How we work

Engagement types, pricing and the buying process.

Five engagement shapes cover almost every conversation we have at Evara. Each one is set out below with what is included, what is not, the duration, the cadence and an indicative price range. Founding-cohort terms apply to the first ten clients per practice.

Pricing transparency

Indicative price ranges are published against every engagement type below. The lower end is a focused engagement on a smaller business or a less senior role; the upper end is a more complex engagement on a larger business or a more senior role. The fee is fixed in writing in the scoping note before any work begins.

Specialist programme

First Revenue Leader Programme.

For founder-led or MD-led businesses making their first true commercial leadership hire. A combined product: diagnostic, operating model, retained search using ALIGN, and embedded ninety-day onboarding, run end-to-end by Rachel.See the programme →

See an example proposal

Walk through a worked retained-search proposal end-to-end: discovery summary, brief, scope, ALIGN timeline, deliverables, commercials, the 60-day shared-risk guarantee and the full Terms, with a digital sign-and-accept block at the foot.ABC Engineering, Sales Director (illustrative) →

Strategic Revenue Audit

Indicative range

£15k to £45k

per audit

Two to four-week structured diagnostic of the full revenue function with a written report and prioritised interventions.

Focused diagnostic for businesses up to £5m revenue sits at the lower end. Full diagnostic for £10m+ businesses or multi-BU scope sits at the upper end.

Who it is for

Founders, CEOs and boards who need an independent operator-led view of where the revenue function is working and where it is not.

Duration

Two to four weeks elapsed

Cadence

Kick-off, two interview weeks, two analysis weeks, executive readout, board readout.

Fee model

Fixed fee scoped at kick-off, paid in two stages (50 percent on engagement, 50 percent on report delivery).

What is included

  • Diagnostic across strategy, structure, process, comp and tooling
  • Capacity model linked to the next twelve months of plan
  • Written report (40 to 60 pages) with prioritised intervention list
  • Executive and board readout sessions

What is not included

  • Implementation of the recommendations (this can be a separate engagement)
  • Hiring against the recommended sequence (separate retained search)
  • Ongoing fractional leadership (separate retainer)

Exit criteria

Report delivered, board readout complete, agreed sequence of next-step engagements scoped (or none, if the in-house team will run from the report).

Hiring Team & Talent Audit

Indicative range

£8k to £18k

per audit

Focused two-week audit of the existing commercial team and hiring plan. Calibration, gap analysis and a sequenced hiring brief.

Smaller team or single-region scope sits at the lower end. Multi-region or multi-pod scope sits at the upper end.

Who it is for

CEOs and CROs who suspect the team is not the team they need for the next stage, but want an external read before reorganising or hiring.

Duration

Two weeks elapsed

Cadence

Kick-off, one week of interviews and calibration sessions, one week of analysis and write-up, single readout session.

Fee model

Fixed fee scoped at kick-off, paid in two stages (50 percent on engagement, 50 percent on report delivery). Credited in full against any subsequent retained search inside ninety days.

What is included

  • Calibration interviews with each member of the existing commercial team
  • Performance read against the next twelve months of plan
  • Gap analysis against the role profile each seat would need to satisfy
  • Sequenced hiring brief, ready to execute against
  • Single readout session with the CEO and the hiring leader

What is not included

  • Full revenue function diagnostic (see Strategic Revenue Audit)
  • Direct candidate sourcing or screening (separate retained search)
  • Performance management of incumbents (this is a calibration, not an HR process)

Exit criteria

Report delivered, hiring brief scoped, decision taken on next-step searches.

Fractional Revenue Leadership

Indicative range

£1.8k to £2.5k

per day (fractional CRO)

Operator-led fractional CRO, Sales Director or Commercial Director engagement. Real seat at the table, real decision rights, real accountability for the number.

Sales Director and Commercial Director day rates sit £400 to £600 per day below the fractional CRO range. Monthly retainer = day rate × days per month.

