Why am I being asked to quote a rate? and not just told what the job pays

[SimonMac]

If you go in ridiculously high or stupidly low the agent, who I assume can only submit a certain amounts of CV's for each role will not want to waste a chance.

[The Agents View]

Agents and loyally in the same sentence. hmmmm....

Maybe Agents, loyally, money would go together better !!!

It's the same thing.

Loyalty to clients = Repeat business = ££

[psychocandy]

Agents and loyally in the same sentence. hmmmm....

Maybe Agents, loyally, money would go together better !!!

[The Agents View]

If they're on a PSL with a fixed markup then I'm sure they will tell you the rate available as they can do little about changing it, unless they're shysters.

The agent almost always knows the rate the client will pay.

In all other cases the agent hopes you will work for free and they get to keep the entire rate as commission. Any deviation from that is for you to negotiate. Every pound more you charge is a pound less they get. So, with that in mind, why would they give away a starting figure that may be higher than you were expecting. If agents says £400-450 and you would have done it for £300 then they've screwed themselves out of this months lapdancers budget. Brylcream and beemers aren't cheap.

Because agents couldn't POSSIBLY think about undercutting the competition to increase the likelihood of a deal huh?

Seriously, some of you need to grow a commercial brain.

Imagine you're selling a coffee machine. Your customer has a budget of £400. But the £200 machine makes exactly the same tasting coffee as the £400 one, and whilst the £400 one has some more features, they're fairly irrelevant to the buyer, because they'll not use them. How hacked off would you be to be sold the £200 machine for £400, or not told about the £200 one at all, and how likely would you be to ever return to that store again? Now have that happen a couple of times, and how likely would you be to ever bother using an electrical retailer ever again??

It's the same with contractors. Just because we have a budget of £400, doesn't mean you're worth paying all of it. Agents, believe it or not, do have a significant amount of loyalty to their clients - they pay our wages after all - if I can save an client £100 per day by being well within their budget, I will - because it makes me look good, makes their budgets work, and ultimately leads to repeat business.

[The Agents View]

Dup post!

[Pondlife]

Hi,

As previously mentioned, ignoring the rogues, there are vast number of agents that are subject to PSL's and fixed margins, and there are many that just have a standard mark up, so they know what will be paid by the client to them and from them to the contractor - so I don't see the point of them asking me my rate, and not just telling me what the job pays.

What do you think?

If they're on a PSL with a fixed markup then I'm sure they will tell you the rate available as they can do little about changing it, unless they're shysters.

The agent almost always knows the rate the client will pay.

In all other cases the agent hopes you will work for free and they get to keep the entire rate as commission. Any deviation from that is for you to negotiate. Every pound more you charge is a pound less they get. So, with that in mind, why would they give away a starting figure that may be higher than you were expecting. If agents says £400-450 and you would have done it for £300 then they've screwed themselves out of this months lapdancers budget. Brylcream and beemers aren't cheap.

[Beagalier]

Agree.....99% of the time the agent knows what rate is on offer.
In my experience the agent will have discussed this with the client when getting the role details and if the client did not know what rate to quote the agent will suggest what the market rate is to them. This may be agreed as a rate range.

I always ask the agent for the clients rate "range". If they won't quote me one, I either won't proceed (it is possibly a role that does not even exist) or I quote my top rate.

[r08813]

Hi,

I was wondering what people thought about this. And, please note, this is where we ignore the rogue agents and rogue contractors (If any of either exist )

I have been working as a contractor for many years and also spent many years where I am in the position of the client, where I need staff.

Now, when recruiting through an agency, I have found that Agencies will put in a tremendous effort to ensure that they know exactly how much the client is willing to spend. In fact, when I have said "Just send me some CV's and I'll decide what I want to spend" the agency has refused the business. I fully understand and appreciate this, as it is not in their interest to perform a hard recruitment job where they have no commitment to a sale. So, I am a believer that there is never a time when an agency does not have a firm commitment of the amount that will be charged to the client (subject to a very few pounds negotiated if the match is not exact.)

So, I am a believer that the agency always knows exactly what the rate for the job is. They also know what commision they will be expecting.

I also believe that in the majority of instances, the client will know if the CV being received has the correct skills for the price quoted(assuming a this time the CV is telling the truth - which would be probably be found out in an interview anyway).

I've always found that (and yes contractors do discuss this) that I always seem to be on the same as a similar contractor working in a similar role in the same company as me, so I would think that my rate is generally market rate.

As a contractor, I am always asked to quote 'my rate', without knowing what the amount the agency is expecting. Now, this is awkward, because, If I quote too high, or too low I may miss out on an opportunity, without knowing why. I also find it awkward, because, like most businesses, I don't actually want to have a fixed rate, I may need to adjust for travel, working hours, industry type, specialist areas etc. I also know that, should I quote too low in the initial questioning, no increase, when I know the facts about the role will be accepted by the agency.

As previously mentioned, ignoring the rogues, there are vast number of agents that are subject to PSL's and fixed margins, and there are many that just have a standard mark up, so they know what will be paid by the client to them and from them to the contractor - so I don't see the point of them asking me my rate, and not just telling me what the job pays.

What do you think?