Post #3 from Seth Godin's blog this week.

No, I am not on Seth's payroll. Stop asking me.

Here it goes:

The first rule of b2b selling:

If it gets to the RFP stage, you lost.

Great business to business marketers (and profitable ones) make the sale long before that happens.

The RFP is an organizational punt, it's a way of saying, "it's all a commodity, we can't decide, cheap guy wins."

The cheap guy, of course, never wins.

Yes, yes, and yes. If you don't already know this, learn it now and remember it always.

And by the way, the best agencies/contractors/consultants/whatever will ALWAYS turn down RFPs. Here's why: If we have to audition for you, a) you don't know what you want, b) you don't care enough about it to know who the best man/woman for the job is, and c) a and b together = you wasting our time. End of story.

Seth scores again.

Labels: b2b, brand valuation, building value, RFP, Seth Godin