After going through a hellish bidding process (cause of client changes), how do you let the vendors who DIDNT get the job down easy? Wondering what’s the best protocol for this.

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Speaking as a vendor:

A - thank you for respecting us, it means a lot.
B - call don’t email.
C - just be honest.

That’s it we’re adults and very used to both winning and losing.

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A phone call for sure. It’s not fun to breakup with anyone ever. Tell them the truth or as much of the truth you can. Just don’t lie. When I first heard about how many agency producers don’t let companies know they didn’t get the job I was very surprised. That’s when I learned how many terrible agency producers are out there. We shouldn’t have to train people on how to be decent. I don’t care how busy the job is. Be responsible and take the 5 minutes to inform the other bidders so they can move on to other options.

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I try to do it by phone rather than email. It’s a sign of respect. Also, I try to give as much USEFUL honest feedback as possible to give them insight into why it went how it went. Production companies often believe its about the money. Money can ruin your day, but it rarely dictates the award, in my experience. Still, if they’re way off base and it took them out of the running, I let them know. It’s usually about a creative nuance which is hard to quantify or correct. But if there’s something useful, like we couldn’t vibe with the treatment or the call was concerning... I let them know. The less lying you do, the better your reputation will be. And the more favors and help you’ll be able to get from vendors down the line. Trust me, relationships are EVERYTHING, so don’t let fear of awkwardness cause you to ghost someone or lie to them. They’ll remember and won’t give you their best effort later.

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Being honest no matter what is super appreciated -“the call was great but you shit the bed with the Treatment”. “The client is hung up on female Directors”. “We heard your guy was difficult recently”.
All of it helps

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Production companies spend money on treatments. If they go above and beyond, I’ve been known to write a hand written thank you note. If they get the job and I pull a favor, I send them a small gift. If I pull a huge favor, they get something nice from me. I appreciate my vendors the best I can.

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Phone call and an honest breakup. It costs a company a lot of money to bid out a job and the producer that bid out and lost needs to explain the reason to their director and EP - honest feedback is the best thing you can do. Even if it’s a rough one.

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Haven’t been on both sides, EP is spot on. A good vendor understands the triple bidding process and will graciously understand if they don’t get the job. A good agency producer will pick up the phone and have a conversation.

@AP1 - you’re not obligated to answer every question. Most vendors won’t pry, and usually they’re just looking for constructive criticism. You don’t need to tell them who won the bid unless you have a personal relationship with them and feel comfortable about it

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‘Hung up on female directors’. Um, let me guess. You’re a a guy?

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👻👻👻

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Great advice guys, thanks! I always call the other guys as soon as the job is awarded - after all the time and energy spent creating the bids and treatments, I figured that’s the least I could do.

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Pick up the phone

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Honesty. Not enough of it in this biz. Be prepared, however, if you do it by phone you may get the occasional continued pitching and comebacks as to while all the reasons you have are wrong. Also sometimes rep ask for specific names of team of who was for or against them. It gets really tricky to balance the fine line of explaining why they didn’t get the gig and outing the inner politics of the agency.

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Call. I always call everybody. I keep it personal and always bullshit-free. They know what we know, sometimes they know they didn’t get it even before our call. But always, ALWAYS call.

Imagine you’re a doctor and you are performing three surgeries back to back. You don’t just talk to the parents of the little boy who made it, leaving the other two families wandering around.

Be frontal, always. Never lie, never cheat. Keep it real.

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I’d like to know the same. They also ask why they didn’t get chosen (if it was a creative reason and/or budget reason), and sometimes ask who won the project instead. It feels like a very tricky road to navigate.

That applies to every vendor you ended up deciding not to use, honestly

Honestly and transparency throughout the process. I’ve been on both sides. It works. And remember, vendors are used to losing. Thank them profusely regardless.

I also always (both in bidding and with whichever vendor is awarded/throughout the project) try to relate/side with vendors, especially if it was a hellish bidding process as you say and in your case, was caused by several client changes; a phone call, and my personal style is something like, “After all that wild back and forth, the client decided to go with a different vendor on this project. I appreciate so much your willingness to [revise bids, submit multiple bids, whatever the case was] and your patience as we navigated this whole process. I sincerely hope we get the chance to work together on a project in the future.” That kind of thing. But especially if the client is the cause of a lot of back and forth, last-minute changes, wanting the world on a dime budget and a week turnaround, whatever the case is — your vendor is your lifeline from award to delivery; I’m not saying it’s a complete “Us Against Them (Client)” mentality, but I tend to lean more on that side of things when working with outside vendors. (Also, it does always suck having to let anyone know that they didn’t get the project. That part never really gets easier, I think.)

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