Retained Executive Search
Retained Executive Search, Explained.
Retained executive search is an exclusive engagement: you hire one firm to run one dedicated search for a critical leadership seat, pay the fee in stages, and get a guaranteed outcome. Here's what that means in practice, how a FireSeeds search runs week by week, and what it costs.
The Definition
What Retained Executive Search Means
In a retained search, a company engages a single search firm, exclusively, to fill one specific leadership role. The firm is paid a retainer to run the search rather than a commission for whoever it happens to send over first. In exchange, it commits a dedicated team, goes directly to leaders who are not looking for a job, and stays with the search until the seat is filled.
The word 'retained' describes the fee, but the point is the relationship. Because the firm is paid to run a process rather than to win a race, its incentives line up with yours: get the right person, not the fastest available one.
Retained search is the standard for C-suite roles. It is also how well-run companies fill the seats one level down, the general managers, vice presidents, and directors who actually run the business day to day, when the cost of getting the hire wrong is high.
- Aligns your stakeholders on the role, the compensation, and who decides, before anyone goes to market
- Builds a specific profile of the right hire and approaches those people directly, including the ones who aren't looking
- Vets every candidate for capability, character, and cultural fit before you meet them
- Runs a standing weekly call so you always know where the search stands
- Handles references, offer construction, and counteroffer conversations through to acceptance
- Guarantees the placement, and re-runs the search if it doesn't work out within the agreed period
Retained vs. Contingent
Two Models. Opposite Incentives.
In a contingent model, recruiters get paid only when they fill a role, so they juggle dozens of openings, move fast, and hope something sticks. That model works fine for roles with broad talent pools. It breaks down at the leadership level, where the people you want aren't on job boards and won't respond to a stranger's message. The A Players you want aren't searching. They're already leading somewhere, and reaching them takes credibility, not a job posting.
In a retained model, you engage one firm to run one dedicated search. The fee is staged across the engagement, the work is exclusive, and the incentives flip: we're not paid to be fast. We're paid to be right. Every FireSeeds search comes with a guarantee. If the placement doesn't work out within the agreed period, we re-run the search.
Why Searches Fail
The Problem Isn't the Talent. It's the Process.
In almost every market, for almost every role, the talent exists. Executive searches don't fail because the right person isn't out there. They fail because the process breaks down: stakeholders who were never aligned on the role. Compensation that shifts mid-search. Interview processes that drive great candidates away. Feedback loops that go quiet.
We've built our entire model around protecting a search from the things that kill it, and we wrote the playbook on what those things are.
The Process
How a FireSeeds Search Runs
The Bullseye Meeting
Every search starts with every stakeholder in the room. We lead your executive team to define the role, the compensation, the success criteria, the cultural profile, and who holds final decision-making authority, before anyone goes to market. Misalignment at the start is the single most common reason searches fail.
The Search
We go to market with a clear, specific profile, reaching out directly to leaders who match it, including the ones who aren't looking. More than 90% of the executives we place are passive candidates: people we sought out, not applicants. These conversations require credibility and industry knowledge, which is why we only search in industries we actually know.
Identify
Every candidate goes through an extensive vetting process that evaluates capability, character, cultural fit, and readiness for this specific role. We determine who advances to your interviews, so the slate you see is the short list, not the long shot.
The Hire
We work alongside your team through formal interviews, references, offer construction, and counteroffer navigation until the seat is filled. The final decision is always yours. Getting you there cleanly is ours.
Timeline
What the Calendar Usually Looks Like
The first one to three weeks are calibration: the Bullseye Meeting, the profile, and the first market conversations that test it. From roughly week four through week eight we recommend candidates for your interviews. An offer typically goes to the top candidate between weeks eight and twelve for a leadership search, and between weeks twelve and sixteen for an executive search.
Along the way you'll usually interview two to four candidates, sometimes more, sometimes fewer. The searches that finish fastest are the ones where the client is ready to move when the right person surfaces, rather than holding out in case someone better appears.
Weekly Cadence
You'll Never Wonder Where Your Search Stands.
Every search runs on a standing weekly call. Market feedback comes in, the profile sharpens, and course corrections happen in real time. It's a genuinely collaborative process: every conversation calibrates the shared picture of who you need, so the search only gets sharper the longer we're in it.
This industry has a habit of collecting retainers and going quiet. We do the opposite: a transparent process, honest timelines, weekly communication, and a guarantee that backs it all up.
