AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY APPROACH TO ORGANIZING TENDERS (Pt.2)
What can you advise to managers of companies organizing a tender for an event?
Preliminary analysis.
Assess how well the agency corresponds to the format of the event and your planned budget. All you have to do is look at the agency’s portfolio or call the manager and talk. If the agency mainly organizes private events and weddings, then inviting them to organize a corporate event for 500 people will not be entirely reasonable.
The same thing, if you have a small budget, it will be enough to make a preliminary request to the agencies and find out the minimum cost of their services without requesting the development of a proposal. In this way, you will weed out some of the agencies that are not initially suitable for you.
Objective comparison.
Try not to combine companies that are too different in level within one tender. As a result, you may receive a wide range of prices, and the quality and level of services described in the estimate will not be obvious to you. Moreover, in such complex specific areas as decor and technical equipment, the content and quality of execution of which you will understand only in the process of work, and sometimes only on the day of the event.
Reliability.
Check the company for financial risks first. High turnover and profitability of the company are a good indicator for entrusting the agency with work on a large-budget event. In this case, the creditworthiness of the agency plays an important role.
Check the agency’s reputation and find out reviews about their work and their clients.
Ask about the work approach and coordination. Will visualizations provide detailed estimates during the work process?
Find out how many people work in the agency, and whether the agency has its own team.
You will be surprised, but sometimes the name “event agency” hides a “one man show” and you risk getting service at your event from assembled freelancers with low loyalty to the agency with which they cooperate, and even more so in relation to you and your event.
Confidence.
To prevent the tender process from becoming a complex and lengthy process, reduce the scope of requirements at the tender stage. Determine what is truly important to you. Of course, every detail is important in an event, but at the stage of a free tender, where you do not yet know who you will work with and what final result you want to get, limit yourself to the minimum that is necessary to make the first decision. And remember that during the tender you do not choose the final product. You choose a partner who has aroused more trust in you or whose approach is closer and more understandable to you.
Transparency.
Hiding your budget in hopes of getting a better deal is a thing of the past.
Only revealing all the cards at the initial stage will help you achieve your desired goal with greater efficiency.
How does the SHINE team approach tenders?
I would like to note that our team is sympathetic to clients who need help formulating a request. We carefully consider the decision to participate in a tender, assessing our capabilities and risks before starting work on the proposal. But we are always happy to have an open dialogue, and sometimes, by refusing to participate in a tender, we provide the client with another service, namely, we advise him in the process of communication upon request and refer him to agencies that will suit him in the implementation of his task. We are interested in moving together with the client towards environmentally friendly consumption of human resources.