Executive Search Consultants: How to Choose One, and What to Ask
Most pages in this market sell you a search firm. This one explains how to pick between them, what retained search actually costs, which questions separate a real consultant from a CV forwarder, and where Alliance fits. 16+ years, 15,000+ placements, 36+ countries.
We help employers evaluate executive search consultants based on methodology, market reach, candidate assessment, communication, fees, and replacement terms. The goal is simple: choose a search partner that can demonstrate how it will deliver the right leadership hire, not just promise access to candidates.
16+ Years Of Experience
550,000+ Placements Delivered
36+ Countries Served
350+ Expert Teams
50+ Top Level Positions
What Is an Executive Search Consultant?
An executive search consultant is the individual who runs your leadership search: defines the brief, maps the market, approaches candidates directly, assesses them, and manages the process to offer. Not the firm. The person.
That distinction is the single most useful thing on this page. You do not hire a search firm; you hire a consultant who happens to work at one. Two consultants at the same firm will run your search to entirely different standards, which is why the question “who specifically will run this, and what have they placed?” matters more than any credential on the website.
The consultant differs from a recruiter in what they are paid for. A recruiter is paid to produce a candidate. A consultant is paid to run a defined process against a brief, including telling you when the brief is wrong.
Retained search means one firm, one mandate, fees billed across milestones. Contingency means several agencies racing, paid only on placement.
All Alliance appointments are permanent. We do not provide interim, fractional or contract executives.
For the full service, see our executive search firms page.
How to Select an Executive Search Firm
The honest selection criteria are not the ones firms advertise. Ask who runs the search, how many searches that consultant carries at once, what their completion rate is, and what happens if they leave mid-mandate. A firm quoting a global headcount is answering a different question. As executive search consultants, we would rather you asked us those four things than read our client logos.
How Long Does an Executive Search Take?
Brief and market mapping: weeks 1 to 2.
Confidential approach and assessment: weeks 2 to 5.
Shortlist: week 5 to 6.
Client interviews: weeks 6 to 8.
Offer and notice: weeks 8 to 10. Six to twelve weeks to offer is realistic. Anything under six either means the candidate was already known or the market was not mapped.
How Much Do Executive Search Consultants Cost?
Retained search is a percentage of first-year total compensation, billed across engagement, shortlist, and placement milestones. The global firms sit at the top of the market range and Alliance prices below that tier. Ask any firm for the percentage, the milestone split, and what happens to the retainer if the search is abandoned. A firm that will not answer the third question in writing is telling you something.
What You Should Expect From Any Search Consultant, Including Us
Named Consultant
Know exactly who will run your search and have access to their relevant placement experience before you sign.
Written Leadership Brief
A clear brief covering the leadership gap, year-one priorities, and criteria that could rule out an otherwise strong candidate.
Market Map
A documented view of relevant executives, where they work, and market compensation that you can retain.
Transparent Engagement Data
Clear reporting on outreach, response rates, and candidate engagement—not just the executives who agree to speak.
Structured Assessment
Every shortlisted candidate is assessed against your agreed criteria, including strengths, weaknesses, and potential concerns.
Written Replacement Guarantee
Clear replacement and engagement terms documented before the search begins, so expectations are understood from day one.
How a Retained Executive Search Runs
Brief and Scope (Week 1)
Business context, board expectations, the specific gap, and the compensation band. We agree what you will pay before searching, because a brief that does not survive contact with the market costs everyone six weeks.
Market Mapping (Weeks 1 to 2)
Systematic identification of everyone at this level in your sector and geography, delivered as a document that is yours to keep.
Confidential Approach and Assessment (Weeks 2 to 5)
Direct, discreet approach to mapped executives. Structured assessment against the agreed criteria. Expect us to report how many declined, not just who accepted.
Shortlist and Interviews (Weeks 5 to 8)
Three to five candidates with written assessment against each criterion, including weaknesses. Scheduling and feedback managed. The largest avoidable cause of lost senior candidates is a slow client-side feedback loop, and we will chase you about it.
Offer, Counter-Offer and Onboarding (Weeks 8 to 10)
Compensation structuring, counter-offer management and notice navigation. Counter-offer risk is managed from the assessment stage, not from the day the offer is issued.
Post-Placement Review (After Joining)
We check in after the executive joins to assess early progress against the agreed brief. Any role, performance, or alignment concerns are identified early, supporting a smoother transition and stronger long-term retention.
Comparing Executive Search Consultants?
Know what to ask before you choose a search partner. We’ll walk you through the key questions, fees, methodology, and terms.
Roles, Sectors and Markets
Chief Executive and founder transitions
Succession, turnaround and confidential replacement.
Chief Financial Officer
Including pre-transaction appointments that must survive diligence.
Chief Technology, Information and Information Security Officers
Technical leadership assessed by people who can evaluate the technical claim.
Chief Operating, Marketing and HR Officers
Operational, commercial and people leadership.
Vice Presidents and functional Directors
The layer below the C-suite, where most searches actually sit.
