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WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
INDECENT REQUESTS FOR PROPOSAL - So, you just got an RFP. Time to drop everything, assemble your A-team and feverishly get to work on your pitch—after all, this could net you a lucrative new client, right? Well…maybe. Probably not, actually. As Patrick Smith reports, a lot of law firms aren’t nearly as selective as they should be when deciding which RFPs to jump at and which ones to let go, resulting in headaches and heartache for no good reason. “In my experience, 70% to 80% of the time when a company issues an RFP, they already know who they are going to do business with,” said Guy Alvarez, CEO of legal marketing consulting firm Good2BSocial. “You are trying to get everything right, but it is really just a big waste of time.” He’s not kidding. Nancey Watson, a Toronto consultant and author of a book called, “The Silver Bullet—How RFPS Are Won,” told me when I wrote on this topic for ALM’s Mid-Market Report recently that she’s even seen companies send out RFPs to competing law firms simply because they were “ticked off” at their existing outside counsel and wanted to give them a bit of a scare. Don’t hate the players, hate the game.
