A hiring manager sends the same role to four agencies, assuming more agencies means more candidates. She receives eleven CVs, three of them the same person, two candidates who have already been approached twice and one who has withdrawn because he was contacted by four people about one job.
She has not widened the search. She has degraded it.
The decision clients are making
Between reach and depth. More agencies feels like more options and frequently produces less, because nobody is invested enough to do the difficult work.
When multiple agencies make sense
High volume roles, genuinely different specialisms, geographic spread, and where a client has capacity to manage the coordination.
When exclusivity works better
Senior roles, specialist searches, sensitive hires, confidential replacements and anything requiring genuine headhunting rather than database matching.
Explain what duplication actually costs
Candidate confusion, a worse experience for the people you want to hire, arguments about ownership and a manager reading the same CV three times.
Explain the candidate's view
That being approached by four agencies about one job damages the employer's reputation before anybody has been interviewed. It is the argument clients respond to.
Explain what you commit to in exchange
Timescales, a stated number of candidates, a search rather than a database trawl and named consultant time. Exclusivity should buy something specific.
Explain the duration
That it is for a defined period rather than indefinitely, and what happens afterwards. Clients fear being locked in with nothing happening.
Explain the fee position honestly
Whether it differs, and why. A lower fee for exclusivity is common and should be stated rather than negotiated case by case, as in recruitment fee questions from hiring managers.
Explain candidate ownership
How it is established, what happens when two agencies submit the same person and how disputes are resolved. It should be in the terms rather than argued about later.
Explain the introduction period
How long an introduction stands, which is where most disagreements between agency and client originate.
Say honestly when you would decline
A role briefed to five agencies with no exclusivity may not be worth working properly. Saying so is a legitimate commercial position and clients respect it.
Publish your terms
Fee structure, exclusivity options, rebate terms and ownership rules, so a manager can compare rather than being told on a call, which is the transparency gap in service pages that leave prospects guessing.
Handle both audiences separately
Because candidates and clients arrive through the same channels and need entirely different responses, as in candidates and clients using the same inbox.
Explain what a proper brief needs
Agencies are given a job title and a salary and asked to find somebody, then blamed for sending the wrong people. Publishing what you need at the outset, the actual requirements, the team, the reason for the vacancy and what would make somebody successful, turns a vague instruction into a search that produces candidates a manager wants to meet.
Say how many agencies is sensible
Clients who will not work exclusively still benefit from restraint, and two agencies working properly outperform five working speculatively. Saying so plainly, even while accepting a non exclusive brief, is the advice that frequently converts a client to exclusivity on the following role.
Respond to briefs immediately
Because hiring managers brief in the evening and instruct whoever engaged first, which is the capture in an AI receptionist for recruitment agencies.
Getting started
Publish your terms, the exclusivity options and what each buys, then capture briefs at any hour and respond immediately. SpideyChat for recruitment agencies answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.