Exclusivity (exclusive vs multi-agency briefs)
Exclusivity is an agreement that one agency alone works a role for a set period, usually two to four weeks, before the client briefs anyone else. A multi-agency brief is the opposite: several agencies work the role at once and the first to introduce the person who is hired earns the fee.
Agencies ask for exclusivity because it changes the odds. On a multi-agency brief most of the effort goes unpaid; on an exclusive one the consultant can afford to headhunt properly, interview candidates before presenting them and send a considered shortlist rather than the first plausible CVs. Clients agree to it when they get something in return: a committed shortlist date, a reduced fee, weekly updates, or simply the confidence that candidates are not being approached by four firms at once.
A worked example. A client offers a £50,000 role to three agencies at 20 per cent. One agency proposes 18 per cent for three weeks' exclusivity, with a shortlist of four interviewed candidates within ten working days. The fee drops from £10,000 to £9,000, but the agency's chance of earning it rises from one in three at best to most of the way to certain, provided it delivers. The client gets a better shortlist and one relationship to manage.
Good exclusivity is written down with a start date, an end date and what happens at the end: does the role revert to multi-agency, or can it be extended if the shortlist is in process? It should also say whether the client's own direct applicants and internal referrals fall outside it, because that is where most disputes start.
Exclusivity is easiest to win at the start of a relationship or straight after a failure. A new client willing to try the agency on one role will often accept a short exclusive window as the price of a proper search. A client whose role has been open for two months with four agencies is usually ready to hear that the multi-agency approach is the reason it is still open, and that one committed supplier would close it faster.
Where it goes wrong: exclusivity agreed verbally that the client does not remember; a client that briefs another agency in week two because nobody told them the shortlist was coming; or an agency that wins exclusivity and then works the role no harder than a contingent one, which is the fastest way to never be offered it again.
How Vayora handles it
A deal carries an exclusivity field, set to exclusive, non-exclusive, on PSL or off PSL, alongside its engagement type, fee percentage and rebate period, and a list of the other agencies on the mandate so the record shows who you are up against. A deal also has a next step with a date, which is where an exclusivity end date belongs today: Vayora does not yet track exclusivity windows as their own dates or remind you when one lapses. When a signed deal becomes work, it converts into a role from the deal record, keeping the commercial context attached.
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