Ask for the Number
A buyer’s checklist for vetting a search firm. Ten questions. Ask before the engagement letter.
Vendor Evaluation · Field Guide · PDF
Most search firm relationships are agreed to in a conference room before the terms are in writing. The questions below are designed to be asked before the room agrees to anything. A firm that cannot answer them clearly is telling you something.
“We answer all ten on this site. Ask everyone else to.”
THE TEN QUESTIONS
Their 24-month retention number, in writing.
Not a claim. The number, with the denominator.
What the retainer actually funds.
Itemized - and what happens if the search stalls.
Who runs the search versus who sold it.
The partner who pitched and the recruiter who sources are often different people.
Whether a written definition of winning exists before candidates enter.
If they source before defining winning, they are sourcing blind.
An evidence file per finalist, or impressions.
Documented behavioral evidence and red flags - in writing, before the presentation.
References run against the definition, or references run for comfort.
Ask for the reference framework. If they cannot describe one, it is a formality.
The integration plan past the start date.
The placement fee should buy a hire - not a candidate.
Whether intelligence work gets re-billed inside the search.
Market mapping is often included in retained language and then invoiced separately.
Whether they will tell you when NOT to hire them.
A firm honest enough to say 'we are not the right fit' is a search partner. Most will not say it.
Whether their pricing survives being written down.
If the terms change when written, the verbal conversation was not the real one.
“We answer all ten on this site. Ask everyone else to.”
Reading about discipline is not the same as installing it.
23 questions. About ten minutes. A scored read of where your hiring breaks.
