The client shortlist checklist

Before a single candidate goes out

• Get the fee agreement signed and dated before you submitSigned terms, including the guarantee and the ownership window, before a resume leaves your outbox. A submission sent against a verbal agreement is the single most common way a boutique firm loses a fee it earned.
• Write the must have list in the client's own wordsThree or four requirements, quoted from the intake call rather than the job description. Read them back and get a yes in writing, because a paraphrase becomes a moving target eight weeks later.
• Confirm who signs the offer and who can stop itName the budget holder and every interviewer with veto power. Good looks like a list of people with titles, not a promise that the hiring manager decides everything.
• Agree the slate size and the presentation dateTell the client how many candidates you will present and when. Committing to four names by a stated Thursday forces your own sourcing discipline and gives the client a date to hold clear.
• Get written consent from every candidate before submissionA dated message where the candidate agrees to be presented to this named company. It protects your introduction and prevents the awkward call where a candidate is already in play elsewhere.
• Confirm the pay range you are allowed to stateAsk the client what range you can quote and whether the role is posted anywhere covered by state pay range rules. Get it in writing so you are not improvising a number on a first call.

Building a slate the client can compare

• Score every candidate against the same criteriaUse the three or four must haves from intake and apply them identically to each person. A slate that is comparable on the same axes gets a faster response than four unrelated profiles.
• Write two paragraphs instead of forwarding a resumeOne paragraph on why they fit the criteria, one on what the client should probe. If you cannot write both honestly, the candidate is not ready to present.
• Record current pay, target pay and notice periodCapture all three before the slate goes out. A candidate who needs more than the range or has a long notice period is a problem to raise now, not at offer stage.
• State the risk on each candidate yourselfThe gap in the resume, the short tenure, the relocation question. Naming it first buys credibility and stops the client from discovering it and doubting the whole slate.
• Include one candidate who tests the briefA strong person who breaks one stated requirement gives the client something to react to. Their reaction tells you whether the must have list is real or inherited from an old job description.

Presenting the shortlist

• Send one link rather than attachmentsA single place holding every candidate travels to the second interviewer intact. Attachments get renamed, stripped by mail filters, and separated from your summary within a day.
• Name the one decision you need this weekSay exactly what you want back: two people to first interview by Friday. A slate without a requested action invites a reply that says these look good, thanks.
• Show the stage every candidate is atSubmitted, screened, first interview, on hold. When the client can see stages without asking, the number of where are we emails drops immediately.
• Give each interviewer a place to leave feedbackFeedback attached to the candidate, not scattered across three reply threads. Good looks like a written line per interviewer that you can quote back during the debrief.
• Date stamp every introductionRecord the date and time each candidate was presented to this client. That record is what settles an ownership question months later, and it must exist outside your own mailbox.

Turning feedback into a decision

• Chase within two business days, not on FridaySet the follow up before you send the slate. Silence past forty eight hours usually means an internal blocker, and finding it early is worth more than a polite reminder later.
• Convert vague feedback into a criterion changeNot quite senior enough becomes a specific change to the must have list, confirmed in writing. Otherwise the second slate misses for exactly the same unstated reason.
• Log every decline with the real reasonWrite the reason on the candidate record the day it happens. It calibrates your next slate and protects you if the client hires that person themselves later on.
• Reconfirm the start date at every stageAsk the client and the candidate to restate the target start date at each round. Drift here is what turns a verbal yes into a counteroffer conversation.
• Close the search with a written summaryCandidates presented, stages reached, decision made, dates throughout. It supports your invoice, your guarantee period and the backfill this client will call you about.