After tech unicorn Powa’s fall from grace, it was revealed that its 1,200 clients hadn’t actually signed contracts.

While showing interest in the services they hadn’t actually committed to using them, which meant the £1.8bn success story quickly unraveled as its cashflow dried up.

Recruitment can sometimes carry a similar uncertainty around pushing a deal over the line and largely boils down to clarity around the terms of engagement.

To avoid being caught short you need to cover your bases.

Contingency or retained?

Are you working on a no-cure no-pay basis where you’re going to be pipped at the post by another recruiter with a better fitting candidate.

If you’re working on a retained basis where you have the exclusivity and security to simply focus on the deliverables and not the competition then speed is less of a precedent.

However, if you’re not, then you need to be recruiting with the awareness that time is a constant albatross around your neck and weigh up the likelihood of a placement materialising.

Try and gage the competition involved as you can’t afford to dedicate weeks of work to then lose a deal.

Did you get the MAN?

It’s an outdated acronym that might land you in hot water, but it’s simply a question of whether you have the decision maker or are being ring fenced in by a gatekeeper?

If they’re not the person or parties involved that have the money to afford you, the authority to make the decision and the current need to make a hire, then the deal is hinged on uncertainty.

Look for the WOMAN

The MAN forgets the critical importance of timing in the recruitment process, from "When" the interviews can be scheduled and the availability of the parties involved, to when the final decision needs to be made.

Who’s the "Other" competition that you’re placing against and who are the other parties involved?

Check the budget

Before you kick the recruitment process into gear, make sure the budget is signed-off by the powers that be.

Don’t do the legwork in finding the right fit, guiding the journey through the interview stages, to find the budget is yet to be signed as your candidate waits on a decision.

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Calum is the Content Marketing Executive for Sonovate - an award winning fintech game changer that has redefined finance for the contract recruitment industry.  @Calum551