Scoring What Matters: Better Evaluation Criteria Lead to Better Proposals
Part of the RFP Clarity Series
This article is part of an ongoing series on improving the effectiveness of marketing RFPs—focused on clarity, strategy, and better outcomes for both issuers and agencies. Explore all posts in the RFP Clarity Series.
When organizations issue an RFP, they often focus most of their energy on the questions. What should we ask? What information do we need? How can we ensure the proposals we receive are apples-to-apples?
What gets less attention, but deserves far more, are the RFP evaluation criteria. The scoring model, if you will.
Evaluation criteria may seem like a bureaucratic formality, but they send powerful signals. Not just to the people reviewing proposals, but to the agencies writing them. They shape what gets emphasized, what gets skimmed, and what gets left out. If your criteria are unclear, misaligned, or overly simplistic, you are unlikely to receive proposals that reflect the depth and insight you hoped for.
In other words: you get what you weight.
Criteria Are a Compass
Whether they appear on the first page or the last, your evaluation criteria are one of the most closely read sections of any RFP. Smart agencies treat them like a blueprint. They determine where to focus, how to frame responses, and how to allocate precious space within page or word count limits.
If your criteria are vague – say, “ability to execute” – that vagueness ripples through the proposal. Agencies will either hedge their bets and include a little of everything, or default to a polished, generalist response that sounds good but says little.
If your criteria lean heavily on past experience or cost alone, you may attract safe, incumbent-friendly proposals and unintentionally filter out the bold, strategic thinking you actually want.
What you choose to evaluate tells agencies what success looks like. That’s true whether you say it explicitly or not.
Misalignment Creates Misdirection
Even strong RFPs sometimes falter at the finish line. You ask great questions, offer plenty of context, and encourage creativity – only to include a scoring model that prioritizes executional capability, pricing, and staff bios. The disconnect can be subtle, but it matters.
An agency reading that RFP will quickly realize that the most inspired part of their proposal – for example, a unique strategic insight or a nuanced approach to brand storytelling – won’t earn them points. So they may cut it. Or bury it in an appendix. Or play it safe.
It’s not that they don’t want to impress you; it’s that they’re trying to win. And if your criteria don’t reward something, it usually doesn’t get prioritized.
The Hidden Influence of Weighting
How you weight each criterion is just as important as what you include. A proposal that earns full marks on “cost effectiveness” and “ability to execute,” but scores low on “strategy” or “creativity,” may technically win. But it probably won’t be the proposal you remember, or the partner who challenges you in the right ways.
That doesn’t mean you should over-index on flash. But it does mean your criteria should be carefully calibrated to reflect what really matters for this engagement, not just what’s easy to measure.
If You Don’t Say It, They Won’t Know
One of the most common mistakes is assuming that reviewers will just know what to look for, or that agencies will read between the lines. But that assumption leads to misfires on both sides. Reviewers may default to gut feelings or overvalue presentation polish. Agencies may waste precious space guessing at your true priorities.
When criteria are well defined and clearly weighted, everyone benefits. Reviewers are aligned. Agencies are focused. And proposals are sharper, more relevant, and more actionable.
Better RFP Evaluation Criteria Yield Better Thinking
Evaluation criteria aren’t just a mechanism for scoring. They’re a quiet but powerful form of storytelling. They tell the market what you value, how you think, and how serious you are about making a thoughtful decision.
If you want better proposals, start by showing agencies how you’ll recognize one.
Next up: why red flags in proposals aren’t just about the agency.
Smart organizations know that stronger RFPs lead to better partnerships. We help teams clarify what they really need, sharpen their evaluation criteria, and structure the RFP to attract the right response from the right partners. Whether you’re looking for a topline diagnostic, a strategic rewrite, or a full-process tune-up, we can help. Let’s talk.
Featured image by Jason Goodman via Unsplash