Who it is for

Businesses that are past the point of getting by without senior commercial leadership but not yet ready for a full-time CRO. Typically £2m to £15m revenue, founder-led or PE-backed.

Duration

Three to nine months typical, with quarterly review points

Cadence

Four to ten days per month. Heavier at the start to install the operating model, lighter once the cadence is in place.

Fee model

Day rate retainer scoped to the days per month and the seniority of the operator. No equity. No long lock-in: 30-day notice on either side after the first 90 days.

What is included

  • Ownership of the revenue plan and forecast
  • Weekly forecast call, monthly pipeline review, quarterly business review
  • Seat in the leadership team and at the board
  • Hiring oversight on senior commercial roles

What is not included

  • Day-to-day individual contribution (the fractional leader does not carry a personal quota)
  • Hands-on enablement delivery (separate engagement if required)
  • Marketing leadership (separate fractional engagement if required)

Exit criteria

Either a permanent hire is in seat and ramped, or the in-house leadership team has the cadence and capability to run without the fractional seat.

Search guarantee

Commitment, completion and the 60-day shared-risk window.

Every retained search runs on two payments. A commitment deposit covers the upfront strategic work. The completion fee is charged on day 60 of the placed candidate's employment. That delay is the guarantee.

  • The commitment deposit is paid to start the search. It covers the non-negotiable strategic work that has to happen before a single candidate is approached: role profiling, market mapping, EVP refinement, the candidate attraction pack and advert creation. Without this work the search will not produce the right hire.
  • The completion fee is a percentage of the placed candidate's first-year remuneration. It is invoiced on day 60 of employment, not on offer acceptance and not on start date. You see the candidate in seat for sixty days before the bulk of the fee is charged.
  • If the candidate leaves or is exited inside the sixty-day window, no completion fee is charged. Evara will rerun the search at no additional fee where the original brief has not materially changed. The commitment deposit is retained against the work already done.
  • Simple, plain-spoken terms. Try before you buy. Shared risk on both sides.

New-business firm

Founding-cohort positioning.

Evara is a new-business firm in its founding-cohort phase. The first ten clients in each practice receive the founding-cohort terms set out below.

Lock-in pricing

Indicative pricing on this page is held for the duration of the engagement and any follow-on work scoped inside twelve months of kick-off.

Direct access to the founders

Every engagement is led personally by Rachel Lunn (hiring) or Rich Evans (advisory). No handoff to a delivery team. This is the standing model in the founding-cohort phase.

Reference partnership

We ask founding-cohort clients to act as a reference for one future client conversation per twelve months. Logo and named-case-study use only with explicit written sign-off.

First read on new offers

Founding-cohort clients see new engagement types (e.g. multi-hire programmes, post-merger reviews) before they are publicly listed and at preferential terms.

Founding cohort is a positioning statement, not a discount. We charge a fair fee for the work and protect that fee against scope creep. What founding-cohort clients receive is access, lock-in and the founders' direct attention.

Buying process

From first email to delivery.

  1. 01

    30 minutes

    First conversation

    Email rachel@evaraconsultancy.co.uk with two lines on the situation. Rachel will reply inside one working day with a 30-minute slot. The first conversation is a scoping call: situation, constraints, what good looks like. No pitch deck.

  2. 02

    Within five working days

    Scoping note

    If there is a fit, Evara writes a one-page scoping note: engagement type, fee, timeline, deliverables, what we will need from you. The scoping note is a fixed quote, not an estimate.

  3. 03

    Same week

    Sign and engage

    Engagement letter signed (mutual NDA included). For searches: commitment deposit paid before any work starts; completion fee invoiced on day 60 of employment. For audits and fractional engagements: fee paid as scoped in the engagement letter. Kick-off scheduled inside ten working days for searches and audits, inside fifteen working days for fractional engagements.

