The CRM for recruitment agencies that answers the hiring manager, writes the fee proposal and reads the client's terms

The companies and the people below are made up; the steps are the product’s. Each step reaches you as a card on your phone: an email, a meeting or a document, with Send, Change and Skip. The plan that does each step follows its name.

1. 1

   The inquiryBook

   Monday, 4:40 PM. You run a six-person search firm for engineering leaders, and you are on a call with a candidate. Elena Park, chief technology officer of Fernhill Systems, a 120-person logistics software company in Denver, writes through the form on your site: “We need a VP of Engineering by the first quarter. Two agencies have sent us resumes on contingency and none of them fit. Can we talk about a retained search this week?” The form offers her times on the spot.

2. 2

   The replyBook

   She does not pick a time, so Tommo SDR drafts the reply in your voice: three questions (what base salary has the CEO approved, who sits on the interview panel, and is the role posted in public?) and three open times from your calendar. The card: “Tommo SDR: Send Elena the reply?” You press Send between calls.

3. 3

   The intake callYou

   Wednesday, 40 minutes on Google Meet. You ask about the role, the team and the deadline; Tommo Closer reads the transcript of the call.

4. 4

   The recapClose

   An hour after the call, the card with the recap: a VP of Engineering who reports to Elena and runs all of engineering, a base salary of $240,000, a start by February 1, the CEO signs the offer, and the search is exclusive to you. You promised the fee proposal by Friday. You fix one line and send.

5. 5

   The fee proposalClose

   Your terms sheet says: a retained search at 25% of the first-year base salary. At $240,000 that is $60,000, in three equal stages: $20,000 when the agreement is signed, $20,000 when you present the shortlist and $20,000 when the candidate accepts the offer. Each invoice is due in 15 days. If the hire leaves in the first 12 months, you run the search again for no fee. Tommo Closer writes the proposal email with those terms and no others. The card: “Tommo Closer: Send Elena the fee proposal?” When she goes quiet, Tommo Closer drafts the first follow-up after 4 days and the next 7 days later, the schedule you set; after the last one, it tells you where the deal stands.

6. 6

   The client's termsSign

   Elena says yes and sends Fernhill’s agreement for recruiting services as a Word file. Tommo Legal reads it against your positions and finds four departures: the whole fee is due only when the hire starts, with no retainer; the guarantee is a full refund if the hire leaves within 12 months, for any reason; payment is net 60; and Fernhill owes no fee for a candidate you introduced if it hires that person after the search closes. The card: the memo, and their agreement with your changes tracked. You restore the three stages, offer the second search in place of the refund, ask for net 15 and add a fee on any candidate you introduced who is hired within 12 months. Tommo Closer sends the redline on your Send, with the search agreement Tommo Legal drafted from your template.

7. 7

   The invoicesSign

   You mark the deal won. Tommo Closer reads the signed agreement and proposes the schedule: $20,000 at signing, $20,000 at the shortlist and $20,000 at the offer accepted, each due in 15 days. You accept it. The first stage is due at once; for the next two, a card proposes the invoice when you mark the shortlist presented and the offer accepted, and on your press it goes out through Mercury. If an invoice runs late, Tommo Closer drafts the reminder.

Sending on its own is off. After twelve approvals in a row of one kind of email with nothing to fix, a tommo asks for it.

On a contingency role, the client often briefs more than one agency. A 2026 playbook for contingent recruiters says so: “Multiple agencies often work the same role simultaneously, so speed and candidate quality both determine who wins.”¹ The agency that answers first, and asks for the salary range, the panel and the deadline before it quotes, writes the proposal the hiring manager reads first.

If an HR partner or a procurement manager writes instead, Tommo SDR answers the person who wrote and books the call with whoever owns the role.

The same playbook gives the rule that protects the fee: “Get terms signed before any candidates are submitted.”¹ Tommo Closer sends the fee proposal while the role is still fresh, and on Sign, Tommo Legal has your terms ready for signature before your first resume goes out.

Your fee is the part of the sale only you can set: the percent, what counts as first-year compensation, the stages, the guarantee, the markup that covers payroll and your margin. Share your terms sheet or rate card by link, and Tommo Closer writes the proposal email from it, whatever way you charge. If a number is missing, a card asks you for it.

Three agencies, three ways to charge (the figures are examples):

• A contingency agency. “20% of the first-year base salary on a $130,000 role, $26,000, due 30 days after the start date, with a free second search if the hire leaves within 90 days.”
• A retained search firm. “25% of the first-year base salary, in three equal stages: at signing, at the shortlist and at the offer accepted.”
• A contract staffing agency. “A software engineer on contract at a pay rate of $70 an hour and a 40% markup, a bill rate of $98 an hour, invoiced weekly, with a conversion fee if the client takes the engineer on staff.”

The market sits around those numbers. A 2026 US pricing guide puts direct-hire fees at “15% to 30% of first-year salary” and contract markups at “25% to 75%”, most often 35% to 50%². A US search firm describes the retained fee as “33% of the successful candidate’s first-year total cash compensation”, in three installments: at signing, at the candidate slate and at the offer accepted³. In the UK, a 2026 guide calls 17.5 to 20% “the sweet spot for most specialist recruiters” and puts temp markups at “15-30% on top of the worker’s pay rate”⁴. Tommo Closer writes the percent and the stages your sheet names.

On Sign, Tommo Legal drafts your agreement, the search or staffing terms and a mutual NDA from your own templates in your Drive, with the fee, the stages and the dates your sheet holds.

Larger clients send their own paper: a vendor agreement, an agreement for recruiting services, procurement’s master services agreement, purchase order terms. Tommo Legal reads each new agreement against your positions and returns a memo, clause by clause, with the wording to send back.

The clauses agencies push back on most:

• The fee and what it counts. The percent, and whether it is taken on the base salary or on the first-year total cash, with the bonus and the sign-on payment named. A retained fee keeps its stages, so the work you do before the shortlist is paid.
• The guarantee period. How long, and what the client gets. In a survey of Top Echelon’s network recruiters, 90 days was the most common period (44.9% of answers), and 61.4% chose a new search with no money back over a refund⁵. A clause that pays a full refund for any departure, for a year, is the one to change.
• Payment. Net 15 or net 30 after the start date or the invoice, not net 60, and the retainer before the search begins.
• Introduced candidates and non-solicitation. A fee when the client hires a candidate you introduced within 12 months, on this role or another. If the client asks that you never recruit from its staff, a limit in time on both sides.
• Liability. You answer for your own work, not for the candidate’s acts after the start date, and your liability has a cap tied to your fee.
• Temp to perm (UK). In England, Wales and Scotland, an employment business can charge a transfer fee when a client takes a temp on staff only if the terms let the client choose an extended period of hire instead, and not after the later of 14 weeks from the first day of the assignment or 8 weeks from the last⁶.

Exclusivity, the use of your candidate reports, data protection and governing law work the same way.

The memo is research, not legal advice; for a large client agreement, send it to your attorney with the markup already done.