Last week I shared my thoughts about the RPO service provider selection process and the similarities to American Idol (Congratulation Lee DeWyze). In my opinion, the vast majority of RPO sales opportunities mimic the popular reality TV contest…Lots of competitors at the beginning, auditions to narrow the field, and finally 2 contestants going head-to-head. Everything is well designed and planned.

But as with most things, there are exceptions to my American Idol analogy and this got me thinking back about my most frustrating RPO sales pursuit.

Several years ago, I encountered a RPO competition and vendor award that strayed drastically from the norm. In my experience, the decision seemed illogical and somewhat random.

As I recalled the specifics from 2008, I began searching for some parallel event that would best help me illustrate this abnormality. Coming up with a comparison was proving challenging when help arrived.

Fortunately, Pinstripe’s Director of Marketing and Social Media, Michelle Krier, came to my rescue and provided me with an easily understood and very visual metaphor.

Recently, Michelle was in Eagle River, Wisconsin with her family and encountered a competition of sorts called “Chicken Poop Bingo.”



“Chicken Poop Bingo.” is a game where a chicken is let loose on a checkerboard and poops in a square. The holder of the number square with the most poop wins the bingo game. I’m sure lots of you have never heard of this game (I hadn’t); however, my research found this interesting event to be a staple of taverns, chili cookoffs, church fund raisers, and grade school PTAs in rural communities.

I try to imagine back to 2008 and a RPO checkerboard being deployed by the organization’s procurement department while key stakeholders huddled around anxiously waiting for the chicken to make its selection (and their decision).

Obviously, it wasn't us and I'm still torn about whether Pinstripe getting pooped on would have been a good RPO thing or a bad RPO thing.

Originally posted on RPOlosophy