Sales recruitment methodology - Calibrated to the hiring impact.

No. Every candidate is assessed against the agreed Success Profile and every candidate’s claimed performance is tested in context. Priority adds further documentary corroboration and earlier referencing where appropriate. Executive adds leadership, reputation and strategic-fit diligence.

The standard of care remains consistent. The depth of market coverage and supporting diligence is what changes.

We consider market accessibility, talent scarcity, commercial consequence, confidentiality and the evidence required before an offer can be made. Job title and salary provide context, but neither determines the model alone.

Where a focused Standard Search is sufficient, that is what we will recommend.

When your hire starts — not when an offer is accepted. The fee is fixed and agreed in writing before the search begins, and the invoice is issued on the candidate’s first day, on fourteen-day terms. If a candidate accepts and then doesn’t start, nothing is payable and the search continues.

Executive Search is the one exception. An activation fee is payable at commencement and credited in full against the professional fee, with the balance invoiced on the start date.

Because one firm, fully committed, is faster than three firms hedging. A multi-agency race produces duplicate approaches, spooked candidates and hedged effort — every firm involved is working on one-in-three odds, so none can afford the market mapping, direct approach and Opportunity Prospectus that actually reach the strongest people. And a candidate approached by three agencies about the same role in the same week draws the obvious conclusion about the employer.

The trade is deliberate. Nothing is payable until your hire starts, and in exchange the search runs as one committed campaign — 30 days on Standard Search, 45 on Priority — with a shortlist date you can hold us to. Executive Search runs the same way by nature of the retained mandate.

The shortlist date is committed, not estimated: within 10 business days on Standard Search and 15 on Priority. These are dates you can hold us to — if we miss one, you may release us without obligation. Executive Search runs to milestones agreed at calibration, typically 30–60 days given confidentiality and market depth.

Compare that with where most searches start — weeks of advertising that reaches only whoever happens to be looking. A committed campaign is not the slow option. It is usually the fastest route to candidates worth hiring.

You can release us. Every campaign carries a shortlist commitment — ten business days on Standard Search, fifteen on Priority. If we haven’t presented a qualified shortlist by then, you’re free to end the engagement without obligation.

The deadline runs in your favour, not ours. The campaign gives us control of the search; the shortlist date is how you hold us to it.

You’re free to engage other firms, or to continue with us — most clients continue, because by that point the shortlist exists. Candidates we’ve introduced remain our introductions for twelve months, so a hire made from our work after the period ends carries the agreed fee.

The campaign period covers the search. The introduction protection covers the work.

We identify relevant performers through targeted research and approach them directly with a considered case for the opportunity. Priority and Executive Search extend the breadth and persistence of that work and use bespoke campaign assets to support candidate engagement.

We examine quota history, deal size, sales cycle, territory, customer segment, market conditions, support structure and what the candidate inherited versus built. The central question is not simply whether target was achieved, but what produced the result and whether those conditions are transferable to your environment.

Replacement protection is aligned to the engagement model: three months for Standard Search, six months for Priority Search and twelve months for Executive Search, subject to the agreed terms.

The assurance is the backstop. The principal risk-reduction work occurs during calibration, market engagement, assessment and offer management.