  4. 04

    As scoped

    Delivery

    Weekly status call with the hiring leader or sponsor. Artefacts produced at each step (scorecards, long-lists, shortlists, written reports). No black box.

  5. 05

    End of engagement plus 90 days

    Handover and review

    Searches: 30-60-90 onboarding cadence with the placed candidate. Audits: executive and board readouts. All engagements: written closure note and a 90-day light-touch check-in.

Engagement FAQs

Common questions before signing.

Why are the prices ranges and not fixed?+

Because the work is genuinely scoped per business. The lower end of each range is a focused engagement on a smaller business; the upper end is a more complex engagement on a larger business or a more senior role. Once the scoping note is written the fee is fixed in writing for the whole engagement.

Do you charge contingency?+

No. Every search is retained on a two-payment structure: a commitment deposit paid up front to cover the strategic work, and a completion fee invoiced on day 60 of the placed candidate's employment. Contingency creates a perverse incentive (volume of CVs over quality of screen) and we will not run that model.

What happens if the hire does not work out?+

Every retained search runs with a sixty-day shared-risk window. The completion fee is not invoiced until day 60 of the placed candidate's employment. If the candidate leaves or is exited inside that window, no completion fee is charged and Evara will rerun the search at no additional fee where the original brief has not materially changed. The commitment deposit is retained against the work already done. Try before you buy. Shared risk on both sides.

What does the commitment deposit cover?+

The commitment deposit covers the non-negotiable strategic work that has to happen before a single candidate is approached: role profiling, market mapping, EVP refinement, the candidate attraction pack and advert creation. Without that work, the search will not produce the right hire. The deposit is retained whether or not a placement completes.

Do you take equity instead of fees?+

No. Advisory and search work is paid in cash. This keeps the relationship clean and the advice independent. We will not take equity in client businesses.

Can the audit fee be credited against a search?+

Yes for the Hiring Team and Talent Audit (credited in full against any retained search inside ninety days). The Strategic Revenue Audit fee is not credited against subsequent searches because the work is genuinely separate.

How quickly can you start?+

Engagement letter signed inside the same week as the scoping note in the typical case. Kick-off scheduled inside ten working days for searches and audits, fifteen for fractional engagements. We hold one search slot per consultant; if the slot is occupied we will tell you so on the first call.

Will you sign an NDA?+

Yes. A mutual NDA is included in the engagement letter. We have run audits and searches inside competing businesses without conflict by maintaining strict information barriers.

Do you cover roles outside the UK?+

Our specialism is the UK commercial talent market. We will take on roles that include EU or US-based candidates for existing clients, or where the role is genuinely cross-border, but our centre of gravity is the UK and we will say so on the first call if that affects the search.

How we operate

The principles behind every engagement.

Operator-led, not analyst-led

Every Evara engagement is led by an operator who has personally carried a number, run a board meeting and built a revenue function. The work is not handed off to a junior consultant.

One assignment at a time

Each Evara consultant runs one search at a time. This is the operating constraint that protects the rigour of the screen. It is also why we cannot run a CV-blast model.

Retained, with shared risk

Every search is retained on a two-payment structure: a commitment deposit up front and a completion fee invoiced on day 60 of employment. The deposit protects the quality of the role definition and the depth of the screen. The day-60 completion fee protects you. No contingency. We are accountable for outcomes, not for activity.

Honest scoping

If a permanent hire is the wrong move, we say so and propose a fractional or audit engagement instead. We will not recommend a search to win a fee.

No equity

Advisory work is paid in cash, not equity. This keeps the relationship clean and the advice independent.

No fabricated proof

We do not publish client logos or named case studies without explicit written sign-off. The proof we offer is the operator experience of the people doing the work and the artefacts produced at each step.

Read the ALIGN method →Audit anatomy →See a sample audit →

Talk to Evara.

Sales recruitment, GTM recruitment and revenue advisory for SMEs UK-wide. We reply within one working day.

Email Rachel Lunn