Right to represent: stopping duplicate submissions before they happen

A duplicate submission happens when the same consultant reaches the same end client through more than one vendor. Clients and managed service providers commonly reject both submissions, the consultant loses the opportunity, and the vendors argue over who had the right to represent.

It usually starts innocently: a resume shared in a hotlist is picked up by several vendors, each of whom believes they have permission. Without a shared record of who submitted whom, and where, nobody finds out until the client does.

Permission first

On Zignaltalent a bench sales team submits only consultants it owns on its own hotlist, and records that it has the consultant’s permission to represent them for that role. The submission carries that consent with it.

One consultant, one end client, one submission

When a consultant is submitted to a job, that consultant is held for that end client for 90 days. A second submission of the same consultant to the same end client is refused before it reaches anyone, whichever job it comes through. Withdrawing a submission, with a reason, releases the hold.

• The hold is per end client, so the consultant can still be submitted to other clients.
• The recruiter who receives the submission is told at once, with any note and the resume if one is attached.
• Every status change, from review to interview to placement, is recorded with who made it.

Why it matters to all three sides

Consultants keep control of where their profile goes. Vendors keep the placements they earned. Recruiters receive one clean submission per candidate instead of a dispute.