Country Managers and market-entry leadership
Cross-border appointments assessed in the destination market. See our executive recruiters practice for those.
Board and advisory appointments
Non-executive and governance roles, always confidential.
Sectors
Technology and SaaS, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and engineering, banking and financial services, energy and utilities, retail and e-commerce, construction and infrastructure, and private equity portfolio companies.
Markets
India, the Gulf, Southeast Asia, Europe, the UK, North America, and Australasia, across 36+ countries.
Who Reads This Page
Employers running their first retained search
comparing three proposals and unsure which differences actually matter.
Boards replacing an incumbent still in post
where confidentiality is the binding constraint and a contingency agency cannot be trusted with it.
Companies who have used a search firm and were disappointed
usually sold by a partner and delivered by a researcher, and now wanting the named-consultant question answered in writing.
Private equity and venture-backed portfolio companies
hiring against investor timelines where a twelve-week search is already two weeks late.
HR and talent leaders building a preferred-supplier list
needing selection criteria they can defend internally rather than a vendor pitch.
Founders making a first C-suite appointment
where the brief itself needs constructing before anyone searches.
Where Alliance Fits
A named consultant on the contract, with their placement history available on request.
Retained method at mid-market fee levels. The same process the global firms run, priced for businesses that are not Fortune 100.
You keep the market map, delivered as a document, whatever the outcome.
We report the decline rate. How many were approached, how many engaged, how many said no and why.
Confidential by default. Blind profiles, NDA-gated outreach, discreet client communication.
Abandonment terms stated in writing before you sign, not discovered later.
36+ countries with in-market assessment, so cross-border appointments are evaluated by people in the candidate’s market.
Permanent appointments only. No interim, no fractional, no contract executives. If you need a CFO for six months, we will say so on the first call.
When Alliance Is the Right Choice, and When We Are Not
We are the right choice when you need retained discipline without a Fortune 100 fee. Market mapping, confidential approach, structured assessment and a named consultant, priced against the size of the business hiring rather than the size of our cost base. That is a real gap in this market and it is where most of our work comes from.
We are the wrong choice in four situations, and it is worth saying all four.
If you are appointing a FTSE 100 or Fortune 100 chair or CEO, the largest global firms have partner networks and board relationships we do not. Use them.
If the role is below director level, retained search is over-engineered and a good contingency agency will cost you less.
If you need interim or fractional leadership, we do not provide it at all.
And if your last three searches failed because hiring managers would not give feedback, no search firm fixes that. We have declined mandates after discovery for exactly this reason.
For firm-level comparison, see executive search companies. Where the requirement is volume rather than leadership, our RPO services team handles it.
Our Client Reviews
We approached Alliance after struggling to find the right senior candidate through generalist agencies. They took the time to understand the role, mapped the market properly, and introduced a shortlist that was far more relevant than what we had received before.
The team handled our CEO search with the level of confidentiality we expected. They understood the leadership profile and approached candidates who were not actively looking, which ultimately led us to the right person.
Alliance’s research and assessment process stood out. We received a small number of well-qualified candidates rather than a large volume of CVs, which made the selection process much more efficient and focused.
Awards
Meet Our Leadership Team
Molly Anderson
Franchise Lead | Recruitment Franchise
Alex George
General Manager | RPO & Enterprise Recruitment
Nikki Miller
Head of Recruitment | Recruitment & Staffing
Frequently Asked Questions
An executive search consultant is the individual who runs your leadership search: defines the brief, maps the market, approaches candidates directly, assesses them and manages the process to offer. You hire a consultant, not a firm.
Ask four questions: who specifically will run the search, how many mandates they carry at once, what their completion rate is, and what happens if they leave mid-search. Then ask how confidentiality is enforced, meaning blind profiles, NDA-gated outreach and who inside your organisation is told.
Ask to see an anonymised sample assessment. A real one names where the candidate is weak. Ask for the decline rate on a recent search. A firm that reports only who accepted is not reporting.
A recruiter is paid to produce a candidate. A consultant is paid to run a defined process against a brief, including telling you when the brief will not work.
Retained means one firm, one mandate, fees billed across milestones. Contingency means several agencies competing, paid only on placement. Retained buys process and confidentiality. Contingency buys volume.
Six to twelve weeks to offer. Mapping takes 1 to 2 weeks, approach and assessment 2 to 5 weeks, interviews 6 to 8 weeks, and offer and notice 8 to 10 weeks.
A percentage of first-year total compensation, billed across engagement, shortlist and placement milestones. Ask any firm for the percentage, the milestone split, and what happens to the retainer if the search is abandoned.
The named consultant and their placement history, the milestone and abandonment terms, the replacement guarantee period, whether the market map is yours to keep, and how the decline rate will be reported.
With Alliance, yes. It is delivered as a document and is yours regardless of outcome. Many firms retain it. Ask.
Yes, on CEO, CFO and founder-transition searches built around portfolio timelines and board reporting cycles.
Book a thirty-minute scoping call. We will scope the requirement and tell you whether retained search is the right instrument before quoting.
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