How does the replacement guarantee actually work?

If your hire resigns, or is dismissed for cause, within 90 days of starting, I run a full replacement search for the same role at no further fee — one replacement per placement. Being straight about what it does not cover, because vague guarantees are how these turn into arguments: it doesn't apply to redundancy, restructure, a change to the role or its reporting line, a relocation or shift pattern that wasn't in the brief, a merger or funding change, an offer changed after acceptance, or the hire leaving because of how they were managed or because promised responsibilities didn't materialise. It also requires that all my invoices were paid on time, that you told me about the departure within 14 days, and that the exit was handled properly. I control who I present and how well I vet them. I don't control what happens to them once they're inside your business — and I'm not able to absorb a second full search when the reason for the departure sits on your side.

Is the fee contingent on placement?

Partly, and deliberately so. The retainer is non-refundable and covers the search itself — market mapping, outreach, and screening are real work that happens whether or not you hire, and a purely contingent recruiter is economically pushed to send you volume fast rather than the right person slowly. The balance falls due on the agreed start date. Two things worth knowing: the fee is still due if the hire's start is delayed, and if you withdraw the role after the shortlist is delivered — restructure, budget freeze, an internal candidate appearing — a cancellation fee covering the work completed applies, credited in full against a future search with me within 12 months. Invoices unpaid 14 days past due suspend the guarantee and any active search; past 30 days the engagement ends.

What happens if I hire someone you introduced later, or for a different role?

The fee is still due, and this is standard across the industry rather than something I've invented. If you, or a company in your group, employ or engage a candidate I formally introduced — as an employee, contractor, or consultant, for this role or any other — within 12 months of that introduction, the full placement fee applies. It protects the one thing I actually sell: introductions I spent weeks finding. I'll tell you at the time if I think a candidate fits a different role better, so this should never be a surprise. Candidates I identify and approach for your search remain my introductions and aren't passed to you outside this engagement.

Why should I use you rather than post the job and search LinkedIn myself?

For some roles you shouldn't, and I'll say so — if the role is well-defined, in-demand, and applicants come to you, a good ad and two weeks of your time will fill it more cheaply than I will. Where I earn the fee is the role where the right people are employed, not looking, and won't reply to a template message: someone has to build the map, make the approach credibly, and hold the conversation about why they'd move. I'll also do the part you can't easily do yourself — tell a candidate the honest downsides of your role early, so you don't discover them at week six. Cheapest per hire and cheapest per successful hire are different numbers.

Will you approach my staff for other clients?

No. For the duration of the engagement and for 12 months afterwards, I don't approach anyone employed by you for another client. That is written in, and I'd rather you had it in writing than as a promise. It also applies to whoever I place with you. Everything you share — your salary bands, your org structure, your reason for the vacancy, an internal problem that created it — is confidential and never used in another search or mentioned to a candidate without your approval. I'll ask before naming you as a client, and I never name you in a market approach without permission, because a vacancy can say more about a business than you want said.

Can I speak to your references, and what if the search fails?

Yes to references — I'll give you two clients who hired through me and one search that didn't work out, because that call tells you far more. On failure: if after the agreed search period I cannot present a viable shortlist, I'll tell you plainly and give you the market evidence for why — usually the package, the location or hybrid policy, or a brief that combines two jobs into one. You keep the market map and the benchmarking, and if you adjust the brief and want to relaunch, the retainer already paid carries across in full. What I won't do is fill the shortlist with people I don't believe in so the process looks like it worked.

← All templatesRecruitment

Talent Search & Placement Proposal Template

Hiring managers have been burned by CV spam, so a search proposal has to promise the opposite: fewer candidates, each already screened. This template commits to a shortlist size, states the guarantee period, and settles the retainer-versus-contingency question up front — the three things that decide whether a client signs with a recruiter or keeps posting the job themselves.

Take the whole thing

The scope, deliverables, timeline and client questions — as plain text you can paste anywhere. No signup.

The scope, as written

I'll run a targeted search for your open role — mapping the market, approaching people who aren't applying to job ads, and screening properly before anyone reaches your calendar. You only meet candidates worth your time. No CV spam, no volume play, and an honest answer if the role as written can't be filled at the package you've set.

What this work typically sells for

15–25% of the placed candidate’s first-year base salary

Unlike most work in this library, recruitment has a fee convention rather than a price: contingency placements cluster at 15–25% of first-year base, with ~20% the usual midpoint, rising to 25–33% for retained or executive search. Seniority moves it — entry-level sits at the bottom of the band, executive at the top. ⚠️ Read this as a widely-repeated industry convention, not as survey data: the sources below agree with each other but none publishes a sample size or methodology, and several are recruitment firms describing a market they compete in. The number your client will actually push on is the guarantee period, not the percentage.

Market guidance from the published sources below — not ClosingMoment data. We have no proposal dataset, and rates vary widely by market and seniority. Price your own work.

