DG RFP's Don't Work

I was recently working with a client who had put out an RFP for a marketing automation solution and they were a little confused about the responses. All vendors indicated they had all the features and functions they were looking for! How were they to make a decision?

For more complex marketing and sales organizations, I don't believe that using the old tried and true software RFP approach for sourcing and selecting Marketing Automation is the key to choosing the right system for your company. Rather, it is a basic, standard part of the process and building Use Cases is what really helps a company determine what system will work best them.

Twelve months ago, we weren't seeing any RFPs in the Demand Generation space. But finally, our market is growing more sophisticated and I am seeing all kinds of RFP templates and processes. Don't get me wrong. RFPs provide a foundation for doing low level comparisons. But anyone can check off that they have a feature or function. It really comes down to how all this gets knit together to create an effective Demand Generation program. That's where building your own Custom Use Cases come into play. Areas to consider:
1. Describe your power user - If this is a part of their job, they are not too technically inclined and you need to get things done quickly and with a slim staff, you might want to look at systems that are easy to learn and use. What if that power uses leaves and no one else is trained?
2. Map out The Life of a Lead(s) in your company - This will give you a good idea of what your marketing automation system will need to do and what it will need to integrate with. This process will give you important details on your CRM integration requirements
3. Define your Lead Management System - how will leads be passed and what kind of SLA's will be put into place for sales and marketing.
4. Define the kinds of campaigns will you need to execute - Global or only US? Use of templates, dynamic content, triggers, lead nurturing etc.
5. Define the key metrics you will need to track
6. Based on the above activities, fully vet 3 - 5 Use Cases with envelope ROIs.

Feature comparisons will only get you so far in your decision cycle. To truely understand what you need in marketing automation, take the time to build and vet Use Cases. This also serves as your ROI justification to your executive committee and if you involve sales in this process (which you should), you will have early and active buy-in from your major consituent.

What have you seen?