Nov 12, 2020
To get a deal done, recruiters will sometimes say ridiculous things in emails and in person and not get a contract signed. This is a terrible idea as a signed contract is your safeguard against non-paying clients. However, there may be a few things you aren’t accounting for that might catch you off guard. So, in this Monday Morning Memo, we will be going over why recruiters want to get a signed contract versus creating a contract and a few situations that you might encounter. We’re going to go over hypotheticals here so you can relate to the situations we’re trying to describe
Hypothetical Situations You Might Encounter
A Client Doesn’t Want to Pay You.
If a client tells you that they won’t pay you, then you need to stop talking. If you end up saying, “fine, if you don’t feel like you owe me, then you don’t owe me a dime,” then you’re making a fool of yourself. You’ve just given your client something they can use in a court of law.
Grey Areas and Trying to Get the Deal Done
When you try to get the deal done with a client, grey areas can be a significant headache for you. For example, if you were to hypothetically say, “Hey, if we don’t present anyone that you don’t like, then you don’t owe us anything,” then you may have just created a grey zone for your deal. We understand that you’re trying to do it for risk reversal; however, it can cause several problems.
The “Reasonable Person Standard” in Courts
You’re going to encounter a problem that once you say something in the grey area, it turns into a different scenario in court. It goes into this reasonable person standard since you’re starting to use these feeling words. Some examples include “if you don’t feel” and “if you don’t like.” The court then creates this fictional person called the “reasonable person.” Once this happens, it becomes an uphill battle for you that could have been avoided.
Are There Alternatives to a Signed Contract?
There are a few ways that you can still collect even without a contract. For example, you can use email correspondence as a pseudo contract. It can be considered a meeting of the minds in that type of situation. However, an email pseudo contract doesn’t let you go after attorney fees, prevents you from getting anything more than statutory interest and things along those lines. So it is still a much better idea to get a signed contract as opposed to a pseudo contract.
Final Thoughts
A contract is one of the best tools that you have available to prevent client-related problems. There are certainly available alternatives, but none will be as good as an effective contract.
Key Takeaways
● Recruiters, sometimes, to get a deal done, will say incredibly stupid things in an email and not get a contract signed before they start.
● Using feeling words can create an uphill battle for you when you have to collect
● Recruiters can save themselves a lot of anguish and a lot of problems if they get a contract signed
● Get a contract signed before sending over candidates because it will become much harder to get one signed after. It’s like a prenup, it’s easier to get one signed before you walk down the aisle compared to when you’re married