Retainer

Retainer is the standard model for high-end executive search. Typically the total fee (28-33% of annual gross salary) is invoiced in three tranches: one third at engagement kickoff, one third at shortlist presentation, one third at hiring.

Unlike placement fee, the client pays even if no hire is made: in exchange the agency provides an exclusive mandate, structured methodology, deep market mapping and priority attention from the consultant. It is the right model for C-level roles or scarce profiles, where the risk of not closing is high and the client accepts sharing it with the agency.

What the client is paying for on a retainer is attention and method rather than the outcome alone, and that only works if the method is visible. A scheduled update showing the market mapped, the profiles approached and the responses received turns fifteen minutes into the evidence that justifies the second tranche, and prevents the silence that makes mandates get questioned internally.

Retained work also changes how a search should be portfolio-managed. Because the agency is paid regardless of outcome, the temptation is to accept more mandates than the team can genuinely carry, and quality decays across all of them. A weekly view of open mandates by age and stage, with an explicit decision to pause or return the stalled ones, protects the model that makes retainers defensible.