Thank you for commenting. While your approach seems to be condescending and attack oriented, I’ll respond in the spirit of discussion. The article may not have been as clear as it could have due to the complexity of the issue and need for brevity, so I’ll give you the benefit of a doubt.

If you read the article, you’ll see that I am a proponent of PFP and I believe that it can work if expectations are aligned and realistic.

First, I don’t have an “agency”. The article is intended to help agencies (marketing and otherwise) better understand the dynamics involved in pay for performance. I’m trying to educate both sides (agency and client) as to what could work since each side only sees the issue from it’s own perspective. I notice that you didn’t disagree with any of the following specific points:

• the agency can’t work for free until the marketing program pays off
• there is a sharing of risk involved and compensation should reflect this risk
• the ability of the client to actually close a sale is outside the agencies control,
• the client can’t pick and choose recommendations – they have to follow the agency’s programs and process

Your assertion that “direct mail, building websites, “social media experts”, email marketing, seo, Lead generation, Pay per click campaigns, are all services that most interns can perform these days from 10-20$ dollars an hour. passing these services off as HIGH LEVEL MARKETING will leave many marketing experts looking to re-invent the wheel.” has nothing to do with the article, nor did I suggest that these activities are “high level marketing”. Marketing agencies should be compensated for SETTING STRATEGY. You are also falling into the trap that the tactical activities you mention do not require a high level of skill or qualifications. I’m thinking you do not run or own an agency or you would know better.

With regard to your final comment about tracking – upon reading it again, I can see that I wasn’t very clear. I’m not saying it isn’t possible to track traditional tactics, I’m saying that making go/no go decisions on individual tactics doesn’t tell the whole story – it is valuable to know what’s working or what’s not, but ultimately the performance of a marketing program should be judged on the overall improvement of the client’s position. It’s not about tactics – it’s about results.

I notice that when I Google your name, there is not a single result. I also noticed that you didn’t post up a link to your highly successful agency.

I’m sure that you’re attitude that “everyone is an idiot except for me” works very well for you and that you have a long list of successful and prominent clients who are happy to settle for work done by interns. Kudos to you.

There are lots of successful marketing companies doing very well. If you provide bottom line value to businesses they will keep you well paid. If you are like the other 80% of “MARKETERS” who are providing “inside the box business services” that any intern can perform. Of course you would be looking for new ways to be compensated.

Provide real word, mensurable value to local businesses and everything else will take care of itself.

1) direct mail, building websites, “social media experts”, email marketing, seo, Lead generation, Pay per click campaigns, are all services that most interns can perform these days from 10-20$ dollars an hour. passing these services off as HIGH LEVEL MARKETING will leave many marketing experts looking to re-invent the wheel.

the following paragraph “The solution: The client and agency need to agree on metrics that are measurable and tied to agency performance overall. Often, “leads” are the preferred metric. However, there are often arguments over lead quality, suitability and viability. Another challenge is tracking leads to specific activities – did the lead come from an ad? A press release? The web site? The reality is that an integrated marketing program should be measured as a whole and with a few exceptions (Pay Per Click) cannot be tracked to individual tactics.”

has so many flaws, welcome to 1985 if you need ideas on how to track traditional marketing efforts email me.

I can’t wait to pick it up.

It’s safe to guess that the gross profit on a cup of coffee doesn’t even come close to covering the shop’s costs. There’s no denying this is a problem for the chops and those of us who use their establishments for meetings should be very conscious of this and do our best to support the business by buying stuff, telling other people about the shop, bringing in new customers, etc. But at the end of the day, it’s how you handle a problem that counts and this particular shop blew it big time. In fact, I’ve been in there since and it’s a room full of empty tables. One of my friends attempted to talk to the owner to help create an opportunity from the situation, but was met with arrogance (my words, not his). I guess the market will decide.

Over my couple of decades, the vast majority of RFP’s were ill conceived, incomplete and incoherent. The good ones were obviously created by a competing firm and were rigged so that firm wins. Not just in web dev but in construction and any industry that uses an RFP process. I think it works great if you are buying office furniture, computer chips, paper clips or other standardized products. But if I compare the amount of time and resources RFP’s require (do they really need my financials for the last five years?) to the win rate, I’ll take a well thought out sales process, strong relationships based on trust and personal interaction over an RFP any day. Even design work is a commodity. Clients know they can get pretty pictures anywhere.

A better approach would be to issue a Request for Qualifications. Anyone can game an RFP – but qualifications are hard to fake. And a point of clarifications – I don’t take RFP’s anymore and haven’t for years. I file them in the round file.

The problem that I think you are running into is that you are taking poorly written RFPs as the de facto, when they are in fact the minority. And yes, it’s true that some organizations treat their web development project as a commodity and only judge it on price but again, that’s the small minority. I’d actually say that MOST are about as interested in your design work as they are in your pricing (so long as they can afford it).

Issuing a decent RFP for web development isn’t all that hard and for your readers here are a few quick articles:

“How to select the right web design and web development firm”
http://blog.confluentforms.com/2008/08/how-to-select-right-web-design-and-web.html

“6 steps to writing a better Request for Proposals, a primer”
http://blog.confluentforms.com/2009/06/6-steps-to-writing-better-request-for.html

and two for the author…

“Don’t squander a great opportunity in the form of a bad RFP”
http://blog.confluentforms.com/2009/04/dont-squander-great-opportunity-in-form.html

“Not all Requests for Proposals are worth a proposal”
http://blog.confluentforms.com/2008/10/not-all-requests-for-proposals-are.html

Best,

-David