For search and recruitment firms with retained contracts

Improve your search firm bottom line with 3–12%

With real-time pricing analytics and AI-boosted negotiation support.

Your added EBITDA, estimated

Extra profit on the same searches — not just extra revenue.

Your annual fee revenue €5M
€2M€5M€10M€20M
Estimated added EBITDA / year
Conservative · +3% EBITDA €150,000
Typical · +5% EBITDA €250,000
Strong · +12% EBITDA €600,000

Added EBITDA — profit, not revenue — on the same searches. Calibrated against Maksfi's 100+ firm benchmark for retained search.

Understand the real value behind every term, and negotiate with facts.

app.maksfi.com/mandates/cfo-vopak · negotiation
3–12%
more EBITDA with the same searches
100+
global firms benchmarked, on the entire T&C structure
< 2 min
to draft a substantiated, defensible proposal
IAbout Maksfi

Built by people who've sat in your chair.

Maksfi comes from inside the industry — an operator who built and sold a retained search firm, and an analyst who models the market behind it.

The operator

Successful founding partner of a high-end executive search boutique that exited to private equity.

Founder
photo
The founder
Maksfi · Amsterdam
The analyst

Highly analytical background as a (pricing) consultant at McKinsey, and a cum laude MSc in Applied Physics.

IIThe problem

For search and recruitment firms facing challenges with…

01

Pressure on pricing and margins

Fixed-fee demands and professional procurement departments steadily compress what you can charge for the same work.

02

Complex T&C decisions under time pressure

Guarantees, retainers, salary-base definitions and exclusivity all move the economics — and the answer is needed before the call ends.

03

Inexperienced negotiators lower in the org

Researchers and junior consultants face seasoned buyers without the data or the playbook the partners carry in their heads.

The reason it's so hard: no two fees are comparable.

A 24% on a narrow base can out-earn a 30% on a loaded one. Maksfi reads all of it — the headline %, what each firm folds into "base", and the guarantee, retainer and clause terms underneath.

What firms charge
Headline fee %, 3-pt bands · n=46 firms · median 25%
A 24% on one base can equal a 30% on another — headline % alone tells you almost nothing.
What's inside "base"
Components included in the % calculation, n=63
Base salary
100%
Bonus / variable
43%
Holiday allowance
19%
13th month
17%
Company car
17%
Commission
14%
Only 43% include bonus; under 20% include 13th month or car. Each one you add lifts the fee on the same %.
Where terms diverge
Guarantee · admin fees · retainer · discounts
Replacement guarantee
modal — but US retained runs to 12 mo
3 mo
Administrative fees
billed per search, per month, or not at all
varies
Retainer structure
vs single invoice — worth ~15–25% of fee in EV
⅓·⅓·⅓
Own-candidate discount
rarely charged, often given away
0–2pp
The clauses beneath the headline swing realised revenue by double digits — and are rarely benchmarked.
IIIWhat it costs you
Where the money leaks

It's never the headline %. It's the lines beneath it.

+3.8pp
Salary base

Bonus, 13th month, holiday allowance and car included in the base your % is multiplied by — where competitors quietly leave them out.

+0.9pp
Retainer schedule

A front-loaded 50/25/25 split realises more expected revenue than 1/3+1/3+1/3 when a search stalls.

+0.6pp
Administrative fees

A research/admin fee billed per search or per month — small per line, but routinely waived rather than charged.

+0.3pp
Guarantee structure

A 33% refund plus replacement protects the client on the failure curve at roughly a third of the cost of a full refund.

+0.3pp
Exclusivity premium

Charged as a matter of course on retained mandates, yet routinely left on the table elsewhere.

IVThe solution

Three ways it changes how your firm prices.

Negotiate with better results

Best-in-class, analytical, AI-supported negotiation: every concession costed against expected revenue before you concede it.

app.maksfi.com/negotiation
app.maksfi.com/mandates/cfo-vopak

Embed negotiation capabilities within your entire organisation

Skip explaining statistics, mathematics and advanced negotiation techniques — everyone goes straight to value generation, with one substantiated voice.

Authority where it counts

"Everyone pays 20%" stops being an argument. You answer with the distribution, the methodology and your own closing history — every time.

app.maksfi.com/benchmark

Find out how much more profit you can make out of the same work.

Saves time, headspace, and is simple & intuitive to use.

Improve your bottom line by 3–12%.

Same searches, same team — a measurably better number on every mandate.

Book a demo → Free consultation