Retained search is an engaged, diagnostic-driven process, not a résumé-matching service. Every search runs through the Sales Leadership Certainty System™: Diagnose, Define the Role, Find the Leader, Prove the Fit, and Accelerate Success. It's built around your business, not a generic candidate database.

Leadership roles like VP Sales, Director of Sales, Commercial Director, and GM, plus hard-to-fill individual talent like key account managers and sales engineers when the role controls major accounts. Timelines vary by role and market, and every search starts with a diagnostic conversation.

Retained search is the middle of the three options ($$). The fee is based on the new hire's first-year compensation and paid in stages: some at kickoff, some when your new hire starts, and the rest over their first six months on the job. That staging is how I share the risk with you. If you're genuinely unhappy in the first six months, you stop paying. I'll walk you through the exact numbers on our first call.

I stay involved through a 90-day onboarding partnership. If you're genuinely unhappy at any point in the first six months, you simply stop paying. No dispute, no clawback of what's already been paid.

Founder-led or family-owned Ontario companies, roughly 75 to 750 employees and $25M to $500M in revenue. Most of my work is with construction, building-products, and industrial manufacturing companies, though the fit is really about size and structure more than sector.

Doing it yourself looks free, but the real cost is your time and the cost of a hire that doesn't work out. A staffing agency matches résumés at volume and is usually paid when someone starts, whether or not they last. I build a plan around your business first, assess every finalist the same way, and get paid over your new hire's first six months, backed by the walk-away guarantee.

It's a second opinion on the person you're about to hire. You've run your own search and you're down to a finalist or two. I put them through the same assessment process behind every search I run, so you know what you're really hiring before the offer goes out.

Psychometric, cognitive and skills testing. A three-hour structured interview with me. A role play built around the real job. Reference checks. You get a scored, written report with a clear recommendation, not a personality printout you have to interpret yourself.

Because "good" looks different in every company. A few of your strongest performers complete the same assessments, so your candidate is measured against what already works in your business, not against a textbook average.

It's the lightest of the three ways to work with me ($), priced per candidate. I'll confirm the fee once I know the role. Timing is set at kickoff and built around your offer date, so the review never becomes the reason you lose the person.

That's the point of it. Every candidate is assessed against the same job-related criteria using validated tools, and the results are scored and documented. It's built with the Ontario Human Rights Code in mind, so you have a clear record of why the decision was made.

Retained Search means I handle everything, start to finish, including sourcing and outreach. The Final Candidate Review picks up at the end: you found the person, I make sure they're the right one. Same assessment rigour, applied to your candidate instead of mine.

When there's a gap at the top of sales or HR and leaving it empty isn't an option, I step in personally and run the function myself (managing the team, making the calls, keeping the business moving) until the right permanent person is in place.

Scope and time commitment are worked out based on what the gap actually needs. There's no fixed term. It ends the moment you no longer need it, whether that's a permanent hire or the gap otherwise being resolved.

It's the biggest investment of the three ($$$). It runs as a monthly retainer, scoped to what the gap actually needs... usually heavier at the start, then tapering as things get moving. And the walk-away guarantee applies: stop paying anytime in the first 6 months.

Yes. Along with running the function, I audit how you recruit, select and support sales leadership: the profile you hire against, how candidates are interviewed and assessed, and how a new leader gets set up to succeed. The next hire is the one that has to last.

Yes. I help transition the new permanent person in, the same way I do with any placement, so the interim period doesn't cost you momentum.

There's no salary, benefits or long-term commitment... just a monthly retainer you can walk away from in the first six months. Retained Search is about finding your permanent leader; Fractional VP covers the seat while that search happens. Several clients use both together.