If you are, here’s how to stop losing and GUARANTEE yourself a winning hand.
Recently, I had a client approach me with a challenge. They were looking for a senior treasury professional—a complex role with international responsibilities, technical expertise, and the leadership to manage a global team.
Their situation? They’d already worked with two recruiters, reviewed over 100 applications, and still… nothing. No viable candidates. No closer to a solution.
So, they came to me.
But here’s the problem…
Treasury recruitment is a small pond.
The best candidates aren’t actively applying to jobs—they’re thriving in their current roles, waiting for the right opportunity to come their way.
And to find them, you need a specialist approach. That means:
- Understanding the role’s nuances (because not all treasury jobs are created equally).
- Knowing the market (and what the salary needs to be to attract top talent).
- Tapping into the hidden talent pool (the people who aren’t actively looking—yet).
You don’t get that from a contingent recruiter juggling a dozen roles across different industries. And you definitely don’t get it by lowballing fees and hoping someone bites.
So, when this client came to me and said;
“Can you find us someone?”
I actually had to tell them:
“Sorry, but the answer’s no.”
After two failed attempts with generalist recruiters, this client wanted me to replicate the same process—but for the same cut-rate fee they were offering for the position.
Here’s why that doesn’t work:
- Exhaustion of talent pool: If you’ve already combed through the active job market and come up empty, why expect a different result from another “post-and-pray” type search?
- Mismatched expectations: They wanted to pay $135k for a role that required a $165k skill set. That’s not recruitment—that’s fishing with no bait.
- No upfront commitment: A contingent model means I take on all the risk. But for a role this challenging, it’s not about casting the net wide to catch as much as possible – it’s about precision. That takes time, effort, and focus…
Yes, it has an upfront cost. But it saves you the headaches of sifting through unqualified candidates, dragging out the process, and ultimately starting over when it doesn’t work.
You are simply paying for our time and not having the headache of doing it yourself…
So, if you’re struggling to hire the right person, you’ve got to try smarter, not harder…
That starts with partnering with someone who knows your industry, understands the talent landscape, and is willing to tell you what you need to hear—not just what you want to hear.
