Key takeaways
- In Top Echelon's 2019 survey of its recruiting-network members, 44.9 percent of firms used a 90-day window. Length is one of seven terms that decide what a guarantee covers.
- Guarantees come in three forms: a free replacement search, a fee refund (full or prorated), or a fee credit toward a future search. Ask which one you are getting.
- The void conditions define the coverage. A role change, a comp change, a new manager, a skipped onboarding step, a late notification, or an unpaid invoice can each cancel coverage. Get the list in writing before you sign.
- A longer window carrying exclusions can cover fewer situations than a short window carrying none. The comparison table sets all seven terms side by side, market figures beside Revenue Bench's own.
- Revenue Bench publishes its own: a 90-day replacement guarantee on every placement, one free re-run of the search if the hire is not working, no conditions.
- Using Revenue Bench's guarantee involves six stages, from the client's call through a second search, training, and the replacement hire's first 90 days of coaching.
In this guide
- What is a placement guarantee, and how does it work?
- What is the standard guarantee period?
- Is a longer guarantee better?
- The three guarantee types
- What voids a typical guarantee?
- What a guarantee does not do
- The seven terms, compared
- Using the guarantee: the re-run, step by step
- Revenue Bench's terms, published
- Where these figures come from
What is a placement guarantee, and how does it work?
A placement guarantee is a clause in a recruiter's agreement that sets out what the firm will do if a hire leaves or is let go inside a defined period after the start date. It is the recruiter putting something at risk behind the placement. In practice that promise takes one of three forms: the firm runs the search again at no additional fee, it returns some or all of the fee, or it credits the fee against a future search. The guarantee is where a recruiter tells you, in writing, how much of the outcome they are willing to stand behind. The specifics carry the meaning, and the headline number does not. A guarantee also shifts the economics of the fee itself, which is part of how recruiter fee structures allocate search risk.
What is the standard guarantee period?
There is a market default, and it is 90 days. In Top Echelon's 2019 survey of its recruiting-network members, 90 days was the most common guarantee length at 44.9 percent of firms. Thirty days accounted for 20.3 percent and 60 days for 20.0 percent. At the longer end, six months accounted for 2.4 percent and one year for 2.3 percent.
A longer window reads as more protection. Length and strength of coverage are separate measurements, so read the number of days and the exclusions as two separate questions. The section below works through what each one is worth.
Is a longer guarantee better?
A window and its exclusions multiply. Inside the first 90 days, a guarantee that excludes nothing covers more situations than a longer guarantee that excludes some. From the end of the shorter window to the end of the longer one, the longer guarantee covers whatever its exclusions permit, while the shorter one covers nothing at all. Both statements hold at the same time, which is why the number of days on its own cannot answer the question.
Long windows are also uncommon. In Top Echelon's 2019 survey, 2.4 percent of firms used a six-month window and 2.3 percent used a year. Where a long window carries no exclusions, it is a substantial commitment and worth weighing as one. Length is one of the seven terms in the table below, and the other six decide what the window is worth.
There is one condition under which a longer window is the right thing to ask for. If a full selling cycle in your market runs longer than the guarantee window, the window closes before the hire has completed a single cycle, and 90 days will report whether the hire is working rather than whether the hire can sell in that environment. What a 90-day window can read is the leading evidence: booked meetings, conversations that reach a second step, and whether coaching changes behavior. Our guide on a sales hire who is not working out sets out what that evidence looks like at day 90. Raise the cycle-length question with any firm you are considering, this one included, and get the answer in writing. Revenue Bench publishes 90 days from the hire's first day and does not publish a longer window. What runs inside those 90 days is a dedicated onboarding coach on every placement.
The three guarantee types
Guarantees come in three shapes. They protect you differently, and the difference is worth knowing before you compare two offers side by side. The table gives you the remedy and the contract terms to check for each type.
| Type | What you get | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Free replacement search | The firm runs the search again at no additional fee, up to the number of re-runs the agreement states. | The cap on the number of replacements and any delivery terms. |
| Fee refund (full or prorated) | Some or all of the fee comes back if the hire leaves inside the window. | Whether it is full or prorated, when it is paid, and how you will fill the open role. |
| Fee credit | The fee is credited toward a future search rather than returned as money. | Whether the credit expires, and whether it obligates you to run another search to use it. |
What voids a typical guarantee?
