UKNM: Wasting time on tenders in Hungary

[Steven Carlson]

This is the thread that shakes me out of lurk mode. Thanks.


I'm part of a web design/consultancy company in Hungary, where tenders are

almost always decided in advance. In Hungary, our rule of thumb is that if

you don't already know who will win the tender, it certainly won't be you.

It's oddly comforting to learn this is also the case in the UK.


As Marx points out, economic necessity determines our choices. In 1995, my

colleagues and I spent countless hours, days and weeks educating potential

clients, many of which are *still* undecided about whether to have an

Internet strategy. It was disheartening, but we needed the work.

Fortunately, today we can be choosier. Experience has taught us the best

customers are those who know what they want, who recognize value and are

ready to pay for it. The rest are best avoided.


Often the client is just fishing for ideas and advice, which means you show

up at a meeting to find you're pitching against the client's old pal from

university. In one case, I discovered a proposal I had written circulating

a client's office, disguised as an internal memo. Another client took our

ideas to a cut-rate competitor who butchered the job. Cool.


What to do? Most customers here will not pay a pitch fee, so charging one

is an easy way to avoid the unnecessary expense and effort of yet another

pointless tender. It's also a good dodge to ask for a spec, because the

pretend customer never has one.



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Steven Carlson                      data is duty free

Online Europe moderator

+361.266.6090