Advice on best way to ask for rate increase...

[Antman]

So, I got offered the extension yesterday. Seems they changed their mind about who and how long they were extending and I believe ended up extending all of us, but for a shorter time (so their original conversation may well have been bullpoop to stop me from looking elsewhere until they'd made their minds up). I had a quick chat with the friendly manager and he didn't know whether the agent was on a fixed rate.
So I called the agent and had a frank chat with him. Didn't mention that I knew what they were getting to start with, he ummm'd and arrrrh'd with the figures and eventually said he could offer me an extra 3% only (I wanted 7-8% but I didn't ask for anything specific). I then decided to be straight with him and talk margins and tell him that I knew what he was getting. He was a bit fed up that the guy had said something, but he told me that he has to keep his margins at 18% or above or he doesn't get paid anything on the deal. I mentiond my partner's figures of 8-10% and he said the lower percentages are only available when they are dealing with companies with loads of contractors as their overheads are cheaper. This client is not one of those.

So I took the 3% and thanked him for his time and honesty(?). Whether it's all true or not, I'll probably never know, but he did say the right thing by saying "the client is very happy with your work so I'd be silly not to do my best for you to keep you there" so for now I'm happy. It's not as much as I wanted, but I got a bit and for that I'm thankful.

BOOMED

Congrats, seems like an open conversation, he's right if they're a small organisation then their costs will be higher (have you seen the maintenance plans for A3s?!). Modis who supply hundreds of contractors to Tesco were on 4%, if they've only got a few contractors placed then there is no economy of scale.

Have a banana,

[Taita]

So, I got offered the extension yesterday. Seems they changed their mind about who and how long they were extending and I believe ended up extending all of us, but for a shorter time (so their original conversation may well have been bullpoop to stop me from looking elsewhere until they'd made their minds up). I had a quick chat with the friendly manager and he didn't know whether the agent was on a fixed rate.
So I called the agent and had a frank chat with him. Didn't mention that I knew what they were getting to start with, he ummm'd and arrrrh'd with the figures and eventually said he could offer me an extra 3% only (I wanted 7-8% but I didn't ask for anything specific). I then decided to be straight with him and talk margins and tell him that I knew what he was getting. He was a bit fed up that the guy had said something, but he told me that he has to keep his margins at 18% or above or he doesn't get paid anything on the deal. I mentiond my partner's figures of 8-10% and he said the lower percentages are only available when they are dealing with companies with loads of contractors as their overheads are cheaper. This client is not one of those.

So I took the 3% and thanked him for his time and honesty(?). Whether it's all true or not, I'll probably never know, but he did say the right thing by saying "the client is very happy with your work so I'd be silly not to do my best for you to keep you there" so for now I'm happy. It's not as much as I wanted, but I got a bit and for that I'm thankful.

BOOMED

Well done. Now you have the basis of a relationship with an agent you can do business with. Cultivate it.