We needed someone in a niche of a niche. We've never found that through our own efforts. FireSeeds found a passive candidate that we never would have found on our own.
What It Costs
A Fee Structure Built Around the Result
You pay a deposit to launch the search, and then nothing more until you actually hire someone. From there it's a payment at hire and a final payment thirty days after your new leader starts.
Most search firms bill a third up front, a third around sixty days in, and the balance at hire, so you've paid two-thirds before you know whether anyone fits. We'd rather be paid for the result: the bulk of our fee comes after a successful hire, and our guarantee means we re-run the search if a placement doesn't stick. Specific fees depend on the role, and we quote them plainly in the first conversation. No surprises.
The honest comparison isn't our fee versus another recruiter's fee. It's our fee versus the cost of getting this hire wrong, which for an executive role typically runs many multiples of salary.
Is It Right for You?
When Retained Search Is Worth It, and When It Isn't
Retained search earns its fee when the seat is critical, when the people you want are employed and not looking, when the search needs to stay confidential, or when you've already tried and the last search stalled. It is how founders hire their first outside CEO, how a growing contractor finds a real VP of Operations, and how a company entering a new market gets the general manager who will make it profitable.
It is not the right tool for every hire. Roles with deep, active talent pools are often filled well by an in-house team or a contingent recruiter, and we'll tell you so. If we don't think we're the right firm for a search, we'd rather say it in the first conversation than learn it in the third month.
They 100% understood the assignment. We do a good job of recruiting for most of our roles. When we needed support in a new market, FireSeeds delivered two stellar new team members. The cost was an investment for us, but we definitely got what we paid for.
Questions We Hear Most
Retained Executive Search, Answered
The questions owners and boards ask before they engage a search firm, answered the way we'd answer them across the table.
Retained executive search is an exclusive engagement in which a company hires one search firm to fill one leadership role. The firm is paid a retainer to run a dedicated search process, rather than a commission for whichever candidate it sends first, and it stays with the search until the position is filled.
It aligns your stakeholders on the role before going to market, builds a specific profile of the right hire, approaches those leaders directly (most of whom are not looking), vets each candidate for capability, character and cultural fit, runs a standing weekly call with you, and manages references, the offer and any counteroffer through to acceptance.
A contingent recruiter is paid only if you hire their candidate, so they work many openings at once and move fast. A retained firm is paid in stages to run one exclusive search, so its incentive is to get the hire right rather than to be first. Retained search is the standard for executive and critical leadership roles; contingent works well for roles with large, active talent pools.
Typically one to three weeks of calibration, candidate recommendations from around week four to week eight, and an offer to the top candidate between weeks eight and twelve for a leadership role or weeks twelve to sixteen for an executive role. Searches finish faster when the client is prepared to move as soon as the right person surfaces.
Usually two to four, sometimes more or fewer. Every candidate you meet has already been vetted, so the slate is a short list rather than a long one.
At FireSeeds you pay a deposit to launch the search, nothing more until you hire, a payment at hire, and a final payment thirty days after your new leader starts. Most firms bill a third up front, a third around sixty days in and the balance at hire. Specific fees depend on the role and are quoted plainly in the first conversation.
Only one firm represents the role in the market. That lets us invest fully in the search, present your company consistently, and run a focused process, without candidates being approached by several recruiters about the same position.
We do. FireSeeds handles reference checks, negotiations and offer delivery once you and we are aligned on the overall package. The final decision is always yours.
The kickoff for every FireSeeds search. We bring your decision-makers into one room and align on exactly who the right hire is before anyone goes to market: the success profile, the experience that matters, the cultural fit, the compensation, and who holds the final decision.
Every FireSeeds search carries a guarantee. If the placement doesn't work out within the agreed period, we re-run the search. The specifics are set out in the engagement letter before we start.
No. Alongside CEO, COO and CFO searches, much of our work is the level below: vice presidents of operations, general managers, directors of preconstruction and estimating, and other seats that run the business day to day. The test is not the title but the cost of getting the hire wrong.
At the executive level, relocation is often part of securing top talent, though strong local candidates do emerge. For leadership roles, local talent is more common. Staying open to relocation is the surest way not to miss the best fit.
Ready to Run a Search That Finishes?
Tell us about the role. We'll tell you honestly whether we're the right firm to fill it, and if we're not, we'll say so.