When clients go direct after an introduction you made

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

Introduction

A candidate is introduced, interviewed, and not appointed. Four months later they start at that company in a slightly different role, and nobody mentions it. The agency finds out through the candidate or through a professional network months afterwards.

Sometimes this is deliberate and sometimes it genuinely is not, and in both cases the agency is usually owed a fee and unable to demonstrate it easily. The remedy is not a stronger legal threat but a set of ordinary habits that make the introduction provable and the obligation clear before anything happens.

1. When clients go direct after an introduction, the evidence decides it

Everything depends on what you can show.

An introduction you can date, in writing, to a named person is enforceable. One that happened in a conversation, or by an email nobody kept, is a claim you will not pursue and the client knows that.

2. Confirm every introduction in writing

The single most protective habit.

An email naming the candidate, the role and the date, sent to the client at the point of introduction. It takes a minute per candidate and it is the difference between a right and an argument.

3. Have terms the client actually accepted

Not terms attached to a signature block.

Written terms, agreed before work started, setting out the introduction fee, the period it applies for and what constitutes an introduction. Terms sent after the candidate was submitted are considerably harder to rely on.

4. Define the introduction period clearly

The most disputed clause.

How long after an introduction a fee remains payable, and whether it applies to any role or only the one discussed. A candidate hired eight months later into a different position is exactly the case these clauses exist for.

5. Keep the candidate relationship

Your best source of information.

A candidate who stays in touch will usually tell you when they have been approached again or appointed. Losing contact after a rejection is how these situations remain invisible until long afterwards.

6. Notice the signals

Patterns are visible if anybody looks.

A client who interviews extensively and never appoints, who asks for detail beyond what is needed, or who suddenly stops responding after a strong shortlist. None is proof and together they are worth paying attention to.

7. Raise it directly and calmly first

Most cases resolve without escalation.

A polite enquiry noting the appointment and referring to the terms is frequently met with an apology, an oversight admitted, or an invoice paid. Opening with a legal threat converts a recoverable fee into a dispute and ends the relationship regardless of outcome.

8. Decide in advance what you will pursue

A commercial judgement, not an emotional one.

Some fees are worth escalating and some are not, once time and relationship cost are counted. Having a threshold decided beforehand prevents both the reflexive escalation and the resigned acceptance of losing a substantial fee.

9. Reduce the incentive

Prevention through service.

Clients go direct more often when they feel the fee exceeded the value, when the process was slow, or when the relationship was transactional. Agencies that are genuinely useful throughout the process experience this far less.

Keep a record of what happened, whatever you decide to do about it. A client who has done this once is more likely to do it again, and that is relevant information when deciding what terms to offer them next time and whether to work exclusively.

Conclusion

Make the introduction provable, because that is what determines whether you have a claim or an argument.

Confirm every introduction in writing on the day it happens, agree terms before submitting anybody, define the introduction period and whether it covers other roles, stay in contact with candidates who were not appointed, watch for the patterns that suggest it is happening, raise it calmly before escalating, decide your threshold for pursuing a claim in advance, reduce the incentive by being genuinely useful, and record it for future dealings with that client.