A guarantee is only as strong as the list of things that cancel it, and that list sits in the body of the contract rather than on the marketing page. Before you sign anything, ask for the void conditions in writing and read them line by line. The conditions that turn up:
- The role or compensation changed after the start date. If you moved the target, cut the base, or reshaped the territory, an agreement can treat the placement as a different job, and the coverage lapses.
- The manager changed. Some agreements void coverage if the person the hire reported to at the start is gone, on the reasoning that a new manager is a new environment.
- Required onboarding steps were skipped. If the agreement calls for a ramp plan, training, or check-ins and those did not happen, the firm can argue the hire was set up to fail on your side.
- The invoice is unpaid. An agreement can make coverage contingent on the fee being settled. A late or disputed payment can suspend it.
- A notification window was missed. A guarantee can require you to report a departure inside a set number of days. Miss it and the claim can be denied.
None of these is unreasonable on its own. The problem is finding out about them after a hire has already fallen through. When a placement fails and the guarantee does not cover it, you carry the full cost of a bad sales hire: the open role, the lost pipeline, and the months it takes to start over. Get the full list before you sign, so the guarantee you are counting on is the one written in the contract.
What a guarantee does not do
A replacement guarantee returns a search. If you need the fee back, a refund guarantee is a different instrument, and the three-type table above is where to check which one you have been sold.
The re-run count is finite. Revenue Bench provides one, stated in the agreement, and a buyer should get that number from any firm in writing.
The window runs 90 days from the hire's first day. A guarantee that starts at the signed offer covers less calendar than one that starts on day one, which is why the start date is one of the seven terms below. Whether a replacement placement starts its own guarantee period is a separate term set in the agreement, so confirm it with any firm, including this one, before you sign.
No guarantee returns the months. A re-run replaces the search. It does not replace the quarter the open role cost you. DePaul's survey of 435-plus organizations puts the fully loaded cost of sales turnover at about $115,000, and Revenue Bench's own working figure for a revenue-role mis-hire is $200,000 to $250,000. The pipeline that did not get built sits on top of either number. The figure argues for getting selection right the first time rather than extending the window. If a hire is failing and you are weighing the re-run, this guide explains what to do when a sales hire is not working out.
The seven terms, compared
You do not need a lawyer to read a guarantee well. You need the seven terms below and the discipline to get every answer on paper before you sign.
| The term | What the market does | Revenue Bench's published answer | How to check it in any agreement |
|---|---|---|---|
| The window | 90 days is the most common, at 44.9 percent of firms in Top Echelon's 2019 survey of its recruiting-network members. 30 days is 20.3 percent and 60 days 20.0 percent. Six months is 2.4 percent and one year 2.3 percent. | 90 days. | Take the number of days from the agreement rather than from the marketing page. |
| When the window starts | Not measured in any public survey. The clock starts either at the signed offer or on the hire's first day, and those dates can sit weeks apart. | The hire's first day. | Ask which date starts the clock and have that date written into the agreement. |
| The remedy | Replacement with no money back is the majority at 61.4 percent in Top Echelon's 2019 survey. A prorated refund is 17.6 percent and a full refund 8.4 percent. | A replacement search, run again at no additional fee. | Confirm which of the three you are buying, since the word guarantee covers all three. |
| The number of re-runs | Not measured in any public survey. An agreement can state a cap on re-runs, and that number sits in the contract rather than in the headline. | One, stated in the agreement. | Ask for the number and have it written down before you sign. |
| What voids coverage | Not measured in any public survey. Contract clauses can name a role or compensation change, a change of manager, skipped onboarding steps, an unpaid invoice, or a missed notification window. | No conditions. | Ask for the full void list in writing before you sign rather than after a claim. |
| Who decides the hire is not working | Not measured in any public survey. Agreements range from the client's judgment to a clause the firm resolves. | The client's call. Revenue Bench asks for no evidence to open a claim. | Ask who determines whether the guarantee applies, and what evidence that decision requires. |
| What runs inside the window | Not measured in any public survey. Whether a firm does anything during the window, and whether that support sits in the agreement, varies firm by firm. | A 90-day onboarding coach on every placement, weekly with the hire and weekly with the hiring manager, reporting to the hiring manager. | Ask what the firm does inside the window and whether that support is written into the agreement. |
Market figures come from Top Echelon's 2019 survey of its recruiting-network members. Terms with no survey behind them are marked as unmeasured rather than estimated. The Revenue Bench column states the firm's own published terms as of July 2026.
