The best person for this job isn’t looking for one.
A shortlist of people who can already do the job, with the evidence on each one written down. You read it and decide who to see.
We make the case for your business individually, to people who aren’t looking — and every one is screened by someone who has worked in your market.
Tony Goodwin, founder
SaaS, cyber & AI·MSPs & IT services·Financial & insurance services·Professional services·Marketing & creative·Manufacturing & industrial·Construction & built environment·Logistics & supply chain·Energy & environmental·Facilities & contracts·Medical & life sciences·Food, drink & FMCG·Education & public sector·UK, US & Australia
“I have a mistrust of recruiters, but you’ve restored my faith in the value of getting the right hire.”
“Absolutely delighted with the hires we’ve made. The screening was first class and we had amazing candidates to choose from.”
“After 2 bad hires and months of lost opportunities, you found us an amazing Head of Sales — they’re 140% of quota.”
Six things go wrong when you hire.
Here’s each one, and what we do about it.
The role goes out and the applications arrive — most from people who don’t have the skills or the experience the job actually needs. The person you want is employed, doing that job for someone else, and has no reason to look at a job board.
We don’t advertise. We map who is genuinely capable of the job — your market, your customers, your kind of business — and go to those people directly. You get that map free, before you commit to anything.
| 1 | A. Whitworth | Leeds | Nine years doing this job for the same kind of customer. Opened 14 accounts from cold last year with nothing inherited. |
| 2 | J. Ferris | Manchester | Currently at a direct competitor. Consultative, long-cycle, and used to working without a big brand behind them. |
| 3 | S. Bracken | Glasgow | Already covers your region. Strong on the technical detail, and the only candidate local to you. |
| 4 | D. Mallory | Sheffield | Moved into a client-facing role two years ago. Less senior, but the hunger and the subject knowledge are both there. |
Yours free, whether you use us or not.
They get four messages a week, all templated, all beginning with an exciting opportunity. And they’ve never heard of your business, so there’s nothing to make them read the fifth. Nearly nine in ten smaller businesses say they can’t match the salaries larger organisations offer — on a job board, that’s exactly what you’re competing on.
We market the role properly. Every person we approach gets a page built for the role and addressed to them by name, with a video explaining the business, what the job actually involves and who it suits. It’s the difference between being pitched at and being made a case to.
“The quality and speed of the process has been outstanding. I have a mistrust of recruiters, but you’ve restored my faith in the value of getting the right hire.”
Neil Latcham — Sales Director, TomrodsNot sure if this is on your radar, but it felt worth putting in front of you.
Anyone who wants it all handed to them, or a role that runs itself.
A real page, sent to one person, by name.
Interviewing is a separate skill to the job. Some people are polished because they’ve done a lot of interviews, not because they’re any good. Others are awkward in a room and would be the best hire you make this year. And every CV now arrives with an AI polish on it, so the ones that read best aren’t necessarily the best people. You come away feeling reasonably sure — but feeling sure and having evidence aren’t the same thing, and only one of them survives month five.
A long screening interview, conducted by someone who has worked in your market, then a written suitability report on every candidate we recommend — scored against your brief, with the evidence underneath. And a section called Watch Points, where we set out what isn’t proven.
| Credibility with your buyer | Strong | 9.0 |
| Evidence behind the stated numbers | Strong | 8.5 |
| Delivering without a big brand behind them | Strong | 8.0 |
| Holding price under pressure | Good | 7.5 |
| Opening accounts from cold | Partial | 6.0 |
Thirty CVs to read, eight people to see, half of them a waste of an afternoon. And you’re doing it around the day job, which is why the role has been open five weeks already.
You see the ones worth seeing, and nobody else. No padding a shortlist to make it look busy, and no thirty CVs to sift. The questions worth asking are already written down, because they came out of what we couldn’t close on the screening call.
Five weeks in, the person you wanted takes a counter-offer, or mentions a competing process nobody knew about, or turns out to have been £6k off on salary the whole way through.
We establish what it’ll take to land someone before you meet them — what they’re on, what they’d move for, whether they’re being pulled toward your role or pushed out of their current one, and what else they’re in process on. Then we manage it through to acceptance.
Counter-offer. Their employer counter-offered someone else in the last year and kept them. Expect one here, and decide now whether you’ll go again if it comes.
Which is the expensive one. You’ve paid a fee, paid five months of salary, lost half a year, and you’re back where you started with less confidence than before.
If they leave, or you exit them, within six months, we run the search again at no fee. But the real protection is upstream: Watch Points exist so the risks are on the table before you hire, not discovered in month five.
“After 2 bad hires and months of lost opportunities, you found us an amazing Head of Sales that not only is a perfect cultural fit, they’re 140% of quota.”
Emma Armytage — HR Director, HL Tech| Opening accounts from cold | Weak | 4.0 |
| Evidence behind stated numbers | Weak | 4.5 |
Hired, and still performing.
Most of these businesses came back to us for a second role.
“The quality and speed of the process has been outstanding. I have a mistrust of recruiters, but you’ve restored my faith in the value of getting the right hire.”
“Absolutely delighted with the hires we’ve made. The screening was first class and we had amazing candidates to choose from.”
