Winning The Project Can Be More Art Than Science

“You can’t win ‘em all.” In fact, we’d be in trouble if we did.

Being on the losing end of a decision is always disappointing. Sometimes there are forces at work beyond your control:

The Real Decision Maker(s) are protected
The Real Criteria on which the decision is finally made is not in the brief, and
Creativity, Process, and Experience may not be among them.

A few thoughts:

The Real Decision Maker(s)
Who are “they” anyway? We don’t often know until the decision call comes. We’ve never met with or spoken to most of “them” and “they” don’t know us. We were once involved in a capabilities review of R.BIRD shared via WebEx among several locations across the country. One of the prospective client participants would only be referred to as “Purchasing” and contact information was not provided. Why is “purchasing” participating in creative reviews?

The Real Criteria
We went through a very thorough qualification process with a fast-growing convenience store chain. They called. Loved our work. Knew our history. Knew some of our clients. Sent us a very detailed brief. We presented our capabilities. We received the RFP. We made first cut to the top three out 10 national firms being considered. When the call came, we were told that “they” were concerned about our experience in retail. Nowhere in the brief, including the section titled,”criteria for selection,” was the word, “retail.” Had we known, we could have easily focused both our qualification steps and the project recommendations.

Creativity, Process, and Portfolio.
Creativity, Process and Portfolio is always why R.BIRD is called in. That’s where the interest comes from. It’s where all the discussions are focused. It’s 80% of the project mission. It’s at the heart of the client problem in search of a solution. Unfortunately - (this is how it ends) - project decisions can be made on other points: location, size, conflict of interest, familiarity, vacation schedules. This phenomenon is the one that concerns me. When searching far and wide for creativity, why choose to go with the office around the corner? When the past is no longer working and the future demands brand or product reinvention, why choose to go with what’s familiar? When courage is required, why choose comfort?

There are 7 comments so far | Post a comment

Dylan Berry | Oct 13, 2005

In the small amount of experience I have, I’ve found that sometimes a brief phone call or email can clarify the criteria more than an entire RFP. Face to face communication is even more effective if it can be done.

The creativity process is the aspect I struggle with the most. Courage over comfort indeed.

Mark Annese | Oct 13, 2005

In the client/project pitch processes that I have been through, I have learned a few things about the decision. It does not come down to how good the design is, or how good the technical solution is. I would say at least 75% of the decision comes down to how does that client feel about you when you walk out the door after your presentation?

As for random people being involved in an interactive decision, One client we pitched was an international company that has been around for over 70 years. Well established and respected. The decision maker was the CFO (and this was not an ecommerce project).

For me the great leveler becomes perception about the company. Just food for thought ;)

romeo | Oct 15, 2005

I have found to be true that some clients in the end will go with their gut feeling…

They might use the brief and experience to narrow down but then go with who ever they sensed a better vibe.

Richard, being the client you mentioned a convenience store chain, wasn’t the retail thing kind of implied? Did it need it really to be on the brief?
I ask with a will to learn, not to criticize.

Richard Bird | Oct 16, 2005

romeo: Good question about the retail thing being implied because the client was a convenience store.

Generally, the term “retail” is used when the owner of the store is also the owner of the brands and the products sold in it.

We were approached on the basis of our brand packaging experience alone, without preference to its environment.

And, about going with “the gut”: Absolutely true. I once attended a professional workshop moderated by a panel of client-side design managers sharing their advice on how to improve one’s chances of winning the project. At the end of the afternoon, one of the three panel members confessed that they almost always already knew who they were going to go with before the RFP responses came in. The other two panelists concurred.

Mark | Oct 26, 2005

And what about response to visuals?

Our prospect (Theatre) invited us to visit to discuss her web site development plans. She also invited 2 other agencies.

We persuaded her that it was in fact a good idea to write a brief and she asked us to give it the once-over before it was sent our formally to all three agencies. We did. She decided that she didn’t need to see specially prepared visuals as she was not providing a creative brief.

We responded to the brief - and it really was brief – with an imaginative objective-focused proposal that came in well under her budget.

The two other agencies included visuals. The prospect rang us to say that we now needed to provide visuals to remain in the pitch and that our written proposal was the best of the three. She told us that the two sets of visuals she had received were wide of the mark each side. One was too flashtastic and the other too corporate. We were given the opportunity to provide something in between and seal the deal.

We wrote/guessed a creative brief and submitted what we feel were some of the best pre-contract home and internal page designs we’ve ever sent out.

The decision went against us.

Having started from a point where past creative work would be sufficient, the prospect allowed unsolicited design work – in the absence of a creative brief – to be the primary decision making criteria.

Should we

a) decline to provide visuals if there isn’t a creative brief

b) always provide visuals regardless of a creative brief?

In some ways we are relieved. The budget wasn’t huge and we now have a lower level of respect for the professional ability of the person for whom we would ave been working.

Mark

R. | Oct 26, 2005

“Visuals”?!

This is one of the oldest tricks in the books, Mark.

The prospect you’ve cited in your story has received free design concepts - in exchange for what they surely presented as a “big opportunity,” (if not now, then “later”).

Never, ever, should anyone respond to such a request. R.BIRD never has and never will. It does not matter what the promise is… because it is merely that.

Limit your proposal to the facts. Don’t confuse your proposal documents with your art. They are separate.

In my experience, there’s an inverse relationship between time and effort involved in presentation of a proposal and frequency of win. Our most lucrative relationships did not begin with 35-page documents and “proof-of-concept” visuals.

R. | Oct 26, 2005

One more thing…

If you’re serious about learning good practices in the business of art, I highly recommend a subscription to David Baker’s newsletter, Persuading, regardless of your practice area. It’s not inexpensive, but what’s the cost of any one lost opportunity?