Recently, the online retailer Zappos (www.zappos.com) decided to hire an agency. They put out an RFP to 16 agencies. Even 16 agencies seems like a lot. When word got out that Zappos was searching for an agency, lots of other agencies wanted the chance to pitch. In the end< Zappos said sure, why not and opened the pitch to more than 100 agencies. Apparently one of them (Ignited) was upset that Zappos did not seem to spend much time reviewing the pitch.
To evaluate even four agencies takes a lot of time, let alone more than 100! There is no possible way that anyone (or at least the add-on) agencies beyond the original 16 should really have expected to get serious consideration. In a process like this, it is just not practical for a company to go through that many proposals in any kind of detail.
In pitches I’ve been involved in, there are usually at most 5 agencies in the consideration set who may receive serious consideration from a client. From an agency perspective, how woud anyone think it made sense to be one of 100 agencies to pitch Zappos or most any other business for that matter? Granted, times are tough and if the agency has excess capacity, then maybe it makes sense to put some resources toward this pitch, however, pitching Zappos is likely to be unlike pitching most other accounts. Zappos has a unique culture, a unique way of operating and is extremely savvy in the socaial media space. They’ve run a huge affiliate program for years and have built one hell of a brand seemingly without to much outside help.
(Prospective) clients almost always get a great deal during the pitch proces cause they get some many cool new concepts and ideas. That just how the whole pitch process works. If they had sent out an RFP to 100+ agencies and not made that clear to all who received the RFP, then maybe the agencies would have a legitimate gripe about not getting as much attention as they would have liked. It sounds like the agencies all requested to be part of the selection process, to which Zappos agreed and informed the agencies of the tight turnaround time and the stiff competition.
Unless your company is going to spend a year evaluating agencies, there is no way it is worth trying to take the time to view proposals from 100+ agencies and even 16 may be a bit much. If you are an agency, chances are it is not worth your time to throw your hat in the ring when 100 other agencies are pitching for the same business unless it is to get your employees experience in developing pitch materials.
Finally, in ANY pitch in ANY business, the client is usually thinking WIIFM – What’s In In For Me? If that is not clear in the first few pages (or even first page) of a proposal or RFP response then the client will probably not continue through the proposal especially if there are 99 more of them to go through.
