Agents: That symbiotic relationship

[Wanderer]

Alternatively he can make his own mind up about what is an acceptable reward.

Absolutely! If he wants to hand his agent a juicy lead on a plate and ask for nothing in return, I'm sure his agent will love him forever and that will be reward enough.

[DodgyAgent]

Sorry but I dont see why your agent 'friend' didnt give you at least 10% of his commission for you giving him this 'in.' It doesnt matter imho that the client paid you as well, you provided a service to both so should have been asking for money from both.

Alternatively he can make his own mind up about what is an acceptable reward.

[d000hg]

What, so you've never heard of a referal fee? Perhaps you should dip your toe in the real business world and see how (above board) referals work?

A referral fee is something more formal, not bunging someone a random wad of cash as a thankyou. Perhaps you should look at the real world where it's not unacceptable to do someone a favour.

[GillsMan]

Sorry but I dont see why your agent 'friend' didnt give you at least 10% of his commission for you giving him this 'in.' It doesnt matter imho that the client paid you as well, you provided a service to both so should have been asking for money from both.

He's not my friend at all. Nah, I didn't need the money - the way I looked at it was, my client were paying me to help recruit for somebody, so my fees were covered. Anything else was just being a bit greedy IMO. I didn't need the money, as I wasn't working for free on this referral. Instead, I have karma points and an agent who will work with me in the future. Yeah, maybe I'm not as hard-nosed when it comes to business as you, and probably that means you'll be more successful than me, but I just didn't think I needed a referral fee.

[BolshieBastard]

So if your agent gets you a wonderful gig at 10% cut, do you say "go on, make it 12%"? Giving money is a bit crass, anyway. Sending a case of champagne as a unasked for present, that's OK

What, so you've never heard of a referal fee? Perhaps you should dip your toe in the real business world and see how (above board) referals work?

Of course in reality when setting the agent up with this in, the OP should have discussed him (the agent) giving him (the OP) a cut of his commission \ referral fee. But of course, I forgot of these forums, one has to cross every single 't' and dot every 'i' to make oneself 150% clear.

[jmo21]

The agent did ask if he needed to build something into his fees to 'kick back' to me, but I said no as I'm already getting paid by the client to help out with this.

build something into his fees? You make him £7k (plus potential for more) and he needs to build something in to give you something?

[d000hg]

Sorry but I dont see why your agent 'friend' didnt give you at least 10% of his commission for you giving him this 'in.' It doesnt matter imho that the client paid you as well, you provided a service to both so should have been asking for money from both.

So if your agent gets you a wonderful gig at 10% cut, do you say "go on, make it 12%"? Giving money is a bit crass, anyway. Sending a case of champagne as a unasked for present, that's OK

[northernladuk]

All the good agents I've built relationships with have either quit entirely or set up on their own.

And employed 10 new fresh out of college staff etc etc...

[DodgyAgent]

I thought I'd share this story, primarily for the interest of any agents I peruse this board, but also just for general interest.

The first agent who ever placed me as a contractor was a decent guy who spent a lot of time on the phone to me - wet behind the ears as I was - explaining how contracting worked, and how their agency handled limited cos and umbrella cos for contractors. He primed me for the role well, but most importantly, made me feel confident about stepping into contracting.

After he placed me, he checked in a couple of times to check I was OK, and to tell me the client had given him feedback and was very happy with my work. After I left, he touched base a few times. In short, he left a really good impression on me.

Recently, one of my clients (not my day job client, another one) asked me to help them recruit for a permie position, so I called this agent who by now had left the agency and set up his own agency. At the same time I called my current agency who are also quite decent. My current agent weren't happy to do anything without agreeing terms with my client (20% terms) so I had to leave it. The agent who first placed me however, was happy to have a punt on a potential placement, and placed an ad/sourced CVs and spoke to candidates all without having agreed any terms with my client.

The net result is: he found the candidate that they really like, he's got around £7,000 commission out of it, my client are very happy with me and him for working on this and he will probably get repeat business from them. The agent did ask if he needed to build something into his fees to 'kick back' to me, but I said no as I'm already getting paid by the client to help out with this.

I think this is a rather nice example of the symbiotic relationship that can exist between us contractors and agents. If more agents were more like this guy, and enabled us contractors to trust them and work with them, we'd all work together much more harmoniously and help the other party to earn more money!

Apologies for the pointless post, I just wanted to share the experience.

[Scoobos]

Totally agree with OP and even had a similar story.

Unfortunately, given my past year's experience I'm finding myself agreeing with NLUK too. It used to be a joke in my office about the skimpy, good looking but braindead agents coming straight out of school with little GCSE's but becoming "Infrastructure and IT strategy" specialists on Linked In.
This year I'm getting swamped with nothing other than crappy uneducated agents who are basically glorified telesales with pretty faces.

All the good agents I've built relationships with have either quit entirely or set up on their own.

[northernladuk]

An interesting story and I had a similar experience on my 2nd contract but unfortunately due to the raft of tulip contractors starting there will be a linked growth of tulip agents who do nothing more than push to meet figures. IMO this type of story is going to get rarer as contracting and proper agenting gets watered down and will end up with hidden permies being found gigs by telesales people.

[BolshieBastard]

Sorry but I dont see why your agent 'friend' didnt give you at least 10% of his commission for you giving him this 'in.' It doesnt matter imho that the client paid you as well, you provided a service to both so should have been asking for money from both.

[GillsMan]

I thought I'd share this story, primarily for the interest of any agents I peruse this board, but also just for general interest.

The first agent who ever placed me as a contractor was a decent guy who spent a lot of time on the phone to me - wet behind the ears as I was - explaining how contracting worked, and how their agency handled limited cos and umbrella cos for contractors. He primed me for the role well, but most importantly, made me feel confident about stepping into contracting.

After he placed me, he checked in a couple of times to check I was OK, and to tell me the client had given him feedback and was very happy with my work. After I left, he touched base a few times. In short, he left a really good impression on me.

Recently, one of my clients (not my day job client, another one) asked me to help them recruit for a permie position, so I called this agent who by now had left the agency and set up his own agency. At the same time I called my current agency who are also quite decent. My current agent weren't happy to do anything without agreeing terms with my client (20% terms) so I had to leave it. The agent who first placed me however, was happy to have a punt on a potential placement, and placed an ad/sourced CVs and spoke to candidates all without having agreed any terms with my client.

The net result is: he found the candidate that they really like, he's got around £7,000 commission out of it, my client are very happy with me and him for working on this and he will probably get repeat business from them. The agent did ask if he needed to build something into his fees to 'kick back' to me, but I said no as I'm already getting paid by the client to help out with this.

I think this is a rather nice example of the symbiotic relationship that can exist between us contractors and agents. If more agents were more like this guy, and enabled us contractors to trust them and work with them, we'd all work together much more harmoniously and help the other party to earn more money!

Apologies for the pointless post, I just wanted to share the experience.