Agency rates

[Bluebird]

The rate the client pays is important - it's obviously one of the factors they take into account.

If they have 2 similar guys for a role and both agencies pay the 'going rate' for that role of £300 per day, but Agency 1 adds on 10% and Agency 2 adds on 20% who do you think will get the gig ??

[malvolio]

The rate the client pays is important - it's obviously one of the factors they take into account.

If they have 2 similar guys for a role and both agencies pay the 'going rate' for that role of £300 per day, but Agency 1 adds on 10% and Agency 2 adds on 20% who do you think will get the gig ??

Don't be naive. The margin is not added to the contractor day rate, the agency agrees a price with the client then looks for a contractor within that price, who will be paid as little as the agent can get away with. It's not normally the contractor setting the rate unless he is really in demand for some reason.

[Bluebird]

ok, but the greedy agency may still try and squeeze the client which may stop you getting the gig.
The place i'm at the mo I'm working with a permie manager who asks me to help sift CV's, some fo the rates quoted differ quite a lot for the same role..

[expat]

I find all this talk of "what the agency makes" very amusing. Do we care what profit margin tescos make on our food shopping, or what British Gas make on your gas or electric bill?

Do I care what the agent's margin is? Yes, for the same reason as he cares how low I am prepared to go.

Tesco care how much money people have in their shopping budget, and I care how much the agent has in his. That's part of setting the price for the shopping, i.e. me.

[expat]

...
So, the client risked not filling his position and the agency risked their margin, over the 30 quid pd that the agency wanted to 'payroll' your expenses, which the client was happy to pay direct if asked.

Sorry, don't buy it.

tim

I know for a fact that some people will break a deal over the last 30/day. Me for example.

[malvolio]

ok, but the greedy agency may still try and squeeze the client which may stop you getting the gig.
The place i'm at the mo I'm working with a permie manager who asks me to help sift CV's, some fo the rates quoted differ quite a lot for the same role..

Equally I've gone to market with a known and realistic budget for a warm body and have got CV's back at hundreds a day over that figure. That is not the agent being silly, it's the contractor setting a rate that the job doesn't warrant.

There are two scenarios. You have one where the rate for the role has not been established and then it may become a deciding factor , all else being equal (which it usually isn't!). More usually, the agent and client will have set the price (or a price range) that both are happy with, and the agent will go looking for people who will then deliver his margin.

Either way, you don't lose out because of the agent's margin, you only lose out if you don't accept the rate on offer.

[tim123]

I know for a fact that some people will break a deal over the last 30/day. Me for example.

I agree.

But here we are talking about a difference of 30pd before negotiation with the parties. If one of the parties is being unreasonable then you would expect them to move to close the gap. If not, you would at least expect an attempt to compromise to reach a deal.

For my current contract there was a difference between the original 'offer' and the client's expectations of 60pd. We still managed to cut a deal.

tim

[Spacecadet]

as has been said already

I don't care what the agencies margin is, as long as I get a rate that i find acceptable then I'm happy.

The agency has found the client, matched the CV's (that bits hardly difficult i know) and arranged their own price for supplying services to the client.

Now its up to you to get the agency to agree a price with you... obviously they want a margin, and the bigger the better, just as I would like my rate to be as big as possible.

The cards do all seem to be in the agency's hand but then without you they either have to go back to the client, unable to provide the service agreed, or find someone else who fits the bill and the client is happy with.

The only problem with very high margins is when the client is expecting some sort of GOD of IT to walk through the door and you're looking for other contracts from day 1 cause the rate is so low.

[tim123]

as has been said already

I don't care what the agencies margin is, as long as I get a rate that i find acceptable then I'm happy.

The rates that I am being offered with a rip-off margin are not acceptable to me.

I get agents ringing me up saying "will you work for 28ph"? I got 40ph in 1999, so of course I ****ing wont. I fully suspect that these are jobs where the client is paying 40-42 and the agent is taking a 30% cut. Even at 34ph I'm not entirely happy with the rate, but if I know that the agent's on 15%, I will live with it, but I'm not working at such rates if the agents creaming off 30%.

But I have to work, so what do you suggest.

(Quite frankly, the partronising "if your happy with your rate" lark is fine for the 500pd brigade, but if you stuck in a 300pd skill-set, it's insulting)

tim

[Spacecadet]

is fine for the 500pd brigade

I'm no where near close to that mate

Wish i was though (and my wife even more so!)