Retained Search Frequently Asked Questions
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Our boutique retained search practice focuses on commercial (revenue-driving) senior-level individual contributor and leadership roles, typically in Sales, Account Management, Marketing, Customer Success, Revenue Operations, etc. We have a particular depth of experience in Digital Media, Tech, SaaS, Business Intelligence, and Analytics. Yet, our client base is diverse, ranging from Non-Profit to CPG Market Services, Retail POS Tech to Luxury Real Estate.
Our extensive network of talent built over 50 years is: diverse, highly skilled, and committed to their careers. As a result, our clients find peace of mind knowing that our firm will only connect them with professionals who have a proven track record in revenue, excelled in their field, or demonstrated outstanding potential (if early on in their careers).
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Over the years, we have worked with a variety of start-ups and high-growth companies, as well as well-established organizations across sectors, including tech, media, nonprofit, etc. As a result, our team has a depth of expertise in recruiting across verticals and stages of growth to help our clients hire employees who bring value, diversity of thought and backgrounds, and outstanding commercial skill sets.
Recent client examples include:
among others.
If you want to hear directly from one of our clients, please read this case study or let us know if you'll like to get in touch with a reference.
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We work on a retained basis and charge 25% of the projected salary, billed in thirds:
One third due within 10 days of contract signing date (nonrefundable)
One third due within 10 days of an accepted offer
One third due within 30 days of the start date
Our model allows us to be selective around the searches we manage, maintaining a high-touch approach that leads to increased retention and a positive candidate experience, which is reflected positively on our client's employer brand.
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Our process starts with a kick-off call where our team seeks to understand your needs, values, and goals for the new hire. After the kick-off call, we go full tilt ahead:
Drafting an engaging job brief designed to attract top talent.
Mapping the market.
Researching the competitive landscape and salary benchmarks.
Sharing the role with our network.
Proactively reaching out to top talent on LinkedIn.
Every candidate has a minimum of two conversations with our team before they are introduced to our clients.
We carefully vet their resume, verify their LinkedIn profiles and draft a thorough introduction that highlights why we believe they a candidate could be the right fit for the role, including our recruiter's take.
Due to our careful vetting approach, our lead time for initial candidate submissions is two to three- weeks from the launch date. The length of the process is greatly affected by our client's internal steps, but a typical range from start to finish is three months. In contrast, the average time to hire internally is six months, so partnering with us means you will have fully ramped revenue producing employees sooner.
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There is not one size fits all or a magic ratio here. Recruiting is intuitive and constantly changing because it involves the many complexities of human decision making. Keeping this in mind, if we count sourcing and outreach as well as applications, our team typically vets 300+ profiles per role. We do a lot of vetting (through written exchanges and our own research) before moving a candidate forward, which results in higher conversion rates for our clients (4:1 interview: hire ratio). Our goal is to be both resourceful, thorough and efficient: our sourcing is guided by timely feedback from our clients..
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Whatever the current state of the hiring market, it can feel daunting to try to find the ideal candidate for open roles. Our process combines leveraging our extensive network of individuals and organizational partners and deep sourcing (typically on LinkedIn and through our applicant tracking software). We work all channels simultaneously and are proud to say that many of our placements come from referrals sent by our trusted network of revenue professionals. Recruiting and sourcing are very time-consuming for hiring managers, which is why partnering with CFW careers makes sense: your team can focus on their jobs while we take care of the most time-consuming parts of the talent process.
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Yes! At CFW Careers we have extensive expertise working with start-ups and growth companies who need advice on the Talent process. We can offer interview training, onboarding coaching, scorecard design and guidance around employer brand and talent best practices. Once you have an established team, we can help you design career pathing strategies to increase retention and growth. We will give you all the support you need as you grow your team and will take care of the details so you can focus on your business growth and team. We are also expert career coaches who have worked with many professionals to help them be set up for success in the first 90 days of their new roles. To learn more about this side of our business, please click here. If you are ever forced to part with team members due to layoffs- we can support you with outplacement services, which helps protect your employer brand investment and maintain higher morale with the remaining employees.
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CFW was founded in 1973 by David King, one of the first men to champion and place women in sales. We remain committed to our roots and place Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the center of all our talent development efforts. Our commitment to our clients and partners is to always empower them with the tools to implement equitable hiring practices, present diverse slates, and help them increase retention with career pathing and coaching programs that help employees thrive.
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Our process is designed to set everyone up for success, but beyond process, partnership with hiring managers is essential to a successful talent process. As a result, when working with CFW Careers you can expect: An in-depth search launch (outlined above see: How long does the hiring process typically take from launch to hire? ) Detailed, specific candidate submissions with clear reasons why we are submitting the individual for review and interview. A diverse slate Transparency, professionalism, integrity and respect for all candidates and clients We expect our clients to partner with us and encourage them to give us: Timely feedback following interviews An open minded approach to our feedback Close collaboration on job briefs, offer negotiations, and candidate reviews. Bi-weekly alignment calls with hiring managers to review the candidate slate and discuss what is going well and what can be improved.