Research providers hate a bad RFP (request for proposal). Unfortunately, bad RFPs are a lot of what they see.
Blame the purchasing people if you must. But when communications professionals understand how to think about their own research needs and specify useful parameters, they’re far more likely to get real value for their research dollars. Here are tips for creating an effective RFP for research services.
1. Know where you’re headed. You need to think about at least three goals: a business goal, a communications goal to support the business and a research goal to support the communications.
“Corporate communications needs to get more involved in the process and make sure that goals are clearly articulated,” says Katie Paine, CEO and founder of KDPaine & Partners. “I sometimes wonder if the PR people read their own research RFPs before they go out. It should be like a survey—they should test it first.”
Get important internal stakeholders—e.g., your colleagues in marketing, sales, HR and the executive suite —involved in articulating the goals. If you can see a line straight from research to communications to business outcomes, there’s no mystery later about what you’re supposed to measure to determine success.
2. Determine the essential missing knowledge, and how it will drive decisions. What exactly do you need to know to move forward? It may be facts, attitudes, opinions, likely behaviors, strategies, tactics or messages. The research should be applicable to specific public relations, communications or marketing decisions.
It takes serious homework to understand what relevant and reliable knowledge is already available at little or no cost—inside your organization and outside as well. This may include competitive, historical and trends analysis. Only then can you say what original research is needed.
Don’t hold back any of this from the researchers. “If you provide the right kind of information in prepping them, they’ll be more likely to understand the subtleties of your organization,” says Lou Williams, chairman of The Lou Williams Companies.
3. Be specific about the research techniques you have in mind. Whether you want all responses to follow the RFP exactly or you’re open to creative direction, tell the researchers. “Too many times, we are given a request to bid and we are not consulted on the steps that are necessary to properly design the research,” says David Michaelson, president of Echo Research.
State what needs to be done and how the research results are to be reported. Get into actual methods (ie. target audience, how they will be recruited for the research, locations and languages) if it’s your intent to be that specific.
“But give the responding firms a chance to showcase their strengths,” recommends David Geddes, VP of research and development at Evolve24. “Set up a process for handling questions that is fair to all.”
4. Be familiar with critical capabilities of the researchers. Many research providers specialize by technique (focus groups, surveys, panels, media analysis, communications audits, etc.); by industry (healthcare, energy, nonprofit, etc.); or by geography or language. Ask for résumés for key people and subcontractors.
In turn, make clear your selection criteria, process and the decision team.
5. Timing is everything. “Provide a time frame for the research,” says Mark Weiner, CEO of PRIME Research North America. “Provide important milestone dates in the RFP, and what is to be delivered when.”
Old knowledge isn’t worth much, but unreasonable demands and deadlines are no good either. If timing dictates that some research techniques simply aren’t feasible, construct your RFP accordingly.
6. Be up front about the budget. Disclose how much you have to spend. Otherwise providers may put great time and effort into responding only to find that their best ideas require much more than you can spend. Be specific about the payment schedule, and expect to pay part in advance.
Before going out with an RFP, explore whether other parties (internal or external) might also use the research and share the costs.
7. Prepare for the future. “Think about the prospective partner’s ability to scale up or down,” says Weiner, in a final word. “Research gains value over time, but you’ll lose continuity if you have to change research partners.” PRN
CONTACT:
Frank Ovaitt is EVP at Makovsky + Company and CEO Emeritus of the Institute for Public Relations. He can be reached at [email protected].