REDEFINING THE RFP, PART TWO: Revolting, Frivolous, Preposterous?

Admittedly revolting, frivolous, and preposterous were not the words I received in response to the existing RFP process in Part One, but similes. Universally (and I received a lot of input) no one defended the process as we know it to be now.

I am going to refer to a very thoughtful correspondence I received from Kate Patay, an event industry consultant, as she summarized what so many of you readers have shared... the process has to change.

1.We are in a fully transparent world. No one can hide anymore. Nothing can be hidden anymore.

2. Time is money. And we are being wasteful of both.

3. Kate closed with an Oprah quote that resonated: "Let excellence be your brand... when you are excellent you become unforgettable. Doing the right thing, even when nobody knows you are doing the right thing, will always bring the right thing to you."

     

      Should we assume that the purpose of an RFP should be to discover excellence? As written, they are now designed to discover mediocrity or lack of relevance. Am I wrong?

So why is this happening? Companies are sending out blanket RFPs. They lack real information. They lack an achievable goal. And they are not designed to discover the core competency of the responder. In many cases, they are designed to give a budget number that can be compared to other responders' budget numbers.

Let me tell you a story... a true one... I was asked to present my response to an RFP to a committee. I walked into a conference room and handed out my proposal and immediately saw that almost all of the committee had turned to the budget tab in this beautifully constructed document filled with photos and renderings. So, I sat down. Obviously puzzled, my contact said, "Aren't you going to present your proposal to us?" My response was, "No, I'm not." And then I shut up. Everyone got very uncomfortable until my contact said, "But you're here to give us your proposal for this event, aren't you?"

I politely responded with, "That's what I thought I was going to do. But it is obvious to me that all you care about is where the dollar sign and decimal point fall and how much it will all cost, but so far I haven't seen that you're interested in what design ideas, concepts, or value you are getting for those dollars. So if you have no idea what you're buying for the money I've quoted, then there's no point in my presenting anything to you. If you'd like to close the budget page and hear what I'd like to do and why, and why every cost brings value to your project, then I'm happy to present to you." Note: they closed their books and listened. I won the business. At least that time. 

So the question remains: is an RFP a demand for the best creative idea (and this brings on an entirely different discussion) or is it designed to filter through prospective companies and find the one best suited for collaboration? And how do we do this if we do not have enough information about the project to appropriately answer the RFP and be relevant?

Shouldn't clients return to the information pipeline and understand how crucial it is to give out concrete information? Why? So that when those of us choose to respond (and yes I believe we should choose based upon the quality of the RFP) we can showcase our strengths and what we bring to the table when we make that choice. We can only do that if we know what we are being asked to do in specific detail. 

All of that is very general, isn't it? Read Part One and some of those questions will be addressed. 

Moving forward and continuing this discussion, I would love to get the input of some of the corporate planners who issue RFPs to find out the following:

1. When you are asked to bid out a project, are you being challenged by time? (This is an assumption, of course, that a planner or procurement department has some other department or person with a need, and you are responding to that need on their behalf.)
2. How often do you cut and paste your inclusions versus creating an original document?
3. How much of what you ask for are you actually reading?
4. If you send out an RFP to 10 companies (or more), are you reading all of them page for page, line by line in consideration of the great amount of time and money it took to respond?
5. Do you send out RFPs even when you know who you are giving the business to in advance?
6. Do you ever pay for companies to respond to an RFP and send you a creative proposal?
7. What would you like companies that receive your RFPs to know about the process you go through to qualify them?

       Join in here folks... it's the topic of the day, and it's up to us to find a way to solve the problem we've all helped to create. Let's not complain. Let's find ways to fix this. Thoughts anyone?     

Andrea Michaels is the founder and president of Extraordinary Events, an international, multi-award-winning event agency based in Los Angeles. She is the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life. She may be reached via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.com.

REDEFINING THE RFP: IS IT "REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL" OR "RECIPE FOR DISASTER"?

RFPs have lately brought about a lot of discussion, mostly criticism actually. Do we want to respond to them? Do we not want to respond to them? What if we respond to them, and they do nothing more than cost us a lot of money with no positive results?

Proposals are getting way more expensive to produce for those of us who want to stay in the game. No longer a wordy “paint me a picture” descriptive, but rather detailed information and financial statements, pages and pages of qualifications, and more.

Never being lost for an opinion, here’s mine, and I welcome yours.

Let’s teach our clients how to design an RFP, because they are pretty “iffy” right now. Here’s what I think we should require:

1. Name the client (specifically)... not only the company name but the specific division (or product).

2. Don't give me pages of information about the product. I have to assume that if I'm qualified to respond to an RFP I am intelligent enought to do homework on the company, the brand, and the product that has been revealed.

3.Do give me your objective for the activity.

