What “Retained” Buys the Client
Multiple independent sources in the executive-search industry, including Pin and Talentfoot, describe retained search fees as commonly running 30 to 35% of a placed executive’s first-year total compensation, paid in structured installments, often three, across the life of the engagement rather than as a single invoice at the end. Those figures circulate consistently enough across independent industry sources to treat as directional consensus, though a firm quoting a specific number should confirm it against a current, named source before repeating it as fixed.
The installment structure matters as much as the percentage. A client paying part of the fee up front, before a single candidate is presented, is buying something beyond search execution: an exclusive commitment. No second firm is simultaneously retained on the same search, which means the client has taken competing agencies off the board in exchange for that up-front payment.
What “Contingency” Buys the Client
Contingency search runs on the opposite model. The same industry sources put contingency fees at roughly 20 to 30% of base salary, with no up-front payment and no exclusivity, a client can simultaneously have three, five, or more agencies working the identical open role, and the fee is earned only by whichever firm’s candidate is the one hired.
That is a fundamentally different transaction than retained search, even when the percentage ranges overlap. A contingency client is buying optionality rather than exclusivity or commitment: multiple shots at filling the role with no financial exposure until one of them lands.
Why Exclusivity Changes Who You Are Pitching
A retained-search prospect has to be sold on trusting one firm with a confidential, often sensitive search, frequently a replacement for a sitting executive who has not been told yet, or a role the company is not ready to announce publicly. That prospect is usually a search committee or a board-level sponsor, and the pitch has to establish discretion and process credibility before fee ever comes up.
A contingency prospect is solving a different, more transactional problem: an open role that needs to be filled, with no particular reason to commit to one firm over another. That prospect is more often a hiring manager directly, and the pitch has to establish speed and candidate quality, since the firm that presents the right person first is the firm that gets paid.
The Confidentiality Pitch a Retained Search Requires
Because a retained engagement is exclusive and often confidential, the first conversation has to earn something contingency prospecting never has to ask for: trust with information the client has not shared broadly inside their own company. Referencing comparable confidential searches you have run, without naming clients, and being explicit about how candidate outreach will protect the search’s confidentiality, does more to move a retained conversation forward than a candidate pipeline pitch does.
A search committee is also frequently evaluating more than one firm before committing retained dollars, so the first meeting is closer to a finalist pitch than a cold introduction, worth treating with the preparation that implies.
The Speed Pitch a Contingency Search Requires
A contingency prospect is not deciding whether to trust one firm with a confidential process, they are deciding which of several firms currently working their req is likely to deliver a hire fastest. That reframes the pitch entirely: specific, recent placement examples in the same function or industry, and a realistic timeline to first candidate slate, carry more weight than a firm’s overall reputation or process description.
Because contingency work is unpaid until a placement lands, a firm’s own prioritization matters too. A hiring manager who senses they are a low priority against a firm’s retained clients is a hiring manager likely to keep working the other agencies already in the mix.
Building a Prospecting Cadence That Matches the Model You Are Selling
Treating retained and contingency prospects with the same outreach cadence misreads both. A retained prospect’s buying process moves slower and involves more stakeholders, so early messages should establish credibility and confidentiality practice rather than push for an immediate meeting. A contingency prospect’s decision moves faster and is more likely to be made by one hiring manager, so a message that gets straight to a specific, relevant placement result tends to earn a reply sooner.
Human + AI SDRs can run that distinction into the first outreach itself, texting a retained-search prospect with a discretion-first message and a contingency prospect with a speed-first one, instead of sending every executive search lead the same generic opener.
What this means for you
- Retained search is commonly priced at 30 to 35% of first-year total compensation, paid in installments, with full exclusivity, no competing firm simultaneously retained on the same search, per industry sources including Pin and Talentfoot.
- Contingency search runs 20 to 30% of base salary with no exclusivity, multiple agencies can work the same open role, and the fee goes only to whichever firm’s candidate is hired.
- The fee and exclusivity structure changes who you are pitching: a retained prospect needs a discretion-and-process pitch to a search committee, a contingency prospect needs a speed-and-track-record pitch to a hiring manager.
Sources
The external data in this guide draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.
- Pin, Retained vs Contingent Search: How to Choose in 2026
- Talentfoot, Retained vs Contingency vs Engaged Executive Search Fees