If a firm cannot answer these on paper, that is your answer. A guarantee that lives in a conversation is not a guarantee you can hold anyone to. These seven terms are one part of a wider set worth checking with any firm: the full agency evaluation scorecard covers assessment method, specialization, and fee structure alongside the guarantee, and scores each of them out of two against the document the firm can produce. It also lists the answers that sound right and score zero, of which "we stand behind every placement" is the guarantee row's.
Using the guarantee: the re-run, step by step
Under Revenue Bench's standard agreement, the client makes the call inside the 90-day window and tells us the guarantee is being used. The stages below follow that decision through to the replacement hire's first day.
| Stage | What happens | Who owns it | What it costs you | The limit worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The client's call | The hiring manager decides the hire is not working inside the first 90 days from the hire's start date. Revenue Bench asks for no evidence to open the claim, because whether the hire is working is the client's judgment. | The hiring manager | Nothing | The decision has to fall inside the 90 days. The window runs from the hire's first day rather than from the signed offer. |
| Notice to Revenue Bench | The client tells us the guarantee is being used. | The hiring manager | Nothing | The decision itself has to fall inside the 90 days. Earlier notice starts the re-run earlier. |
| What the coach contributes | Weekly meetings with the hire and weekly meetings with the hiring manager have run since the start date, so the hiring manager reaches the decision with the coach already close to the work. The cadence follows the structure in our 90-day sales onboarding plan. | The Revenue Bench onboarding coach | Included in every placement | The coach reports to the hiring manager. The coach's view informs the decision and does not gate it because the decision is the client's. |
| The profile is revisited | We read the written success profile that governed the first search against what the first hire showed about the role and the selling environment, then restart the search from that profile. | Revenue Bench with the hiring manager | Included | A change on the client's side to comp, territory, or the reporting manager does not void the guarantee. That is what our published no-conditions term means. Whether another firm's agreement carries void conditions is a question to put to that firm in writing. |
| The re-run search | Revenue Bench runs the search again at no additional fee through the same published process. We start with the bench, run targeted search where the bench does not cover the role, apply the Objective Management Group assessment to candidates for selling and sales-leadership roles, screen every candidate with an operator, then present a shortlist. | Revenue Bench | No additional fee | Timing follows the published search timeline. Kickoff to shortlist on the re-run is commonly 2 to 4 weeks when the bench covers the role, and longer for a pure targeted search. Offer, acceptance, and training follow the shortlist. |
| The replacement hire starts | Offer and acceptance come first, followed by the two-day sales skills program for reps or the leadership refresher for leaders, then a dedicated onboarding coach for the first 90 days. | Revenue Bench with the client | Included | The agreement provides one free re-run. Buyers should ask every firm how many re-runs they get and have the number stated in writing. |
The guarantee claim and the employment decision are two separate things. Ending someone's employment follows the client's own documentation, HR process, and counsel under the employment law that applies, and nothing in the guarantee changes that. If a hire is struggling and you are weighing the options before a re-run, start with what to do when a sales hire is not working out.
This walkthrough describes Revenue Bench's own published terms and process. Market practice varies firm by firm, and the seven terms compared above provide a way to check any other firm's version.
Revenue Bench's terms, published
Revenue Bench's standard agreement states the following terms.
Every Revenue Bench placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee. If the hire is not working inside the first 90 days from their start date, we run the search again at no additional fee. One free re-run. No conditions. The window starts on the candidate's first day. Whether the hire is working is your call to make. The re-run walkthrough shows what using those terms involves stage by stage.
