---
title: "Choosing an Engagement Model | Black Powder Search"
description: "What actually differs between the three models is exclusivity, when the fee is paid, and who carries the risk. A decision guide, including the searches you should…"
url: https://blackpowdersearch.com/insights/choosing-an-engagement-model
---

[Insights](https://blackpowdersearch.com/insights)

# Retained, contingent or outsourced: how to choose, and when to use none of them

Should I use retained or contingent search, and how do I tell which one my role needs?

By
[Sean Locke](https://blackpowdersearch.com/team/sean-locke), Senior Advisor September 19, 2026

Most explanations of this are written by firms that only sell one of the three, which makes them arguments rather than guides. We sell all three, which does not make us neutral, but does mean we have no reason to talk you out of the cheaper one.

Here is what actually differs, how to pick, and — because it is the part nobody writes — when the honest answer is to run the search yourself.

## What actually differs

Three variables. Everything else is packaging.

**Exclusivity.** Are we the only firm working this role? Retained means yes. Contingent means you may have two or three firms working it and the candidate market will notice.

**When the fee is paid.** Retained means some of it is paid to start. Contingent means none of it is paid until somebody starts work.

**Who carries the risk.** This is the one that explains the other two. Under contingent, the firm carries it: if nobody is placed, the firm has worked for nothing. Under retained, you carry more of it, and what you buy with that is a firm that can afford to spend six weeks mapping a market and come back and tell you the role is mis-specified.

That last sentence is the actual argument for retained search, and it is worth being blunt about the mechanism. A contingent recruiter is paid for a placement, so a contingent recruiter is structurally motivated to send you candidates quickly and to keep sending them. A retained recruiter has already been engaged, so they can afford to say “this search will not work at this compensation” — which is frequently the most valuable thing anybody says in the process, and is the thing a contingent model makes expensive to say.

## The fee structure

Retained Contingent Outsourced recruiting

**Exclusive** Yes No Yes, by nature

**Fee basis** *Reserved pending Black Powder Search review* *Reserved* *Reserved*

**Paid** Partly to start On placement only On an agreed cycle

**Guarantee period** *Reserved* *Reserved* n/a

**Best for** Senior and specialized roles where the wrong hire is expensive Mid-level roles, and teams running several firms in parallel Companies scaling without internal recruiting capacity

**About those reserved rows.** Black Powder Search’s fee percentages, payment milestones and guarantee terms are being confirmed before they are published, and until they are, this page will not carry them.

We could fill those cells with an industry range — twenty-something to thirty-something percent of first-year cash compensation is the band most search firms quote publicly, and citing it would make this page look complete. We are not going to, because a borrowed average presented in a table headed “Black Powder Search” reads as a commitment, is not one, and the first client who quotes it back in a negotiation is holding us to somebody else’s price.

Ask us and you will get the numbers, in writing, on the first call. When they are confirmed for publication they will appear here.

## How to choose

### Use retained when any two of these are true

- **The wrong hire is expensive in a way you can name.** Not “we would be disappointed” — a number, a missed quarter, a customer.

- **The candidate universe is small.** If there are two hundred plausible people in the country, they need to be mapped rather than advertised to. That is bought time, and bought time is what a retainer is.

- **The search is confidential.** You are replacing an incumbent who does not know, or you are entering a market you have not announced. A contingent search is, by construction, several firms telling the market you are hiring.

- **The role has been open a while.** A role that has failed once has usually failed for a reason nobody has diagnosed. Diagnosis is the retained firm’s job and is not the contingent firm’s job.

- **You need somebody to tell you the truth about the spec.** See above. This is the one clients undervalue in advance and cite afterwards.

### Use contingent when

- **The candidate pool is genuinely deep.** If a hundred qualified people would take your call, exclusivity buys you nothing.

- **The role is well understood.** You have hired this seat before. The spec is not the problem.

- **You want optionality.** Running two firms is a reasonable strategy on a mid-level role, and any firm that tells you otherwise on a role like that is protecting its margin.

- **Budget approval is the constraint.** Sometimes “no fee unless somebody starts” is the only version that gets signed, and a search that happens beats a better search that does not.

### Use outsourced recruiting when

Your problem is not one role. It is eight roles, repeatedly, and no internal recruiting function. At that point you are not buying a search, you are renting a capability, and per-role fees are the wrong instrument.

## When to use none of the above

A firm that never tells you to keep your money is a firm you should read carefully. Three cases where you should not engage anybody:

**Your network already has the person.** For a lot of roles, particularly in a specialized industry, the best candidate is two introductions away and you know it. Make the two calls first. If they do not work, the search firm is still there.

**The role is not real yet.** If the reporting line is undecided, the compensation is unapproved, or two executives disagree about what the job is, a search will surface that in week five at your expense. Resolve it first. We have been engaged on roles like this and the honest outcome is a pause, which nobody enjoys billing for.

**You are testing the market on comp.** If what you actually want to know is whether your band is competitive, that is a question worth answering and it is not a search. Ask a firm for a market read. Most will do it as a conversation, us included, because the firm that gives you an honest read is the firm you call when the role is real.

## The questions to ask any firm, including us

- **“How many searches like this have you completed, and how many did you not complete?”** The second number is the informative one, and a firm that has never failed a search has not done many.

- **“What is the guarantee, and what voids it?”** The exclusions matter more than the period. A guarantee that lapses if you restructure the role is a different product from one that does not.

- **“Who actually does the work?”** In larger firms the person selling is not the person searching. Ask to meet the second one.

- **“What would make you tell me to stop?”** If there is no answer, the firm has no mechanism for telling you bad news, and you will get candidates instead of advice.

## How we run it, whichever model

The [process is the same](https://blackpowdersearch.com/for-employers) across all three — an onboarding call with our COO and the lead recruiter, sourcing and screening against [the standard](https://blackpowdersearch.com/triple-vetted), and we stay engaged after the start date. What changes between the models is exclusivity and the fee, not the standard anybody clears.

If you are not sure which one your role needs, describe the role and we will tell you — including when the answer is contingent, or when it is nobody. [Tell us the role](https://blackpowdersearch.com/for-employers#start).

Next step

## Tell us the role. We will tell you who is already ready for it.

An onboarding call with our COO and the lead recruiter, and you will know within the week whether the person you need is already in our pool.

[Tell us the role](https://blackpowdersearch.com/for-employers#start) [See how we present a candidate](https://blackpowdersearch.com/talent)

Keep reading

- ### [Twelve questions for interviewing a Special Operations veteran](https://blackpowdersearch.com/insights/how-to-interview-a-special-operations-veteran) What should I actually ask a Special Operations veteran in an interview, and how do I know whether the answer was good?
- ### [How to hire a Special Operations veteran into an executive role, and five ways companies get it wrong](https://blackpowdersearch.com/insights/how-to-hire-a-special-operations-veteran-into-an-executive-role) How do I hire a Special Operations veteran into a senior role without it going wrong?
- ### [The first ninety days: onboarding an operator so they are still there in year two](https://blackpowdersearch.com/insights/onboarding-an-operator-so-they-stay) How do I onboard a senior military hire so they do not leave in the first year?

Reference

- [What triple vetted means](https://blackpowdersearch.com/triple-vetted)
- [Reading a SOF résumé](https://blackpowdersearch.com/glossary)