How to evaluate a retained executive search firm: 8 questions you should ask

If you're hiring at director level or above in US food manufacturing, you've probably been approached by half a dozen recruitment firms claiming to be "the specialists" for your industry. Most of them aren't.

Worse: picking the wrong one isn't just an inconvenience. A failed senior hire costs your business somewhere between $200K and $1.2M when you add up the salary paid during the failed tenure, the second search, the team disruption, and the lost commercial momentum.

Here's the framework I'd use if I were sitting on your side of the table, evaluating someone like me.

1. "How many searches have you actually closed in US food manufacturing in the last 12 months?"

The right number is somewhere between 6 and 25. Fewer than 6 and the recruiter isn't deep enough in your market to have a warm candidate pool. More than 25 from a single recruiter and you have to wonder how much attention each search got.

Ask for the role types too. A firm that closed 18 director-level food manufacturing searches last year, across operations, supply chain, quality, R&D, has a network you can lean on. A firm that closed 18 searches but four were in pharma and three in consumer electronics is selling you generalist scale dressed up as specialism.

2. "Who actually does the work?"

The answer tells you more than the firm's website ever will. At the big firms, the partner pitches the work and a researcher half their age does the search. At smaller specialist firms, the person taking your brief is the same person making the candidate calls.

There's no right answer to this question, but there's a wrong one: any version of "we have a team" without specifics about who owns what stages. If the named partner isn't on the candidate calls, you're not buying their judgment, you're buying their letterhead.

3. "What's your guarantee, and what triggers it?"

The food manufacturing recruitment standard is a 90-day rebate window. A senior leader takes six to nine months to fully embed. You're being asked to take all the risk in months four to twelve, which is exactly the period when fit problems start to surface.

Better firms offer 12-month guarantees. Read the small print. What triggers the guarantee? What counts as the candidate "leaving"? Is voluntary resignation covered, or only termination? What about counter-offers pre-start? Internal promotion?

If the firm dodges these specifics, the guarantee is theatre.

4. "Show me a case study where you placed someone for a business that looks like mine."

Specifics matter. "A frozen foods business" is not a case study. "A three-plant frozen foods business doing $220M with a Midwest plant running 30% below plan" is.

Ask to see written case studies with the situation, the search criteria, and the measurable outcome, OEE improvement, EBITDA contribution, audit performance, retention. If a firm can't show you anonymous-but-specific outcomes, they're either too generalist to have them or too transactional to track them.

5. "What sectors will you turn down?"

This is the test for true specialism. A specialist firm has a niche they refuse to leave. A generalist will quote you on anything.

If the firm says "we recruit across all of CPG, healthcare, and industrial", they're a generalist firm with a food manufacturing brochure. If they say "we only work in US food manufacturing, director level and above", that's a specialist.

The narrower the no, the deeper the yes.

6. "What's your fee, and when do I pay?"

A retained search fee in US food manufacturing is 25-33% of first-year compensation. The structure usually splits into three: a retainer at engagement, a milestone payment at shortlist, and the balance on placement.

The question isn't really about the number. It's about transparency. If you have to ask twice to get a clear answer on fees and payment schedule, you're going to have to ask twice for everything else too.

Bonus: ask whether they take contingency work. If they do for some clients, you've just learned what their standard is, and it isn't retained.

7. "What does your shortlist look like, and how long does it take?"

A retained search shortlist in this market is 3 to 5 finalists, presented between week five and week eight of the engagement. Each candidate should come with a written assessment, video interview summary, and compensation expectations.

Anything more than 5 candidates is the firm hedging. Anything fewer than 3 means the search was too narrow. If the firm can't tell you how long the last 5 searches took to shortlist, they're guessing.

8. "What happens if I decide not to hire any of your candidates?"

This is the cleanest test of the relationship. The wrong answer is "you've used your retainer, we have to start a new engagement." The right answer is "we re-scope, we don't bill again until we agree the new brief."

Search firms that treat a missed first shortlist as a reason to upsell are transactional. Search firms that treat it as part of the process are partners.

What to do with the answers

You're not looking for a perfect score. You're looking for two things.

Specifics over slogans. A firm that answers in numbers, examples, and named clients is doing the work. A firm that answers in adjectives, "industry-leading", "world-class network", "proven methodology", is performing the work.

Honest about limits. The firm you want to hire knows what they won't do, who they don't recruit for, and where their network ends. The firm you don't want to hire will tell you they can do everything for everyone.

If you're hiring a director-level leader in US food manufacturing in the next 12 months, ask me these same eight questions. I publish my answers, fees, guarantee terms, recent placements, sectors I won't take on, at williams-recruitment.com/how-i-work. Run the framework on me too.

If the answers earn me a discovery call, the easiest way to start one is at williams-recruitment.com/contact, or write to me directly at scott@williams-recruitment.com