What a good brief looks like

Everything we do begins with a brief, and the quality of the brief decides the quality of what comes back. A network answers precise questions and ignores vague ones. Here is what a good brief contains, for each of our three areas, and how we treat it once we have it.

The object, named

For a car: the model, the series or year range, the specification that matters (gearbox, colour and interior if they matter, options that are non-negotiable), the condition expected, and whether a delivery-mileage example is the aim or a well-kept driver would do. For a watch: the reference, the dial variant, full set or not, the condition, the year range if it matters. For a property: the place, as precisely as possible — a stretch of coast, a village, a street — the position, the type, the size, and the intended use. The more a brief reads like a description of the thing itself, the faster it can be put to the person who holds it.

The horizon

A search with no horizon is a search with no urgency, and a network responds to urgency. "Within the year" and "as soon as the right one appears" are different briefs that are put to different people in different ways. We ask, and we respect the answer: a client who is in no hurry will not be pressed.

The budget, as a boundary

We ask for a range because it tells us where to look and where not to. We never repeat it. Not to the seller, not to a dealer, not in a message. The budget a client entrusts to us is a boundary for our search, never a figure in a negotiation. This is a rule, not a courtesy, and it is one of the reasons sellers in our network speak to us openly: they know the buyer's position is not being telegraphed.

What stays confidential, and what does not

The client's identity is not disclosed until the client agrees to meet the seller. The brief is shared with the people who can answer it, in the form needed to answer it, and no further. A non-disclosure agreement is available on request for clients who want the arrangement in writing. On the other side, we do not reveal a seller's identity to a client before the seller has agreed to the introduction. Both parties meet because both have chosen to.

What happens next

Once the brief is clear, we put it to our network. When something matches, we verify it — documents, condition, provenance, the standing of the seller — and we write a summary note of one or two pages: the exact piece, what has been checked and how, where it stands relative to comparable transactions, the open points, the next step. The client reads it and decides whether to proceed to an introduction. If nothing matches, the client hears that too, with what we have learned about where the search stands.

If you are not sure how to describe what you are looking for, start with what you know. A short conversation usually turns an idea into a brief.