Tender Spot
About this blog...Tender Spot aims to dish the dirt on some of the public sector tendering going on and get out in the open the practices being used within the public sector when procuring marketing and communications companies.
Putting Your Pants On All By Yourself
“We need some marketing input. I know there are agencies out there who specialise in this sort for thing, but it’s so difficult to find them. If only we had a procurement department…” said Nobody. Ever.
What is the point of Procurement?
You sure don’t need Procurement to find an agency. The merest rumour that you might have a fiver to spend on advertising or PR or whatever these days will result in a less than orderly clamour at your door.
You don’t need Procurement to choose from amongst these agencies either. When the Scottish Government, for example, gets around to selecting three agencies in September, they will almost certainly be the same three that their marketing people would have chosen anyway without the help of their procurement brethren.
You may say Procurement is useful to sort the wheat from the chaff. But only if you believe it would know its wheat from its chaff, can compare apples and oranges, separate the men from the boys, or meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.
You certainly don’t need Procurement to ensure value for money. Agencies have been undercutting each other’s throats for years trying to lure each other’s clients away. That’s the way capitalism works.
It’s not even as if they can be relied upon to choose the safe option. I give you Merrill, Barkers, Yellow M and even Faulds, all gone from Government rosters despite passing Procurement muster.
Of course, marketing isn’t everybody’s natural bag. If you have a financial background you may feel unqualified to choose amongst the silver-tongued snake-oil salesmen promising shiny new futures for your brand. When you spend all your time looking at cost, it’s sometimes a leap to start thinking about value. But isn’t that what you employ marketing people for? Why would you trust the judgement of Procurement over your marketing staff?
Procurement knows as much about marketing as it does about bricks. (Which it is also likely to be in the market for.) But bricks are commodities, so the buying decision is relatively simple. Thinking of design or advertising or PR as a commodity is like selling music by the minute. Never mind the quality, feel the bandwidth. And how about a volume discount?
How difficult can it be to choose an agency for yourself?
What exactly do you look for when you employ a digital agency, or a design agency, or an ad agency? Incisive thinking and planning? Creative excellence? Experience? More for your money? A face that fits? Somebody you can trust? Somebody who understands what you are trying to achieve, and who will commit to helping you achieve it?
It’s simpler than that. Do you like them? Can you work with them? Are you excited about working with them? That’s it.
These are human judgements. Judgements to which the completion of 32 pages worth of tick boxes, bank details and Human Rights Policies adds little. It’s personal. It’s emotional. And all the better for it. So in what way does sticking a whole department in the way help?
What exactly is the point of Procurement?
Answers please on a 32-page form.
Or leave a comment – always glad to spread the news.
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Comments
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''But bricks are commodities, so the buying decision is relatively simple.''
I think you underestimate the processes involved in the selection of the 'humble' brick which, incidentally, would be the remit of architects and specifiers.
The former will study for a period comparable to a Doctor before being let loose on a building site!
Mike Holt SLG Marketing
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I can't believe I'm about to do this, but.......I think there is a place for procurement in the agency selection process. Wait, stay with me.......those 'human judgements' mentioned above are massively important parts of the decision. People buy people, but someone needs to check that the agency is solvent and going to be around to support you, that the case studies and clients they boast are real, that the people you buy are the ones that are going to work with you and not disappear. So, yes there is a place for someone (let's call it procurement) to validate the decision about to be made but not to drive the decision. If you've ever been taken through how a tender is 'marked' then you will despair at the process and how it is designed to reward mediocrity, but that's a whole other debate!
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Mike, did I say bricks? I meant bog rolls.
And Tim, surely any organisation with any sense would carry out these checks before embarking on what is a business relationship. Not clear that a whole new industry had to be invented to do it. Your last point isn't a whole other debate, that IS the debate.
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'Mike, did I say bricks? I meant bog rolls.'
Is that an attempt to 'paper over the cracks' in your original article :-)
I'll get my coat.........
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@micha14224 No, carry on. You're on a roll.
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Procurement does have a role in the selection of creative services but, in much the same way as the bricks would require specification by a suitably knowledgeable person, so the creative services deserve the same treatment. Write the brief, discuss with the selected candidates before a formal shortlist is produced and, using that knowledge, identify where you can achieve best results for your budget. But there’s no short-cut to experience in this process.
Bob Melvin
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Tender Spot - don't be confusing me with someone who's defending procurement, oh no, not me sir. 'Surely any organisation with any sense' you say......unfortunately that is part of the problem, there are loads of them out there without the required sense, and how many of them don't do all that sensible stuff prior to launching into a relationship? Far too many. I'm not suggesting a whole new industry, just that someone, somewhere in the organisation does that stuff. So I think we're violently in agreement! Equally, I don't agree that your debate is about procurement rewarding mediocrity, I read your piece as being about procurement playing a needless and obstructive role in the process?
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@tim_newton I would argue that the inevitable conclusion of the procurement process is to homoginise and standardise the process which mitigates against agencies being able to show their true colours. So it levels the field in favour of the mediocre agencies. Anyway, as you say, I think we're in agreement, violently or otherwise!
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So, if I were summing up, then we'd say that there is a role for (some of) the discpline of due diligence of procurement, but not the (ridiculous) process of box-ticking and paper shuffling that destroys the ability to display why we're good at what we do, and yes favours the mediocre every time?
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Caveat emptor applies to all clients (even Governments) so obviously they'll want to conduct due diligence. But that's not really very onerous. We are now at a point where undue diligence is getting in the way of effective decision making.
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