Retained vs. Contingency

You already know this model.

It's how rep firms and manufacturers
work with each other —
and it's how we'll work with you.
One firm, fully committed, start to finish.

“Years ago I was a contingency advocate. Then we added up the time we spent screening and vetting those candidates ourselves — the savings disappear, and it probably costs more. With Talent Inroads, the vetting is done. I don't even think about contingency anymore.”
Brian Flanagan, Owner
Brucker
What it is

A product line isn't handed to five reps
in the same territory
to see who sells something first.

It's given to one firm, exclusively, and that firm commits to sell that line and grow that manufacturer's bottom line. The commitment is mutual: the manufacturer teaches, equips, and backs its rep, because in the field, the rep is the manufacturer. Exclusivity is what makes that knowledge worth building — nobody invests that deeply in a line they could lose tomorrow.

Retained search is the same commitment, applied to talent.

You retain us exclusively and open your business to us; we learn your culture, your leadership styles, and what the role must deliver for your business to grow. So when we connect with a top-tier candidate in your market who isn't looking, we present the opportunity knowing your business the way your own people know it, and we engage, listen, and invite a conversation rather than launch a pitch. In the talent market, we are the extension of your firm.

Ten years of searches run this way built our practice the same way it built yours: on relationships that compound. Every client we serve came to us by referral, or came back. Every one.

The alternative is contingency recruiting: a line nobody owns — and it gets worked like one.

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The model that built your business,
applied to its people.
That's retained search.

What an engagement looks like
From first conversation
to a hire that lasts
07

After the close

The close isn't the end. We stay with both of you — the new hire and the firm — through day one and long after, the way your reps stay with a job after the product is sold.

The model that built your business, applied to its people.
That's retained search.

“I came from organizations that only did contingency recruiting, so the retained model was a real mind shift for me as an HR professional. But we’ve consistently gotten more qualified candidates from Martha. She does a great job explaining who we are, what we do, and our culture, so candidates already have a strong understanding of our company by the time I speak with them.”
Erica Turner, Director of People & Culture
Michigan Air Products
Where we search

Our focus is HVAC Manufacturers' Rep Firms and the Manufacturers they Rep —
and the leadership and sales roles
that move that channel.

That focus is deliberate. It's also flexible: the same search discipline extends naturally into the broader HVAC world when the right engagement calls for it. If your search lives near this space, it's worth a conversation.

Have a search in mind?
Talk to a Partner