Most RFQs for branding and web design work get written the same way a firm would write an RFQ for a structural engineer. List the deliverables, ask for a timeline, ask for a fee. That approach works fine when you are procuring a defined, technical scope. It works less well here, because branding and positioning work is not a defined scope until someone has actually done the strategic thinking. Firms that write an RFQ expecting a fixed-price bid on an undefined problem tend to get proposals and responses that are either wildly generic or wildly padded.
If you are putting together an RFQ, or getting ready to respond to one, here is what actually matters.
Ask for process before you ask for price. Any agency can hand you a number. Few can walk you through exactly what happens in week one, what decisions get made by week four, and who on your team needs to show up for which conversations. If a firm cannot describe their process in specific, sequential terms, they do not have one. They are improvising per project, which means you are the one absorbing the risk of that improvisation.
Ask who actually does the work. A lot of proposals are written and pitched by senior people, then handed to junior staff once the contract is signed. That is not automatically a problem, but you should know it going in. Ask directly who will be in the room for strategy sessions and who will be producing the deliverables.
Ask for examples of a firm at your stage, not just their best-known client. A branding agency with one flagship case study and a wall of logos is not the same as one who has repeatedly worked with firms your size, in your specific situation. If you are a 40-person structural engineering firm going through a leadership transition, ask if they have done that exact kind of work before, and ask what they learned from it.
Ask how they handle disagreement. Somewhere in the engagement, your team and the agency will not agree on a direction. Ask how that gets resolved. Vague answers here ("we're very collaborative") are a signal. You want a firm that can tell you, specifically, what happens when the CEO hates the first logo concept.
Be honest about your actual budget range, even if it is a range rather than a number. Agencies that specialize in AEC branding are used to scoping around a range. Vague budgets produce vague proposals, because the agency has to guess whether you are expecting a $15,000 engagement or a $90,000 one, and those are different conversations with different depth.
State your actual timeline pressure, if there is any. If you have a partner retiring in four months and need the new brand in place before then, say so. That constraint changes the process significantly, and an agency that knows about it upfront can tell you honestly whether it is realistic.
Include your decision-making structure. If eight people at your firm need to sign off on any major creative direction, say that. It is one of the single biggest factors in how long a branding engagement takes, and firms that do not disclose it often end up frustrated when the timeline stretches for reasons that had nothing to do with the agency.
Ask for a discovery call before requiring a full proposal. A lot of firms send RFQs to five or six agencies and require full written proposals from all of them before any conversation happens. That produces generic proposals, because nobody has enough context to write something specific yet. A fifteen minute call before the proposal is due tends to produce far better, far more honest responses.
Watch for proposals that lead entirely with visuals and mood boards before any strategy conversation has happened. That usually means the agency is selling you a look, not a process.
Watch for pricing that is dramatically lower than everyone else you talked to. In branding and positioning work specifically, price compresses when the strategic thinking gets skipped. A firm that will do "brand strategy" for $2,000 is not doing brand strategy. They are picking colors and calling it strategy.
Watch for case studies with no mention of what changed for the client. A portfolio full of attractive logos and no outcomes tells you the agency is good at design. It does not tell you whether their work actually moves a firm's business forward, which is presumably the reason you are doing this at all.
The strongest responses tend to ask you more questions than they answer. A firm that has actually done branding work for AEC companies knows the real answer depends on things that were not in your RFQ. What kind of clients are you trying to win more of. Whether your current brand is a liability or just underused. Whether the real problem is the logo or the fact that nobody at the firm can articulate what makes you different from the three other firms bidding the same project last month.
If a firm can ask those questions specifically, and can point to work where they answered them for someone else, that is worth more than any polished deck.
