Contract Renewal Time Rise
This is the first of a 3 part series that we are running on getting a contract renewal time rise from both your client and your agent at renewal time.
Starting the Contract
Once you’ve started a contract, knock yourself out for the first month to get yourself a good reputation. So, once you’ve made a reputation, good or bad, it will be very difficult to lose it.
Once you’ve made yourself a good reputation, try to ingratiate yourself with the boss a bit. Certainly ingratiate yourself with the one who is going to be responsible for your renewal, and who knows what cut the agency are taking.
Some bosses won’t tell you this last piece of information. However, the better you get on with them (or the more inebriated that you get them), the more likely they are to cough this precious piece of information up.
An alternative source of information will be the boss’s secretary. She (or he) will have the information.
And she (for it is usually a she), will also find it difficult to keep this piece of information to herself. That’s especially as someone else wants it so much.
She will not give it to you the first time that you ask. However, she will eventually, “as long as you don’t tell anyone that I told you”. Of course you won’t. You don’t need to tell anybody. You just need to have that information.
Two Contract Renewal Time Rises
If you’ve done a good job (or got a good reputation, or they like you), the chances are that they’ll renew you. Now you must make sure that you get a good contract renewal time rise.
In fact, you must get two good increases, i.e. one from the company and one from the agent.
Take your boss out a couple of weeks before you are up for renewal. Wine him and dine him (or her). If you don’t want to do that, go out for a drink with him at lunchtime or in the evening. Make sure that you buy the first drink.
Contractors Are Salesmen
Contractors don’t do enough of this, but they should be salesmen (or saleswomen) for their business services, and do more of the requisite ‘sweetening’.
Make sure that your boss has a favourable impression of you by the time he or she gets the suggested increase from your agent. The contract renewal time rise that you want from both the company and your agent, will be presented to your boss first.
Don’t worry about upsetting him, he knows that it is a negotiation. In fact the higher the figure that you put, the more likely that he is likely to come up with a higher figure than he originally wanted as a compromise.
That is human nature. He may give you everything that you ask for, and that has happened before. This would be a win for you. That’s because you would still have some fat that you can cut from the agency at your next renewal.
Keep the Boss Informed
In most circumstances though, he or she will come back to the agent with some compromise deal. Whatever this deal is, it should be acceptable to you – but you want more.
And the agency hasn’t coughed up anything yet. The important thing is not to lose your job over it. Therefore, you must speak to your boss, and tell him that you will be renewing your contract. Tell him to ignore anything that the agency will say, as it is now down to negotiation between you and them.
He is far more likely to be on your side than that of the agent.
Renewal Rise Offer Not Acceptable
You then tell the agency that your boss’s offer is not acceptable to you. You have a good offer elsewhere which you are considering.
You should tell your agent that you would rather remain where you are, but that you don’t want to lose out financially. Say that the other job is closer to home. He or she will enquire as to who or where it is (it is an automatic reflex action for them). However, you would rather not tell them – especially as it doesn’t exist.
The agency will get back to the client and tell them that his offer is not acceptable to you. They’ll say that you want more (and possibly that you have been offered another job).
Offered Another Contract
Your boss may get back to you for further reassurance that you actually are staying on. If he doesn’t, you should make sure that you ask him, when you see him, if the agency have been in touch.
You once again tell him that everything is fine, and that you are just trying to get some more money out of the agency. Say that you are happy with what he has offered.
If he says something to you like, “but they said that you had been offered another contract”, just say “Did they?” with a puzzled look.
Your boss will definitely be on your side if the agency are getting up to sneaky tricks like that. And you haven’t lied either. You were just asking him a question.
Contractor Check Mates Contract Agency
You now have all your chess pieces in play, and the agent either has the choice to let you go, and tell the client that you are going (almost unheard of), or give you what you want.
It is not considered good form to stand out completely for the contract renewal time rise you quoted, so you should accept a little less, just to give them a better feeling of well-being. As I say, this is considered good form.
You would, of course, have added this bit on in the first places, as you would have allowed for this.
The Equation is what you think your boss can afford + what you think your agency can afford + the bit you’re going to take off later as a compromise.
Read Part 2- Contract Renewal Rise – How Best to Get One and Part 3- Contractor Renewal Rise – Buy Out the Agency
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Where this doesn’t work:-
1) Immediate client manager might be willing to sell his kids to keep you but if the decision several layers above is “no rises” it wont happen.
2) If agency is ONLY agency on PSL then they won’t care if you leave. They’ll just let you leave and phone client with an alternative contractor who they can maintain they’re margin (or more) with.