Why would an agency refuse to respond to your call for tenders (and what can be done about it)?

Would you like to send out a call for tenders for your website redesign to several agencies and be sure that the best ones respond? I hope reading this article will help you achieve that goal.

1. You refuse to disclose your budget, even approximately (ballpark)

Wondering why it's important to disclose your budget? It's quite simple: it's a way for the agency to make sure it's offering you solutions you can afford. This is perfectly understandable if you don't know how much to invest. On the other hand, the agency wants to know if you have an approved budget. It's quite rare for a project to go ahead if the budget hasn't been approved by management. You may not know exactly what it is, but you certainly have a maximum amount in mind. It's reassuring for the agency if you give them a company-approved budget.

When you tell an agency that you don't know how much a website costs, it's very worrying. When you get to the end of the process and are surprised by the price, it's annoying for both parties. Mentioning a budget, even if it's approximate, can save you precious time.

If you refuse to provide it, you should at least give an idea of your turnover. What are your financial objectives and your expectations in terms of return on investment? Giving an overview of your sales generated by the website (if it's transactional) is good information to pass on. Because if you're asking for bids on how much to invest, agencies need to know the ROI potential of your project. For example, a company with sales of 1M is not going to generate the same return on investment as one with sales of 10M. So, if you don't want to or don't know what your budget is, you need to provide the agency with other financial information. This way, the agency will propose a budget in line with your business model, industry and possible return on investment.

Remember, an agency only wants to make sure it's THE right agency for your needs. They don't want to waste time, and neither do you. It's not because they want to make sure they take all your available budget. However, if that's how you feel, that's good, because you know what you have to do. Remove this agency from your list of bidders.

2. You refuse to provide information about other bidders

There's no need to provide the names of bidders if you don't want to reveal them. What the agency really wants to know at this stage is the profile of the other bidders. For example, are they large advertising agencies, freelancers, digital agencies, PR agencies or technology companies? How big are they? Why do we need this information? It's a way of knowing whether you've done your homework and are going to "compare apples with apples". If you've contacted small firms of less than 5 people or self-employed workers, price is probably an important factor for you. Here again, the objective is to ensure that the agency doesn't waste any time.

It's important to note that in public tenders, the list of agencies that have downloaded the tender is public. Mentioning other bidders is therefore good practice and a sign of transparency.

3. Too many bidders

If you're asking more than five agencies to provide you with a quote, it's a sign that something isn't quite right. It's likely that you haven't sorted through the agencies you've identified. So you're trying to look as widely as possible. And this is often a sign that you're looking for the lowest price, not the right partner.

So you have to make an initial selection based on price alone. This may not be your real intention, but some agencies can't afford to waste time on opportunities like this. We understand that these arguments don't hold water in public tenders.

Of course, we agree that there are many more than five agencies that can meet your needs. But it's not the best idea to ask for a dozen bids. Some agencies specialize in certain industries and will provide you with a much better return on investment. Others specialize in B2B and B2C markets. Still others specialize in e-commerce or inbound marketing. It's easy enough to identify the specialties of each agency.

The recommended method when you have too long a list of agencies is to contact them first to make sure they fully match what you're looking for. What's the point of asking an agency for a quote if you're not that keen to work with them, or if they don't have the expertise and experience to ensure your project's success?

This way, you won't just be saving some agencies time. You'll save time too. Because it takes a lot of time to analyze several service offers rigorously, without just looking at the price on the last page. It's more tedious than you might think. Limiting the number of bids to between 3 and 5 is good for everyone.

4. You don't provide enough time to respond

This point is somewhat related to the previous one, since if you don't give agencies enough time to respond, you're undoubtedly underestimating the time it takes. Otherwise, you're likely to be perceived as a client looking to pay the highest price and not really interested in the rest of the criteria. Good agencies are often overwhelmed, and if you don't give them enough time to respond, you're more likely to lose the opportunity to work with the best of them. What's more, it could give the impression that your choice of supplier has already been made, and that you're only asking for quotes out of obligation.

Good agencies try to spot this kind of company, those whose bidding process seems biased. It's likely that you're doing this to weed out agencies, since you're trying to limit the number of bidders. This is bad practice. In the end, you'll be the biggest loser in this tactic. After all, it's the best agencies, which are inevitably the busiest, that won't respond to your call for tenders.

5. Your project schedule is unrealistic

If your schedule is unrealistic and you don't have flexibility on deliverables, the best, most experienced agencies will pull out of the race. They know there will be pitfalls and won't commit to such a project.

Too often, agencies have had to take the blame for an error-ridden project because deadlines were unrealistic. Of course, agencies understand that meeting the deadline is probably very important to you.

In fact, agencies always want to have a deadline, since they don't like projects that go on forever. On the other hand, if you're not flexible about the delivery date, you should be open to dividing your project into two phases.

6. You don't give agencies a chance to present their bids to decision-makers

This argument doesn't hold water for the majority of government tenders.

Agencies want to have fun collaborating on a project and work with nice people. With equivalent skills, agencies will choose the people with whom they get on best.

