Retained mandate stages, instalment billing, firm-owned candidate records, an off-limits register and client-ready progress reporting. Built for boutique and mid-sized US search firms.
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Quick answer
Mandates come from relationships that were built long before the role opened: a board member, a chief human resources officer, an executive placed three years ago who now runs a division. The proposal is the visible part; the quiet contact before it is where the work happened. Fees are committed up front and billed in instalments as the search progresses, which makes origination and delivery two different disciplines inside one small firm.
Two pipelines, not one. Business development moves conversations toward a signed engagement letter. Each mandate then moves candidates through market mapping, longlist, shortlist, client interviews, references and offer. Both need owners, dates and a next action, and the mandate needs its instalment triggers attached so billing follows delivery instead of trailing it.
A search firm sells restraint as much as reach. Off-limits commitments need dates and an enforcement point at the moment of approach, not a footnote in a signed agreement. Guarantee periods need scheduled check-ins with both sides, because a placement that wobbles in month two is recoverable and a replacement request in month five is not.
Ask whether candidate records survive a consultant departure without an export scramble. Ask whether calls are recorded against the record and email threads itself, because manual logging is the first discipline to collapse. Ask whether pricing is per seat without a minimum.
| Capability | Spreadsheets | Volume ATS | HelloGrowthCRM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retained mandate stages | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| Business development pipeline | Partial | No | Yes |
| Instalment billing triggers | Partial | No | Yes |
| Off-limits register | No | No | Yes |
| Long-lived candidate records | Partial | Yes | Yes |
| Dialer with recording | No | Add-on | Native |
| Client-ready progress reports | No | Partial | Yes |
| Guarantee period check-ins | No | No | Yes |
Every team in this space loses revenue to the same recurring gaps. Here is what they cost you and how HelloGrowthCRM closes each one.
The firm real database is each consultant personal network, and it leaves when they do.
Approaches, conversations and interviews log against firm-owned records, so a successor picks up a mandate with the full history rather than starting from a LinkedIn search.Firm-owned records
Client status updates get rebuilt every week from email threads and memory before the call.
The mandate pipeline is the report. Approached, in process and declined with reasons export into a client-ready update because the data was captured as the work happened.Progress reporting
Interim and completion invoices slip because nobody tracked which trigger had been met.
Each instalment sits on the mandate with its trigger, owner and invoice status, so billing follows the search rather than a partner remembering during a cash review.Instalment tracking
A researcher approaches someone inside a client company and the client hears about it first.
Off-limits organisations carry protected periods and end dates, and candidates at those companies are flagged before any approach, so the commitment is enforced by process.Off-limits register
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