Team alignment. This can be more complicated than anticipated.

Teams have different priorities. People have different opinions. There's internal politics, feelings, and dynamics to navigate. It takes a ton of time, cross coordination and honesty among teams and stakeholders.

We get it, sometimes this is easier said than done. But, it needs to be done.

Jumping into an RFP without a clear understanding of this will be an absolute waste of time, energy and money for you and every agency included in your RFP process. And, you’ll end up with an agency partner that’s not a fit for your business.

Before you write a brief, build an agency shortlist, or launch anything, get clear on:

• Scope: What services are included and at what capacity?
• Budget: What is your budget for this partnership?
• Global: Where do you need the agency to have physical offices and/or ability to support?
• Expertise: Do you need expertise with specific audiences, verticals, buying motions (PLG, etc.), sales motions (ABM, etc.), languages, technologies, etc.?
• Deal Breakers: Is there anything that would automatically exclude an agency from participating (competitor conflicts, type of agency, previous bias, etc.)?
• Goals: What are your business, project and partnership goals?
• Culture: What are you looking for in a partner?

(Side note: Just to level-set, Tenx4’s Discovery Document contains over 100 questions for our clients. This isn’t meant to overwhelm you, just to further showcase the importance.)

Why this matters: Without a clear understanding of what you actually need, you’ll end up with the wrong partner.

The wrong partner will cost your business a lot. Like… seriously a lot.

Ugh. You’ll be frustrated daily, weekly, monthly. You won’t trust them. You’ll burn so many hours trying to get them to do the job you thought you hired them to do. You’ll be constantly checking and double-checking their work. They’ll miss things that can’t be missed. You won’t hit your goals. You won’t be able to communicate impact to your boss and stakeholders. You’ll be working more than you already do to compensate for their shortcomings. This list can go on and on.

Lack of initial alignment could even cost you your own job.

At that point you've got two options: force the fit and stay frustrated, or start the search over.

Maybe you’ll stick it out with your agency partner – trying to force a round peg into a square hole. Or maybe you’ll go back to the drawing board and start your agency search all over again. We caution (like with big red flashing lights, yellow tape and barbwire - caution) against going straight into another RFP without an extremely due diligent discovery process. You’ll find yourself in this same position again.

We’ve seen this time and time again. Honestly, many Marketers come to Ten4 after failed attempts like this to find the right agency partner on your own.

Whether you decide to work with Tenx4 through your next agency search or run the process in-house again, before looking externally for a partner, get clear about what you and your team actually need.

The time you spend going deep through an initial internal discovery, will save you so much more later on.

And, you’ll actually get the partner that you need.