Preferred supplier list (PSL)
A preferred supplier list is the short list of agencies a client has approved to work its roles, usually after a tender. Being on a PSL means access to roles, typically on the client's terms: a negotiated fee, a longer rebate period and rules on how candidates are introduced.
Clients create PSLs to control spend and reduce noise. Instead of taking calls from every agency in the market, they pick a handful, agree one set of terms and route roles through them, sometimes through a procurement portal or a managed service provider. Agencies off the list find hiring managers politely declining to talk, because the manager is no longer allowed to engage them.
Getting on usually involves a tender: a questionnaire on compliance, insurance, diversity reporting and data protection, references, and a fee proposal. Fees on PSLs are often lower than an agency's standard rate, and a PSL may set service levels such as a shortlist within five working days. A PSL is not exclusivity. Several suppliers normally receive the same roles, so in practice most PSL work is multi-agency contingent recruitment with better access.
A worked example. A client moves to a PSL of four agencies at 17 per cent with a 16-week sliding rebate. An agency that previously billed that client at 20 per cent on around six placements a year at £50,000 sees each fee drop from £10,000 to £8,500. If PSL access doubles the number of roles it sees, the account can still grow; if the other three suppliers take the extra roles, it shrinks.
PSL relationships are reviewed. Clients measure suppliers on fill rates, time to shortlist, candidate quality and compliance, and drop the weakest at renewal. An agency that tracks its own numbers for each PSL client can walk into that review with evidence rather than anecdotes, and can decide on the same evidence whether the account is worth keeping at the rate on offer.
Where it goes wrong: an agency wins a place on the list and keeps invoicing at its old rate; consultants carry on using the agency's own terms and rebate schedule with a client whose supplier agreement overrides them; or the PSL comes up for renewal and nobody in the agency knew the date.
How Vayora handles it
A deal can be marked on PSL or off PSL in its exclusivity field, next to its engagement type and fee, so the BD board shows which opportunities come through a supplier agreement and which you are trying to win from outside one. A client carries its own fee, perm and contract payment terms and the date terms were agreed, and shows MSA signed and expiry dates where they are recorded, which is where a supplier agreement that overrides your standard terms belongs. Invoice due dates follow the client's terms before yours. Vayora does not track PSL tenders or renewals as their own objects; use a deal with a next-step date for those.
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