Pilots, Not RFPs, Are the Future of Martech Selection
▼ Summary
– Traditional RFPs are increasingly unfit for martech and creative operations due to their slow pace and inability to keep up with rapid technological changes.
– RFPs fail because they prioritize cost and compliance over real-world application, team chemistry, and integration needs rather than individual features.
– Brands are shifting to outcome-driven pilot programs that test vendors in real-world conditions over 30-60 days to assess performance and collaboration.
– Effective vendor selection requires cross-departmental collaboration among CreativeOps, procurement, and IT to define measurable outcomes and test operational integration.
– The future of vendor relationships involves building ecosystems with partners who can evolve and integrate dynamically, moving beyond transactional RFP-based approaches.
For years, the request for proposal (RFP) has stood as the gold standard for choosing technology vendors, a methodical system for outlining needs, evaluating submissions, and picking winners. While this approach made sense for procuring standardized items like hardware or infrastructure, it falls short in the dynamic worlds of marketing technology and in-house creative operations. The traditional RFP process is no longer suited to today’s fast-moving digital environment, where agility and real-world performance matter far more than paperwork and promises.
The core issue lies in timing. Standard RFP cycles often span four to six months, yet martech tools can evolve in a matter of weeks. During these drawn-out periods, proposal teams invest over 30 hours per RFP, adding up to thousands of hours annually, while marketing and operations staff get bogged down in meetings and evaluations. By the time a project launches, the market may have shifted entirely. What was once a risk-reduction tactic now introduces significant operational and competitive hazards.
RFPs themselves aren’t fundamentally flawed. They work well for comparing similar products and driving down costs. But martech and creative ecosystems are anything but uniform. No two marketing stacks are identical; integration and team synergy often outweigh standalone features. Traditional RFPs struggle in three key areas: they’re too slow, prioritize cost over capability, and encourage vendors to sell rather than solve.
These delays carry a real cost. Every month spent navigating an RFP means ongoing inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and potential revenue loss. A poor vendor fit can lead to years of underperformance, complex workarounds, and strained relationships. In a landscape where time-to-market is critical, sticking with outdated selection methods hands the advantage to competitors.
Forward-thinking organizations are now shifting toward pilot-based evaluations. Instead of relying on lengthy proposals, they run 30- to 60-day pilots with a shortlist of vendors. Each contender works with the same inputs and goals under real-world conditions, revealing how they handle integration, adaptability, and collaboration. This method tests not just the tool, but the partnership, assessing how well vendors understand business objectives, work alongside internal teams, and respond to change.
This evolution demands a new mindset. Rather than asking what features a platform offers, teams should focus on what outcomes they need to achieve, whether that’s faster time-to-market, better scalability, or stronger brand consistency. A structured procurement process remains essential, but the emphasis must shift from theoretical promises to practical performance.
Success hinges on cross-functional collaboration. Procurement, marketing, and IT must work together from the outset, defining realistic scenarios and judging vendors against the same practical criteria. CreativeOps should establish clear performance metrics, while IT needs to validate integrations and close skill gaps related to martech APIs and data literacy. When all teams align around shared, outcome-based language, decision-making becomes faster and more effective.
Some may argue that RFPs provide necessary structure and audit trails, especially in regulated industries. But structure doesn’t have to mean rigidity. Brands can maintain governance while adopting more agile methods, documenting decisions, using transparent scoring, and focusing on real-world proof over paperwork.
At its heart, this shift is cultural. Vendor selection is no longer about one-off transactions; it’s about building ecosystems of partners who can grow and adapt alongside your organization. The most successful brands will treat vendors as extensions of their teams, evaluating them not only on what they deliver today, but on how well they integrate, evolve, and collaborate over time.
Emerging approaches, including AI-driven vendor matching based on live performance data, hint at where the industry is headed. But even without advanced tools, the principle remains: dynamic, pilot-first models are the future. It’s time to stop rewarding the best proposals and start partnering with the best performers.
(Source: MarTech)