4. Let me know how many companies will be receiving the RFP (if more than three, I'll probably decline) and let me know why you contacted me (the source of referral).

5. If there are any reasons, geographic or otherwise, that can be defined that would eliminate me from consideration (the prospect client only hires local companies), I want to know.

6. Define payment terms clearly... I won't bid on a job of a million dollars if you pay 120 days net.

7. Let me know any other financial information before I decide to accept the RFP... i.e. "We only pay $15 per diem in Napa."

8. Give me some history if this is a legacy event, provide photos, film, anything that is helpful. If you want examples of similar events, then be specific about your event so I can be "similar".

9. Tell me who the decision makers(s) is/are.

10. Tell me the specifics of how you'll base your decision; qualifications? Budget? Creativity?

11. Give me a budget, a true budget, not a "don't want to stifle your creativity" budget.

12. Give me the name of a real person with whom I can talk. I do not want to respond to an RFP and never be able to visit in person (or minimally reach on the phone).

13. If you give me an opportunity to ask questions, then answer them privately and not in a group email. Maybe I've asked some that a competitor would not have thought of.

14. Make the RFP short and to the point. Send it only to companies that you have pre-qualified.

I’m quite sure that you, readers, can add substantially to this list, and I invite you to do so. If we are unhappy with the RFP process, and we all seem to be, then let’s educate our clients on how to make them more productive. And clients, if you are reading, then don’t send out a blanket RFP that has been used for another event, asking for information that you don’t need or won’t read. Our time is just as valuable as yours; our money is probably more valuable as you are not spending it putting together an RFP response, and we are. So look at it this way, client, if you ask 20 companies to prepare a bid that requires them to spend $10,000 in time and expenses, and you are only considering three as viable options, then you have wasted $10,000 each for 17 companies who can ill afford it.

We are no longer in a day and age where we can spend either time or money needlessly, so let’s join together (client and supplier) and come up with a way to streamline this process. Let’s stop complaining and let’s start changing.

Andrea Michaels is the founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a Los Angeles-based, international event agency, and the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life.  Andrea may be contacted via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.com

8 Tips to Get More Referrals for Your Event Business

If your event business is new or struggling, or you just want to expand your reach, the easiest and least expensive way to grow it is through referral marketing, but how do  you get happy clients and attendees to talk about you? Try these tips. Read more at:

http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/tips-more-referrals-event-business#B6X4jKf08Iai4IyJ.99

This article has been reprinted with permission of its author, Christine R. Green, and EventMB. You may reach Christine R. Green via christine@christinergreen.com.

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Andrea Michaels is the founder/president of Extraordinary Events, a multi-award-winning international event agency based in Los Angeles. She is the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower – Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life. You may reach Andrea via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.com.

What Is Your Headline and Does It Tell Your Story?

Almost no one (except my true and loyal friends) read my blog last week. In case you don't remember it (because you probably didn't read it), here was the headline: "Brand DNA Curated Through Bespoke Ideation."  

It was very intentional, and I didn't expect that many would read past the headline. Why? Because it had absolutely no meaning. Yes, it had buzzwords. Individually those words are being used a lot. Together, they made no sense. Yet in every presentation I see those words repeated over and over again. Getting to the point, why would I want to illustrate uselessness?

Because if you don't understand someone's point in a blog, you don't read it. And the headline is the first announcement of what the "story" is all about. Words are to be used intentionally and should be easily understood. In writing, and while spoken. Of course it's hard to evaluate why people stop reading, but it's very observable when they stop listening. And if they don't understand what you are saying, they definitely stop listening.

As a child I was brought up in a household of non-English speaking immigrants. Their friends were from all over the world, and they, too, didn't speak English. Or, at least at first. So me, going to school in the U.S. did speak English, but I learned that to communicate with my parents and their friends, I had to speak slowly and clearly and use words that were easily understandable. Notice I didn't say speak more loudly, which always amuses me, as people tend to think that being loud they can be more easily understood. 

Back to the point and fast forward many years. I have the opportunity to speak to many international audiences, and those lessons serve me well. I speak slowly and carefully, and I speak in first, headlines and then I tell stories. By doing that, I am easily understood. I give the non-English speaking person time to listen and absorb first the headline, then the story. Because, everyone, it is not all about what you want to say. It's about what you want "them" to understand.

Now that works when everyone speaks the same language, too. My tips:

• Always speak slowly.
• Always have a headline.
• Always use words that anyone can understand.
• Stop and give some pause-and-reflect time, even if only for seconds.
• Don't use useless and meaningless words of no substance or no one will read your blog either.

Andrea Michaels is the founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a Los Angeles-based, international event agency, and the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life.  Andrea may be contacted via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.com

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BRAND DNA CURATED THROUGH BESPOKE IDEATION

So you are probably reading this title and asking yourself "what the heck does she mean?" AHA! Mission accomplished. I have no clue what this means yet every piece of marketing material and every presentation (live or in print) uses many of these words and most mean nothing. That's my point.