Commercial roles, where the sale is complicated.
If the buyer knows what they’re talking about and the sale takes more than one conversation, that’s our ground.
Businesses where the person hiring is the person who’ll manage them.
- Typically 20 to 200 people
- Growing, and hiring on purpose rather than to backfill
- No in-house capacity to run a targeted search — or a talent team who’d rather not
- Hiring people who have to make things happen, not work a queue
SaaS, cyber & AI
Software, security and AI infrastructure. Quota and pipeline, verified rather than taken from the CV.
How we hire here →MSPs & IT services
Managed IT, managed security, cloud and comms. Recurring seats on multi-year agreements.
How we hire here →Financial & insurance services
Fintech, insurance, payments and advisory. A buyer who needs risk and compliance to agree.
How we hire here →Professional services
Accountancy, legal, consulting. BD that fee earners will take into a client meeting.
How we hire here →Marketing & creative
Agencies and studios. New business that converts rather than just books meetings.
How we hire here →Manufacturing & industrial
Area Sales Managers, Technical Sales Engineers, internal sales. Specification-led, area-based.
How we hire here →Construction & built environment
Building products and systems. Specified at design stage, defended through value engineering.
How we hire here →Logistics & supply chain
BDMs carrying a gross profit number, by trade lane. The stated book, tested.
How we hire here →Energy & environmental
Solar, heat, EV and environmental services. The sale is a payback case, not a product.
How we hire here →Facilities & contracts
FM, M&E, fire and security. Won on tender, kept through mobilisation and retender.
How we hire here →Medical & life sciences
Territory Managers and Clinical Specialists. Clinical credibility plus procurement access.
How we hire here →Food, drink & FMCG
National Account Managers against professional buyers. Listings, JBPs and trade spend.
How we hire here →Education & public sector
Commissioning, frameworks and tenders. A buyer with a statutory duty and a process.
How we hire here →Most clients don’t stop at the role they came for.
We’re usually brought in for a commercial hire. Then, once we know how the business works and what it takes to succeed in it, clients ask us about the roles around it.
The method doesn’t change. The criteria still come from your brief, and where the assessment needs technical depth we bring in someone from our bench who has done that job.
One client has had us fill four roles across commercial and operations. Another started with a Head of Sales and is now three roles into a technical team. If we can’t assess something properly, we’ll say so rather than take it on.
You don’t pay unless you hire.
No fee unless you hire.
Most clients start here. We ask for 21 days' exclusivity so we can invest properly in the search rather than race three other agencies to the same active candidates.
Six-month replacement.
If the person leaves, or you exit them, within six months of starting, we run the search again at no fee.
We’ll tell you when to stop.
If the market for the brief isn’t there at the package you’re offering, you’ll hear it early — and we’d rather send three people we’d back than four to fill a shortlist.
Full terms confirmed in writing before any search begins.
Sold them.
Hired for them.
Tony Goodwin has built, scaled and exited B2B businesses — selling them himself — and spent the years since rebuilding the commercial function inside more than 170 companies. He designed the way we screen, and he still runs searches.
What we assess against comes out of your brief, not a template. And where the assessment needs depth we haven’t got in-house, we bring in someone from our bench who has done that job — a sector specialist, an engineer, whoever the brief actually demands.
Most screening tests whether someone can talk about the job. Ours tests whether they’ve done what your role actually requires.
A generalist recruiter can check a CV against a spec. Telling whether the numbers were earned or inherited, whether the names they drop are the ones that matter, and what they’d struggle with in your business takes someone who has done the work. If that isn’t us for a particular role, we say so and get the right person on the call.
The things people ask before they call.
If yours isn’t here, ask it on the call. We’d rather tell you no early than sell you a search you don’t need.
Commercial roles where the sale is considered or technical — business development, account management, key accounts, sales management and commercial leadership. If the buyer knows what they’re talking about and the sale takes more than one conversation, that’s our ground.
If the role is senior enough that getting it wrong costs you a year, it’s worth assessing properly.
We work on contingency for most roles — no fee unless you hire. The fee is a percentage of first-year salary and we agree it in writing before anything starts. We aren’t the cheapest option in the market and we don’t try to be; what you’re paying for is the research, the screening and the report.
Tell us on the call. If you’ve someone promising we’d rather pressure-test them than run a search you don’t need. We’ll be straight with you about whether it’s worth doing at all.
For 21 days, yes. It’s what makes the approach possible — nobody writes a page for each candidate and records a video on a role four agencies are racing. After 21 days the role is yours to run however you like.
If they leave, or you exit them, inside six months of starting, we run the search again at no fee. Full terms are confirmed in writing before we begin.
The UK, the United States and Australia. Most of our searches are field or hybrid roles outside the major cities, which is where the agencies chasing volume tend not to look.
A limited number. The research and the reports take real time, and doing eight searches badly is worse for everyone than doing three properly. If we can’t give a role the attention it needs we’ll say so.
Tell us the role.
We’ll show you who’s out there.
A researched Talent Map for your role, built from scratch, and fifteen minutes to walk through it. Yours whether you use us or not.
No fee, no obligation.
The map takes days. The search starts the moment you say go.
No sales deck. No hard sell. Just an honest conversation about the role.