Your Client Just Quietly Issued an RFP
Your CMO contact let it slip — procurement is shopping you. You weren't told.
Based on real client experiences, but anonymized and dramatized to protect identities and confidential relationships.
You're the account director on a 3-year agency-of-record relationship. Over coffee, your CMO contact mentions "procurement is just doing due diligence, looking at a few other shops." You weren't told formally. The RFP went to 4 other agencies last week. You have one QBR booked next Thursday to make your case before responses come back.
- 01AOR retainer covers SEO, content, and AI visibility — competitors are pitching just SEO at 40% less
- 02Brand has hit every quarterly KPI you set, but the CMO has been quiet for two months
- 03A new CFO joined 90 days ago and is reviewing all retainers above $250K
3 minutes at the top of the QBR to reset the conversation from "are you still worth it?" to "why switching costs more than it saves." Don't acknowledge the RFP directly unless they raise it.
Classic agency retention moment. The brand is being courted by cheaper shops who don't know what you know. Win by making the depth of context you've built impossible to replace in a 90-day onboarding.