Clear communication with words that everyone can define and understand along with a good story or examples that support that story is all that matters. So let me give you two examples:

1. Live presentation that I was a part of with a PP accompanying it. "We understand your brand's DNA." WHAT? It was for an automotive company. The vehicle does not have DNA. Living organisms have DNA. Later in the presentation: "Bespoke offerings"... WHAT?

2. Another live presentation that also had visual support: "We want to understand what your company (or organization) wants to achieve with this project; be clear on your expected outcomes; and hear the message you want to deliver." With those clear statements, we can respond and can give clear examples of similar projects, stories that exhibit experience and challenges, and how they were met. In clear and simple words.

I have often seen a client pretending to understand the first presentation, but reading their faces knew they were mystified yet had to pretend to understand a slew of overused and pretentious words in order not to seem uneducated in the terminology. It also led to few questions as no one knew what to ask.

So what's my point? If you write, write specifically. "Beautiful stage set" means nothing. "Fabulous speaker" means nothing. Who and what and always, ALWAYS why.

Your thoughts?

Andrea Michaels is the founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a Los Angeles-based, international event agency, and the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life.  Andrea may be contacted via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.com

DISRUPTING TEAM BUILDING: A DINOSAUR IN THE AGE OF THE SHARED EXPERIENCE

You have all (I hope) read my revolutionary stance on ROI, ROE, etc. So I now invite you to join me in throwing team building into the junk pile of antiquated events and embrace, instead, the world of "shared experiences." Why? Of course you are asking that. Isn't team building vital to the corporate culture?

In a world where virtual reality, augmented reality, devices of various kinds (toddlers learn to live in a solitary world, tablets in hand so they can play games that have no human interaction), how can we inflict a team culture on people who hardly know how to communicate without typing (or is that a word that is antiquated too)? I like virtual reality, and I've even recently experienced new augmented reality. They are fun and amazingly inventive technologies. Though you experience new worlds of imaginative possibilities, you do so alone. They are isolated and solitary. What, may I ask, is wrong with "real" reality? Where you are in the present, and even in the company of others?

I am not sure that a scavenger hunt or building a cardboard boat on a beach or even a trust fall truly creates a team concept. I do think that the sharing of your story, inviting people to get to know you, and you wanting to get to know them is a unifying force. It can be done in a group. It can be done one-on-one. It is called bonding.

Participating in a project for a greater good, being charitable, and doing it together may not create a "team"... but it will create a spirit of shared experience that will live on long after climbing a telephone pole, being cheered on by people you may or may not know or even see again.

Sharing is a potent experience. And though we can do some form of sharing on tablets, the face-to-face experience cannot be replicated on a computer screen. Virtual hugs, approving smiles, gentle handshakes or handclasps, nods of understanding... all lead to a better place. It's called friendship. It's called relationships. It's called human to human communication.

Being part of a team somehow sounds competitive to me. Sharing an experience does not. What do you think?

Andrea Michaels is the founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a Los Angeles based, international event agency, and the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower: Lessons in Business: Lessons in Life. Andrea may be contacted via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.com.

ROI, ROE, R U even Relevant?

Much has been made of those acronyms. Personally I'm not sure I do find them relevant. What exactly is a return on investment? And why would it matter? We are always in the position of investing, whether in ourselves, someone else, a group. Are the results truly measurable when oft times we have a long wait to find out cause and effect?

For instance, to motivate a group of salespeople you create a contest that involves a trip if that salesperson sells a lot. You invest in the development of the contest, and then the program. And what exactly do you measure? The ratio of the earnings of the salesperson to the cost of the activity? Or is it about the trip forming a community of winners who can then motivate each other and eventually others as well? And how long would that take? When do you take the measurement?

Return on Experience... Return on Education... again, what's the measure? You provide education and you can, of course, test the retention or study how it has been applied. But when? Immediately or is it possible that a person learns something that might be valuable at a far distant future and has a true effect on some outcome? When might that be and how could it be measured? What's the return on "experience," and how is it measured? By smiling faces? By positive Instagram and Twitter postings (Sorry, I'm old-fashioned and don't know what today's latest channels are).

My measures come from hearing that people feel valued, have felt that they've had a great experience, or have been educated or motivated. I get that from talking to them in the here and now and truly listening to what they have to say. Far better than surveys or extensive studies on those acronyms.

I would love to hear YOUR thoughts on these rebellious ideas.

Andrea Michaels is the founder and president of Extraordinary Events, a Los Angeles-based, international event agency, and the author of Reflections of a Successful Wallflower:Lessons in Business; Lessons in Life. Andrea may be contacted via amichaels@extraordinaryevents.com.