If You Want Better Proposals, Write Better RFPs

Imagine you're building a new office.

You invite three contractors to bid on the project. Then you provide exactly three details:

We need a building.
We'd like it completed this year.
Please submit your plan and pricing by Friday.

Sounds ridiculous, right?

Any contractor worth hiring would immediately start asking questions. How big is the building? Where will it be located? What type of foundation is required? How many offices? What technology infrastructure is needed? What materials are preferred? Are we talking about a warehouse, a hospital, or a corporate headquarters?

Without answers, the contractor has two choices: guess or decline to bid. Most business leaders understand this instinctively when it comes to construction. For some reason, common sense disappears when hiring a creative agency. “We require a rebrand and a marketing campaign! Can you send us a proposal?”

Sure. For what?

[Creative Director’s Note]: Hey. James Ninness here. I’m the gentleman who has to make sure RFP responses are written effectively before they go out the door. So, I’m going to sprinkle in some thoughts throughout Rob’s blog. Are they necessary? Maybe not. Will they add a bit of additional context? I don’t know, dude. Let’s answer that when we get to the end.

I worked at Starbucks in college and when people came in and said, “Give me a coffee,” (yes, they do that) I’d just laugh in their face. I can’t do that now because I have a job that frowns on laughing at people, no matter how much they deserve it. Point is: I get what Rob’s talking about. So do you. Let’s keep going.

Agencies Need Blueprints Too

Contractors rely on architectural drawings to estimate labor, materials, timelines, and risk. Creative agencies rely on information. Different industries. Same problem. Before a creative agency can estimate a project, we need to understand the business challenge we’re being asked to solve.

Who is the audience? What are the goals? What does success look like? What has already been tried? What internal resources are available? What constraints exist? What are the deadlines? Without that information, agencies aren't building proposals. They're making educated guesses. And educated guesses are expensive.

If you're writing an RFP, provide enough context for agencies to understand the challenge. At a minimum, include:

Business objectives
Target audiences
Success metrics
Known challenges
Project timelines
Key stakeholders
Existing research

The goal isn't to answer every possible question. The goal is to eliminate unnecessary guessing. The more context agencies have, the better their recommendations become.

[Creative Director’s Note]: Ever seen a campaign that targets literally everyone? They’re always terrible. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I talk to TikTok influencers differently than I talk to grandparents. Unfortunately, when we’re not told who we’re targeting, we have to pull back the tone to make it as generic and approachable as possible, which usually means it’s forgotten and very not approached. RFPs deserve scalpels, not shotguns.

Scope or Budget. Pick One.

Here's a simple rule: If you want agencies to provide accurate pricing, you generally need an extremely detailed scope or a defined budget. Either one will do. Both are ideal. Neither is a problem.

Let's say your organization wants a new website. If you provide detailed specifications, site maps, integrations, functionality requirements, content responsibilities, accessibility requirements, and timelines, agencies can build a realistic estimate. No budget required.

On the other hand, if you don't know exactly what you require, that's okay too. Just tell agencies what budget you're working with. Now they can recommend solutions that fit within your financial reality.

Providing clearly defined scope or budget guidance helps agencies develop proposals that are realistic, comparable, and aligned with organizational goals. When neither is provided, agencies are left guessing.

Too many organizations withhold budgets because they're afraid agencies will simply spend every available dollar. In reality, budget guidance often helps agencies recommend the appropriate level of effort and avoid proposing solutions that are unrealistic from the start.

A budget range doesn't weaken your negotiating position. It improves the quality of the responses you receive.

[Creative Director’s Note]: The prevailing wisdom is to hide the budget so the agency doesn’t spend everything. That’s terrible wisdom. We can build a website, craft a campaign, or produce a video in, literally, an endless amount of ways. The best way to solve whatever problem you have depends on what you can afford and on our understanding of your problem. Detailed scopes or defined budgets are great—both would be best. Wouldn’t it be nice to choose from multiple RFP responses showing you their best?

Discovery Has Value

Here's the part many organizations overlook: occasionally the scope itself is the project. You may not need a website. You may need customer research. You may not need a rebrand. You may need a positioning strategy. You may not need a campaign. You may need someone to figure out why your current campaigns aren't working.

That's why discovery exists. Before architects design buildings, they ask questions. Plenty of questions. Who will use the building? What purpose will it serve? What difficulties must it solve?

Creative agencies do the same thing. At Mad Genius, some of our best work starts with a room full of stakeholders and a whiteboard. Before discussing tactics, budgets, deliverables, or timelines, we need to understand the business challenges.

Only then can we determine the right solution. If your organization isn't sure exactly what it requires, be honest about it. A good RFP can ask agencies to propose a discovery process before proposing a final solution. In numerous instances, that approach produces better outcomes than forcing agencies to estimate work that hasn't been fully defined.

Tell Agencies How You'll Choose

Here's another surprisingly common mistake: organizations spend weeks writing an RFP but never explain how responses will be evaluated. Will experience matter most? Price? Industry expertise? Creative thinking? Technical capabilities? Nobody knows. As a result, agencies emphasize different things, making proposals difficult to compare.

Help agencies help you.

Tell respondents what matters. If experience is weighted heavily, say so. If local presence is important, say so. If price is not the deciding factor, say that too. The clearer your evaluation criteria, the more relevant the responses become. And frankly, the easier your selection process becomes.

[Creative Director’s Note]: Know what’s fun? Spending 40 hours on the craftsmanship of a brilliant, emotionally resonant RFP response, then learning that 90% of the grading is based on the proximity of the agency to the RFP owner’s office.

That was sarcasm. I shouldn’t have used sarcasm to make my point. It just…hurts, you know? Stingy RFPs are corporate catfishing. I deserve better. We all deserve better.

More Information Produces Better Ideas

One of the biggest myths in the agency selection process is that withholding information creates better competition. Spoiler alert: It doesn't.

It creates wider guesses.

When organizations withhold budget, agencies propose different levels of effort. When organizations withhold scope, agencies make assumptions. When organizations withhold strategic context, agencies solve the wrong problem.

The result is a stack of proposals that are impossible to compare. One agency is recommending a bicycle. Another is suggesting a sports car. A third is submitting a private jet. Meanwhile, the client only wanted directions.

The strongest RFPs provide business context, project goals, success metrics, scope guidance, and budget parameters whenever possible. The result is more relevant proposals and a more efficient evaluation process.

Better Inputs Create Better Outputs

Let's stop pretending agencies possess magical powers. We're good. Not psychic.

The quality of the proposals you receive is directly related to the quality of the information you provide. So before issuing your next RFP, ask yourself a simple question: Would a contractor be able to estimate my building from the information I've supplied?

If the answer is no, don't be surprised when agencies struggle to estimate your project, too. Because whether you're building a hospital, a headquarters, a website, or a brand, somebody still needs the blueprints.

The best RFPs don't ask agencies for miracles. They provide enough information for agencies to do what they do best: solve problems. Give us the blueprint. Give us the budget. Or give us enough context to help create both.

Anything less is just asking professionals to guess.