If the two parties don't get the chance to meet (in person or virtually), it's often a sign that the collaboration won't work. It leaves agencies with the impression that you've already made up your mind, or that you're going to base your decision solely on price (not a good practice, in my humble opinion).

Aside from public tenders, in 18 years with Parkour3, we've never won a mandate without having had the opportunity to present ourselves. The only time we haven't been able to present ourselves is when we already knew the client, or when we'd been strongly recommended by a member of the decision-making committee.

An agency that doesn't get the chance to present its offer may feel that it's wasting its time, and that the customer isn't interested in getting to know it better.

7. You don't have an evaluation grid with weighted criteria

Transparency is essential in your decision-making process, and the evaluation grid is one of the most important elements to provide to bidders. It's a good way of building trust in your process. Agencies need to know if they are likely to win your tender. This will help them make the best decision.

Agencies that don't have many opportunities at the time you contact them may still decide to respond. But this is unlikely.

Not providing the evaluation grid and the weighting of each element may mean that your choice will be based on subjective reasons. Worse still, your choice may already have been made. With an evaluation grid, you'll benefit from being transparent in your process.

8. Your project and objectives are unclear

People who don't know where they're going will never get there. In these circumstances, there's a high probability that you'll be dissatisfied with the services provided. If your objectives and your project are not clear, it's very difficult to evaluate the costs and propose good solutions.
You may be tempted to be dazzled by agencies that propose extraordinary concepts! But if they're not aligned with your objectives and business model, you'll be on the wrong track. Without clarity in your project and precise objectives, failure is almost certain. It's not the agency's job to do this - you have to be part of the process. Of course, the agency will be able to support you, but it's essential to involve management in a strategic thinking process.

To help you do this, you can start a digital strategic planning process before embarking on a website redesign project. If you want to go through this process on your own,you can download the 50 questions to ask yourself when redesigning a website.

Download the 50 questions to ask yourself before redesigning a website

9. A lack of transparency and a seemingly preferred bidder

It's often due to a lack of experience, but sometimes in the bidding process, certain agencies receive exclusive information.

Usually, all questions and answers from different agencies are shared with all bidders. If you provide different information to different agencies, you run the risk of comparing apples with tomatoes. It often happens that certain deliverables are not detailed enough and are interpreted in different ways. This can have a significant impact on the price.

So, if you provide more detailed information to an agency that simplifies a deliverable, it's perfectly normal for that agency to quote a lower price, at least for that particular deliverable. In fact, it's a good idea to remove unclear functionalities and deliverables from the evaluation process.

It's perfectly normal that some deliverables can't be clearly detailed, since you're not experts in the field, unlike the agencies. There are solutions for these deliverables, often a little more technical and with a certain amount of uncertainty.

You can ask for the rates of a bank of hours, which will be used for deliverables that are a little less clear. You can also set a budget in advance. For example, $1,000 for the analysis of a deliverable that needs to be clarified with the selected agency.

Sometimes agencies have privileged access to some of your current platforms (such as Google Analytics or your CMS). If one agency has this access, all other bidders should have it too. Contrary to what you might think, in such a context, all agencies are at a disadvantage.

For example, if an agency has access to your CMS, it may be more aware of the complexity of your database and likely to submit a higher price. Basically, the other agencies don't really know what they're getting into... This can create a problem during the mandate, as the agency may propose substantial budget additions.

10. You ask the agency to work for free

It's no longer common practice to ask an agency to design mock-ups prior to the project. Even less so to ask for a strategic focus. Sometimes the objectives are not clearly identified, and the company asks for graphic mock-ups.

How can an agency provide mock-ups for a company it doesn't know?

Companies asking for strategic advice, without the agency having taken the time to understand their challenges and objectives, is very strange.

Fortunately, with all the efforts the Association des Agences de Communication Créative (A2C) has made to raise client awareness, it's increasingly rare to receive this type of request in calls for tender.

Agencies will still present you with mock-ups, and this can be dangerous, as it's extremely subjective. You'll be dazzled by the mock-ups, but you'll forget other criteria that are extremely important to the success of your project.

You want to know what the agency can do, but their portfolio isn't enough for you? Offer them a budget envelope to produce a mock-up.

Provide the same brief to all the agencies selected in the final round, which involves 2 or 3 agencies maximum. If the agencies know they're among a small number of finalists, they'll accept a token budget. Remain courteous and professional with the last agencies on the list, as you may be calling them back in 3 to 5 years, when you launch a new project.

We advise you to read the article on the pitfalls of speculative work published by A2C, which we fully agree with.

To help you,you can download our web design tender template.

Download thetender template for website design.

As I mentioned above, if there's a problem with one or more of the information listed, it's not that serious. On the other hand, if you don't provide any of the information included in the 10 points mentioned, the best agencies will certainly not respond to you, and you'll be wasting a lot of time.

Of course, if you've already chosen your agency and have to go through a tendering process simply out of obligation, your choice is unlikely to change, since you won't receive anything very convincing.

Choosing an agency may be more complicated than you thought after reading this article. But rest assured, it's much harder to work with the wrong partner and have to start all over again in 1 or 2 years' time because your new website doesn't fully meet your needs and objectives.