with a marketing service that can articulate both your challenges and potential solutions, build the right budget around a solid game plan, and carry out this strategy for you. In order to do that, everyone involved needs to be on the same page in terms of deliverables and expectations, as well as being able to work together on a personal level. Think of hiring a company in the same way that you would hire a new employee.
It’s a straightforward process and it allows you to use 21st century techniques to solve a 21st century problem. It also means that you are more likely to engage with smart, agile marketing organisations, who are more likely to be able to offer solutions to your challenges.
When you’re picking a marketing partner in 2016 it is vital that you get exactly what you need. This decision is too important not to do so. So as Sainsbury’s said – why not try something new today? If you’re on the lookout for a perfect marketing match, or looking to expand into the digital arena, let us know. We would love to have a chat to see how we can align to grow your business.
