//.rfp_policy
We'll answer your RFP on two conditions.
This is not a policy against process. It is a policy against the kind of process that wastes your time and ours, and hands the work to whoever had the most patience for paperwork.
We talk to the people making the decision.
Before we write anything, we need an hour with whoever owns the problem and whoever signs. Not a procurement inbox, not a Q&A spreadsheet. A conversation. If that is not possible, the decision has usually been made already, and we would rather know.
Strategy work is paid work.
Audits, pilots, roadmaps, and recommendations about your business are the product. We do not give the product away to win the chance to sell it. If your process needs strategy before a decision, we offer a fixed-fee discovery sprint. You keep the plan either way.
//.why
Why we draw the line here
Most RFPs for search and content work ask the same question in forty different ways: what would you do for us? Answering that well means doing the work. A real answer takes a week of research, a look at your data, and a point of view on your market. Multiply that by the eight agencies on your list and the RFP has consumed two months of free consulting, most of it from firms you were never going to hire.
The document also hides the thing that actually predicts success: whether the agency and the team can think together. You cannot learn that from a PDF. You learn it in a room, with the people who own the problem, arguing about what matters.
AI search makes this worse, not better. The channel is young, the playbooks are unproven, and the right answer depends on your data more than on any template. An agency that confidently fills in a strategy for a business it has never spoken to is telling you something about how it works.
//.what_we_will_do
How we'll take part
- If both conditions are met, we respond in full: approach, team, timeline, price, and a point of view on your problem, written for the people we spoke to.
- If they are not, we send our standard response packet. It answers the capabilities questions every RFP asks, with price ranges, so you can place us without either of us pretending.
- If you need strategy to decide, we offer a fixed-fee discovery sprint: the same audit we sell on its own, credited against the first month if you hire us.
//.run_a_better_one
If you have to run a process, run a better one.
Decide what you are deciding
Write down the problem, the budget range, and who signs before you write the questionnaire. If the team cannot agree on those three, the RFP will not fix it.
Shortlist first, then open the door
Pick three to five agencies worth talking to. Give each one an hour with the people who own the problem, and tell them the budget, the incumbent, and how the decision gets made.
Ask only what would change the answer
A 40-question capabilities form produces 40 identical answers. Five questions that expose how an agency thinks produce a decision.
Pay finalists for a short discovery sprint
Two weeks, a fixed fee, real data, a real deliverable. You see how each team works. The winner starts with a plan instead of a guess. The others leave with something they earned.
Check references last, and ask the hard one
Not whether they were pleasant. Ask what the agency got wrong and how they handled it.
//.faq
Questions we get about this
Is this just a way to avoid competing?
No. We will compete against anyone, in a room, on the problem. What we will not do is spend two weeks writing strategy for a document that nobody who signs the contract will read.
Our procurement process requires a formal RFP. Can you still work with us?
Usually, yes. Procurement requires a document. It rarely forbids a conversation. Set up thirty minutes with the decision maker and we will fill in the document after.
What is in the standard response packet?
Who we are, how we work, the services with price ranges, the measurement framework, the founder's talks and published commentary, and our case studies. Everything a capabilities questionnaire asks for, answered once, honestly.
What does the paid discovery sprint cost?
It is the same fixed-scope audit we sell on its own. If you hire us afterward, it is credited against the first month. If you do not, you keep the plan.
What if we already know we want to work with you?
Then skip all of this and use the contact form. We will reply with a point of view, not a proposal template.