Most agencies treat the RFP as the cost of doing business. Chris Rose has built a career out of sidestepping them entirely — and he’s landed clients like Hilton, Planet Fitness, and NBC Universal along the way.

Chris serves as Executive Director of Growth at Cylinder Studios, a design and production studio within the Cheil Agency Network. Before that, he led new business at Movers and Shakers, where he built a process around diagnostic calls, co-written briefs, and relationship-first selling. His path from account management to Chief of Staff to new business gives him a lens most BizDev leaders don’t have — he understands how the work actually gets made, and that makes him a sharper seller.

We got into why RFPs are almost always poorly written, how to become a preferred vendor to skip the process altogether, what’s changing with AI and pricing in pitches, and why the best new business teams are smaller than you’d think.

What You’ll Leave With:

• Diagnose before you pitch. Chris skips the credentials deck on intro calls and focuses on getting the client talking. From there, he moves to a collaborative call where they co-write the brief together — no RFP needed. Clients often don’t know what they need; your job is to help them figure it out.
• Become a preferred vendor to bypass procurement. Pre-negotiate rates or deliverable-based pricing with large companies so they can skip the formal review process. It’s cheaper for the brand and faster for everyone. Chris has done this with L’Oréal, P&G, and others.
• Smaller pitch teams win more. Every person on a pitch is working non-billable hours. Chris keeps the team tight — he takes the first call solo, then brings in the right specialists for the diagnostic call. Think hours, not days, for turnaround.
• Production is the new strategy. At Cylinder, they’re pushing the idea that how work gets made is as important as the idea itself. Bringing production leads into the room from day one preserves the creative idea and drives efficiency clients are demanding.
• Stay close to the work after you win it. Chris follows projects from pitch through delivery — not for account growth, but so he can sell with real knowledge next time. When you’ve seen how the work gets made, you diagnose better, connect faster, and never sell something your team can’t deliver.

Links & Resources:

• Connect with Chris Rose on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-rose22/
• Cylinder Studios: https://www.cylinderstudios.com/
• Sales Schema Referral Engine: https://hey.salesschema.com/opt-in-mw-referral-engine?utm_source=podcast