I’ve received, as I’m sure most people have, my share of form rejection letters. Plus, I keep a good mental record of anybody who’s ever blown me off or shown me less than professional courtesy.
Over at Ad Age’s Small Agency Diary, Peter Madden reports on one new business RFP and the rejection thereof:
The big deal was how this company, Cricket Wireless, a subsidiary of LEAP Communications, handled showing us the door. Oh no, good people — it wasn’t just a form letter. It was a form letter that had another agency’s name in place of ours.
They didn’t even take the time to cut and paste our agency’s name into the form letter. I wonder how much time they took to actually review our proposal?
When a 30-page, detailed proposal from an agency isn’t selected, I think the agency deserves an explanation. A detailed one at that. How else are you supposed to improve upon what was presented? RFP or not, when a company decides not to work with you, you’d be foolish not to get details surrounding the criteria process and where your agency didn’t match up. So my response to our marketing contact at Cricket outlined good wishes (I’m such a freaking sport) and a simple request: can we have a candid discussion regarding the criteria process and why we weren’t selected?
Shhh. Listen closely. Do you hear that? Me neither.
I love it. Sometimes a good public shaming is a good response, not to mention it’s cathartic. Call them out on their behavior. When you shine a light on the cockroaches, or in this case the Crickets, they scatter fast.
