Executive recruitment
Senior leadership. The right role. The right engagement model.
Evans Sales Consultancy helps businesses recruit permanent, interim and fractional executives around the commercial or operational outcome the business actually needs.
Start with the leadership outcome. Then choose the engagement model.
Permanent, interim and fractional are not three separate recruitment businesses. They are three ways of solving the same problem: the business needs senior leadership it does not currently have.
Most senior recruitment starts in the wrong place. A title is chosen, a job description is recycled, and the search begins before anyone has said plainly what the appointment must change.
We start with the leadership outcome. What has to be different in eighteen months, what authority that requires, and only then whether the answer is a permanent appointment, an interim executive for a defined period, or ongoing fractional leadership.
This is not generic executive search. It is senior recruitment built on a commercial understanding of what leadership is being asked to do.
Three engagement models
The role question and the model question are different questions. Answer the first, then the second.
A long-term appointment where leadership must be owned internally: succession, growth, professionalisation, a new commercial direction or a genuine functional gap.
- Ongoing requirement
- Full functional authority
- Success-fee model
Time-limited senior leadership for a defined situation: a sudden departure, a transformation, an integration, a turnaround or cover before a permanent appointment.
- Immediate capability
- Defined end point
- Agreed per assignment
Genuine senior leadership without a full-time executive: growing businesses, founder-led companies and specialist requirements that need seniority rather than headcount.
- Ongoing rhythm
- Real authority
- Agreed per assignment
Eleven executive roles
Grouped by the part of the business the leadership is accountable for.
General Management
Leadership of the business itself: direction, accountability and the management team.
- Chief Executive OfficerCarries overall accountability to the board for strategy, organisational performance and enterprise direction.
- Managing DirectorLeads the operational and commercial running of a company or division: P&L, the management team and growth delivery.
Commercial & Revenue
Leadership of revenue, commercial strategy, pricing, partnerships and sales performance.
- Chief Revenue OfficerOwns revenue architecture across sales, marketing and customer revenue, and the systems that make growth predictable.
- Sales DirectorLeads the sales function: target market, pipeline, team, forecasting and conversion.
- Commercial DirectorOwns pricing, contracts, partnerships and commercial strategy — the terms a business trades on, not the sales team leading the trading.
- Head of SalesLeads the sales team's execution of an agreed plan: pipeline, process, activity and performance.
Finance
Financial leadership: capital, governance, control, reporting and planning.
- Chief Financial OfficerLeads the finance function: capital structure, financial governance, strategic finance and board-level financial decision-making.
- Finance DirectorLeads the finance function: control, reporting, planning, cash and commercial finance.
Operations & Technical
Delivery, capacity, quality, technical standards and operational scale.
- Chief Operating OfficerLeads enterprise operations: delivery, process, scale and cross-functional execution.
- Operations DirectorLeads operational delivery: capacity, quality, efficiency and the performance of the teams and processes that produce it.
- Technical DirectorLeads technical and engineering capability: standards, technical strategy, product or process integrity and technical team leadership.
| Role | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Executive Officer | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Managing Director | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Chief Revenue Officer | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Sales Director | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Commercial Director | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Head of Sales | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Chief Financial Officer | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Finance Director | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Chief Operating Officer | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Operations Director | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
| Technical Director | Permanent | Interim | Fractional |
Not sure which engagement model fits?
The role is the same question. The engagement model answers a different one: how long the leadership is needed, how quickly, and how much of it.
| Permanent | Interim | Fractional | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The requirement | Ongoing and structural | Time-limited and situational | Ongoing but not full-time |
| Typical trigger | Succession, growth, a leadership gap that must be owned internally | Sudden departure, transformation, integration, turnaround | Founder-led business, small team, earlier stage than the ambition |
| What you are buying | Long-term leadership and continuity | Immediate experience in a defined situation | Senior capability matched to the size of the requirement |
| Tenure | Indefinite | Defined period | Ongoing, reviewed |
| Authority | Full functional authority | Clear authority for the assignment | Genuine leadership authority within agreed days |
| Commercial basis | Success-fee recruitment | Agreed per assignment | Agreed per assignment |
Commercial terms are agreed before anything begins. We do not publish standard executive day rates.
Which recruitment service do I need?
Three recruitment propositions, deliberately kept distinct. Where a requirement could reasonably sit in two of them, we will say which we think is right and why.
Executive Recruitment
Board-level and senior functional leadership — general management, commercial and revenue, finance, operations and technical — across permanent, interim and fractional models.
International Recruitment
Commercial and technical recruitment tied specifically to market entry and international territory growth: Country Managers, international and export sales roles, specification and technical sales.
Sales & Commercial Recruitment
Commercial hires supporting established UK growth, where the requirement is sales capability rather than senior leadership structure.
What this is, and what it is not
What this is
- Employer-side recruitment for senior leadership roles
- Definition of the mandate before the search: outcome, authority, context
- Permanent, interim and fractional models across eleven executive roles
- An honest view on whether a senior appointment is the right answer yet
What this is not
- A candidate job board, vacancy advertising or CV submission service
- A claim to hold an executive database, bench or ready-made network
- Published day rates, salary benchmarks or search percentages
- Placement statistics or named executive placements we have not made
Executive recruitment enquiry
Discuss an executive requirement.
Tell us what the leadership has to change. We will come back on the role, the engagement model that fits and what the mandate should say before any search begins.
Common questions
Employer-side recruitment of board-level and senior functional leaders across eleven roles and three engagement models: permanent, interim and fractional. Every assignment starts with the leadership outcome the business needs, not with a job description.
International Recruitment is commercial and technical recruitment tied to market entry and territory growth — Country Managers, international sales and technical commercial roles defined by a market plan. Executive Recruitment is senior leadership structure: general management, commercial and revenue, finance, operations and technical leadership.
Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, Chief Revenue Officer, Sales Director, Commercial Director, Head of Sales, Chief Financial Officer, Finance Director, Chief Operating Officer, Operations Director and Technical Director.
That is a normal starting position and it is the question the engagement-model comparison on this page is written to answer. If it is still unclear, describe the situation and we will give you a view before any search is discussed.
No. These are employer service pages. Executive Recruitment at Evans Sales Consultancy is commissioned by businesses making an appointment.
Yes, where the requirement is genuinely senior leadership. Where the appointment is principally about entering or developing an overseas market, International Recruitment is usually the more appropriate route.