Agency – Peoria Unified Schools

Interviewee – Danielle Airey, Director of Public Relations

Interview Date – 2/17/16

Outcome – Loss (we essentially walked away from the deal)

Proposal Bid – original $26,530 – final - > $120,000

Proposal Date – December 2015

Winner – Blackboard

Why did we lose?

• Peoria had gone through a lengthy process and selected Vision upfront and were ready to sign the contract with us
• They received the initial bid and thought they could model their implementation after Manhattan-Ogden school district
• Peoria has 43 schools in district and all needed a subsite
• At the last minute, our price increased by 5x and that was too much of a jump for them
• Danielle feels that they were a victim of overpromise/under delivery
• She was surprised that she never had a follow-up call or discussion
  • she feels like this was a pretty big mistake
  • she has talked to one or two other agencies in her area about the poor experience with Vision

Other points

• I talked with John K. and Redfern after the win-loss call and received the backstory
• John K. said that the business didn’t make sense for us and that he was the ‘bad guy’ to deliver the message
• I think John K. talked to someone else in the school district, and Danielle never received a follow-up from either John

Takeaways

• School districts are not in our core market – especially when they need so many different subsites
• If we do turn down business, make sure we have closed the loop with all key people who had been involved in the process