Decision Guide
Most growing businesses end up with both an in-house talent function and an external sales recruiter on retainer. The mistake is using the wrong one for the wrong seat. This guide sets out the dimensions that should drive the decision and the seats where each option genuinely earns its keep.
When to use this guide
Use this guide when you are about to brief a senior commercial role and you are deciding whether to run it inside the in-house TA team or engage an external sales recruiter on retained search.
Any figures, fee bands, salary ranges or percentages quoted on this page are indicative narrative guidance from Evara's operator-led practice in 2026, not a formal benchmark or audited statistic.
A specialist agency or boutique that runs the search end-to-end against a retained brief.
Best for
Watch out for
Your own internal recruitment team running the search using your tools and your network.
Best for
Watch out for
Side by side
| Dimension | External sales recruiter | In-house talent acquisition |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Senior commercial leadership and specialist GTM seats | Volume hiring, well-mapped roles, employer-brand-led pipelines |
| Typical time to fill | 6 to 10 weeks (Director-level), 8 to 12 weeks (CRO / VP) | Variable: faster for known seats, slower for senior leadership |
| Cost model | Fixed retained fee per search, paid in stages | Internal headcount cost, often spread across the team |
| Confidential search | Standard practice; sanitised brief and named-employer messaging only late stage | Difficult to run from inside the business without leakage |
| Market mapping | Targeted long-list across competitors and adjacent industries | Strong on inbound and known networks, thinner on passive senior talent |
| Commercial screening | Two structured commercial screens before shortlist | Usually a single recruiter screen plus hiring-manager interview |
| Accountability for the hire | Sixty-day shared-risk window: completion fee invoiced day 60 of employment | Internal accountability, no external guarantee |
Our take
If the role you are hiring is one your in-house team has placed five times in the last year, run it internally. If it is a senior commercial leader, a confidential replacement, or a seat you are creating for the first time, the cost of a mis-hire (typically multiple times the search fee in lost revenue and time) makes a properly retained external search the rational choice. The two are complements, not substitutes.
FAQs
Yes, and most well-run businesses do. The in-house TA team handles volume and known seats. The external recruiter takes the specialist senior seats and the confidential work. The two should share a roadmap so they are not competing on the same search.
On the visible fee, yes. On the loaded cost (in-house TA salary, time, mis-hire risk and time-to-productivity of a wrong hire), often no. A senior commercial mis-hire typically costs 3 to 6 times the search fee in lost revenue and replacement cost.
When the seat becomes one you hire for repeatedly, your in-house team has placed it successfully more than once, and the senior talent map is well understood by your team. Until then, keep it external.
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Email Rachel Lunn for a 30-minute conversation about whether your next commercial seat is best served in-house or by a retained search.
Email Rachel LunnSales recruitment, GTM recruitment and revenue advisory for SMEs UK-wide. We reply within one working day.
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