What's included

✓Role brief workshop + written ideal candidate profile agreed before the search starts
✓Market map: target companies, salary benchmarking, and a realistic read on who is reachable
✓Direct approach to passive candidates plus advertised and network channels
✓Structured screening call with every candidate before presentation — competency, motivation, package expectations, and notice period
✓Shortlist of 3–5 qualified candidates with written profiles and my honest reservations on each
✓Interview coordination, structured feedback both ways, and offer negotiation support
✓Reference coordination and check-ins with the hire at 30, 60, and 90 days

Worth adding for this kind of work

+Shortlist size committed to as a number, with written profiles for each candidate
+A replacement guarantee with a named window, not an informal assurance
+Screening calls stated as happening before presentation — the promise against CV spam

The timeline

1Sign proposal & pay retainerDay 1
The retainer activates the search immediately and is non-refundable — it buys dedicated search time that starts being spent the same week. Payment details sent via WhatsApp.
2Role brief workshopDay 2–3
60-minute call to define the must-haves, the culture fit, the interview process, and the package range. If I think the brief is unrealistic for your market, this is where I say so — before you have paid for a search that cannot succeed.
3Market map + calibrationWeek 1
I share early market findings and two or three calibration profiles so we can correct the target before I approach 40 more people against the wrong brief.
4Active searchWeek 1–3
Direct outreach, screening calls, pipeline built. Progress updates on WhatsApp, including honest news when the market is pushing back on the package.
5Shortlist presentedWeek 3
3–5 vetted candidates with written profiles. I need interview feedback within 3 working days — good candidates are gone in a week, and slow feedback loses more hires than low salaries do.
6Offer, placement & aftercareWeek 4 onwards
I manage the offer, the counter-offer conversation, and the resignation, then check in with your hire at 30, 60, and 90 days and tell you what I hear. Balance invoice issued on the agreed start date.

Where this proposal usually goes wrong

Leaving the fee structure ambiguous between retainer and contingency.
Say which it is and when each instalment falls due. This is the first question a client asks.
Promising candidates without committing to a number.
Name the shortlist size. "A selection of candidates" is how a search quietly becomes a CV forward.
Omitting the guarantee period.
State it. The risk a client is pricing is the hire leaving in month two, not your fee.

Questions clients ask about this work

How does the replacement guarantee actually work?
If your hire resigns, or is dismissed for cause, within 90 days of starting, I run a full replacement search for the same role at no further fee — one replacement per placement. Being straight about what it does not cover, because vague guarantees are how these turn into arguments: it doesn't apply to redundancy, restructure, a change to the role or its reporting line, a relocation or shift pattern that wasn't in the brief, a merger or funding change, an offer changed after acceptance, or the hire leaving because of how they were managed or because promised responsibilities didn't materialise. It also requires that all my invoices were paid on time, that you told me about the departure within 14 days, and that the exit was handled properly. I control who I present and how well I vet them. I don't control what happens to them once they're inside your business — and I'm not able to absorb a second full search when the reason for the departure sits on your side.
Is the fee contingent on placement?
Partly, and deliberately so. The retainer is non-refundable and covers the search itself — market mapping, outreach, and screening are real work that happens whether or not you hire, and a purely contingent recruiter is economically pushed to send you volume fast rather than the right person slowly. The balance falls due on the agreed start date. Two things worth knowing: the fee is still due if the hire's start is delayed, and if you withdraw the role after the shortlist is delivered — restructure, budget freeze, an internal candidate appearing — a cancellation fee covering the work completed applies, credited in full against a future search with me within 12 months. Invoices unpaid 14 days past due suspend the guarantee and any active search; past 30 days the engagement ends.
What happens if I hire someone you introduced later, or for a different role?
The fee is still due, and this is standard across the industry rather than something I've invented. If you, or a company in your group, employ or engage a candidate I formally introduced — as an employee, contractor, or consultant, for this role or any other — within 12 months of that introduction, the full placement fee applies. It protects the one thing I actually sell: introductions I spent weeks finding. I'll tell you at the time if I think a candidate fits a different role better, so this should never be a surprise. Candidates I identify and approach for your search remain my introductions and aren't passed to you outside this engagement.
Why should I use you rather than post the job and search LinkedIn myself?
For some roles you shouldn't, and I'll say so — if the role is well-defined, in-demand, and applicants come to you, a good ad and two weeks of your time will fill it more cheaply than I will. Where I earn the fee is the role where the right people are employed, not looking, and won't reply to a template message: someone has to build the map, make the approach credibly, and hold the conversation about why they'd move. I'll also do the part you can't easily do yourself — tell a candidate the honest downsides of your role early, so you don't discover them at week six. Cheapest per hire and cheapest per successful hire are different numbers.
Will you approach my staff for other clients?
No. For the duration of the engagement and for 12 months afterwards, I don't approach anyone employed by you for another client. That is written in, and I'd rather you had it in writing than as a promise. It also applies to whoever I place with you. Everything you share — your salary bands, your org structure, your reason for the vacancy, an internal problem that created it — is confidential and never used in another search or mentioned to a candidate without your approval. I'll ask before naming you as a client, and I never name you in a market approach without permission, because a vacancy can say more about a business than you want said.
Can I speak to your references, and what if the search fails?
Yes to references — I'll give you two clients who hired through me and one search that didn't work out, because that call tells you far more. On failure: if after the agreed search period I cannot present a viable shortlist, I'll tell you plainly and give you the market evidence for why — usually the package, the location or hybrid policy, or a brief that combines two jobs into one. You keep the market map and the benchmarking, and if you adjust the brief and want to relaunch, the retainer already paid carries across in full. What I won't do is fill the shortlist with people I don't believe in so the process looks like it worked.

A template gets it written. Tracking gets it signed.

You already have the document — copy it above and send it however you like. What a copy cannot tell you is whether anyone read it. Send this same template from ClosingMoment and you will know the moment your client opens it, which sections they read, and how long they spent — so you follow up while they are still deciding.

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