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Breaking Down The Verdict: 9 Paid Media Benchmarks B2B Marketing Leaders Need To Know
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REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

Choose Your Next Marketing Agency With Confidence

Strengthen your B2B marketing RFP process with focused questions, clear proposal evaluation criteria, and a thorough assessment of strategy, expertise, and cost.
Get the B2B Marketing RFP Template Now

Ready to start your RFP process?
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Define What Your Next Agency Needs to Deliver

OUR B2B RFP APPROACH

A strong RFP reveals how a prospective partner will approach your most critical business decisions. Directive anchors the evaluation in your acquisition economics, market opportunity, and current performance.

We use that context to identify where to focus investment, which specialists the work requires, and how to measure progress against your commercial goals. You can review the rationale behind our approach alongside the scope, team, and fees.

Build a Clear Path From Initial Brief to Agency Selection

THE RFP PROCESS
A structured RFP process moves from defining requirements to evaluating proposals and selecting a partner over 4-6 weeks, with additional time for legal review, procurement, and onboarding.
Define Scope and Budget

Separate agency fees from media spend, specify required services, and agree on how proposals will be scored.

Identify Qualified Agencies

Invite three to five agencies with relevant B2B experience, comparable client results, and capabilities within your budget.

Evaluate Strategy and Team

Question the assumptions behind each recommendation and meet the specialists responsible for delivering the work.

Finalize Commercial Terms

Confirm what fees include, how scope changes are priced, and who owns accounts, data, and creative assets.

Prepare for Launch

Assign owners for account access and partner handover, then agree on onboarding priorities and initial performance reviews.

Your RFP Starts in 90 Days. We’ve Already Started Working.

Our Engagement Model
While other agencies wait for procurement to open the process, we spend 90 days learning your business, market, and growth constraints.
engagement timeline

Assess the Strategy, Expertise, and Investment Against Your Business Priorities

WHAT TO EXPECT
A strategy grounded in your business

Discuss your target accounts, market opportunity, and current performance. Evaluate how Directive would prioritize the work, allocate investment, and connect recommendations to your business goals.

A clear view of the team

Review the proposed team structure, specialist expertise, and senior oversight. Establish who leads strategy, who executes the work, and how your team will collaborate with ours.

An investment you can evaluate

Examine the proposed scope, agency fees, resource requirements, and measurement approach. Align on the outcomes that matter, from sales acceptance and cost per opportunity to acquisition cost and revenue contribution.

BEFORE THE RFP

Give Your Agency Evaluation a 90-Day Head Start

Engage Directive before issuing your RFP to examine acquisition economics, assess current performance, and align on strategic priorities. That early work gives us the business context to develop a proposal grounded in your objectives when the formal evaluation begins.

Use Directive’s RFP template to translate those priorities into clear requirements and consistent evaluation criteria for every participating agency.

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B2B Marketing Agency RFP FAQs

FAQ
Be clear about why you need a partner and what needs to change. Spell out your target customers, current performance, required services, budget, and decision timeline. Ask agencies for a strategy tailored to your goals, the team who will run your account, transparent pricing, and a 90-day plan that shows how they’ll get started. This lets you see how each agency would actually approach your business.
Yes. If you skip the budget, you get proposals you can’t compare. Separate agency fees from media, production, and tech costs, and be clear about what’s approved. If you’re open to different investment levels, ask what each would actually buy and how the agency would prioritize
Look for recommendations you can challenge. The right agency will tell you where to invest, what could block results, and how they’ll measure progress against your business goals. Ask for proof: client results, the actual team on your account, and a clear scope. Before you compare fees, confirm who’s doing the work and what your team will still own.
Give agencies the numbers that matter: channel spend, acquisition costs, funnel conversion rates, sales cycle length, and past campaign results. This context lets them build recommendations that fit your reality. For finalists, read-only access to your ad and analytics accounts helps them validate assumptions. Ask what data they need and why, then set clear rules for confidentiality and access.
Start before the brief is final. Early conversations let you question the scope, align decision-makers, and clarify what expertise, budget, and internal support you actually need. Plan for four to six weeks to select an agency, plus extra time for contracts and onboarding. Our early-engagement model gives you space to do the real discovery before proposals land.

Put Directive on Your Shortlist

Bring your RFP to Directive for a focused conversation about the strategy, expertise, and investment your growth goals require.

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