You know the RFP the moment it lands.
The timeline's tight. The brief reads like someone else wrote it. Half the questions focus on capabilities you don't lead with, but you know exactly which competitor does.
You're not being evaluated. You're being used.
Somewhere, a CFO has told their team they need three quotes before they can sign anything off. You're quote number three. Maybe quote number two. Either way, the decision was made months ago. You're just here to make it look like a proper process.
Congratulations. You're the due diligence dickhead.
This didn't happen in the RFP
The agency that's going to win this? They didn't win it in the proposal. They didn't win it in the pitch. They won it six months ago when one of their team left a genuinely useful comment on a LinkedIn post. They won it when they sent over a case study that happened to be relevant, unprompted. They won it through months of being vaguely present, not pushy, not salesy, just there, until their name became familiar.
By the time the formal process kicks off, they're the safe bet. The known quantity. The one that doesn't require explanation when the CFO asks "who are these people and why should we trust them with $150k?"
You're not competing against their proposal. You're competing against months of accumulated trust and familiarity. That's not a fight you win with a sharper deck and a keener price.
We've all been there
Let's be honest: most agencies have played both roles.
You've been the due diligence dickhead, putting together a proposal you suspected was dead on arrival. You've also been the obvious choice, watching two other agencies go through the motions while you waited for the formalities to wrap up.
The difference between those two positions isn't capability. It's not even reputation, really. It's whether you were in the room, metaphorically, long before anyone started thinking about procurement.
You can't unf*ck six months in a fortnight
The instinct, when you realise you're the backup option, is to try harder. Better case studies. Tighter pricing. More senior people in the room. Maybe a fancy leave-behind or a follow-up video.