Every placement also includes a 90-day onboarding coach. The coach meets weekly with the placed hire, meets the hiring manager weekly, and reports to the hiring manager. Coaching cadence moves performance. In OMG's data, reps coached weekly gain 9 percentile points against reps coached never, and only about 20 percent of reps get weekly coaching. Coaching several times a week gains 17 points in the same data, a higher frequency than our weekly rhythm, so the weekly figure is the one that matches what we run. The coach is a standing part of how we work.
We publish the terms so a buyer can read them. The terms stated above apply as of July 2026 under our standard agreement.
Where these figures come from
About these figures
The market figures come from Top Echelon's survey of members of its recruiting network, published in 2019. Its respondents are independent third-party recruiters in that network, so the distribution describes contingency search rather than retained executive search. It is the only public survey we have found that quantifies both guarantee length and remedy type. On length: 90 days accounted for 44.9 percent, 30 days for 20.3 percent, 60 days for 20.0 percent, six months for 2.4 percent, and one year for 2.3 percent. On remedy: replacement with no money back accounted for 61.4 percent, a prorated refund for 17.6 percent, and a full refund for 8.4 percent. Those are Top Echelon's survey figures, and because the survey dates from 2019, they describe a market norm rather than a current census. We have found no public survey that has updated them since, so a buyer comparing guarantee terms in 2026 is comparing against a 2019 baseline.
The terms in the comparison table with no public survey behind them are marked as unmeasured rather than estimated. Where the table describes contract practice, it describes what agreements can contain, and a buyer confirms the specifics with the firm in front of them.
The coaching figures are OMG's own data. Objective Management Group, which has assessed sales talent since 1990, reports that reps coached weekly gain 9 percentile points against reps coached never, that coaching several times a week gains 17 points, and that about 20 percent of reps are coached weekly while about 10 percent are coached several times a week. We label those as OMG's numbers, analyzed here rather than independent peer-reviewed research.
The fully loaded sales-turnover figure comes from the DePaul Center for Sales Leadership's survey of 435-plus organizations. Its average cost of sales turnover was about $49,508 and rose to about $115,000 fully loaded.
The re-run walkthrough follows Revenue Bench's own published terms and process. Market practice varies firm by firm, so buyers should verify another firm's window, remedy, re-run count, void conditions, decision authority, and support in writing.
Revenue Bench's guarantee and onboarding terms are stated as of July 2026 and apply to placements made under our standard agreement.
What is a placement guarantee in recruitment?
A placement guarantee is the recruiter's written commitment covering what happens if a hire leaves or is let go inside a defined window after the start date. It takes one of three forms: a free replacement search, a refund of some or all of the fee, or a credit toward a future search. The form and the conditions that void it matter more than the length of the window.
What is the standard placement guarantee period?
In Top Echelon's 2019 survey of its recruiting-network members, 90 days was the most common window at 44.9 percent. 30 days accounted for 20.3 percent, 60 days for 20.0 percent, six months for 2.4 percent, and one year for 2.3 percent. The conditions attached to a window decide what it covers, so read them alongside the number of days.
How many recruiting firms offer a one-year guarantee?
In Top Echelon's 2019 survey of its recruiting-network members, 2.3 percent of firms used a one-year window and 2.4 percent used six months, while 90 days at 44.9 percent was the market default. That survey is the only public source we have found that quantifies guarantee length, and it dates from 2019, so it describes a norm rather than a current census.
Do recruiters offer a replacement or a refund?
In Top Echelon's 2019 survey, replacement with no money back accounted for 61.4 percent, a prorated refund for 17.6 percent, and a full refund for 8.4 percent. Revenue Bench's published remedy is a replacement search with one free re-run and no conditions.
Is a 12-month placement guarantee better than a 90-day guarantee?
Inside the first 90 days, a guarantee that excludes nothing covers more situations than a 12-month guarantee that excludes some. From day 91 through month 12, the longer guarantee covers whatever its exclusions permit, while the 90-day guarantee covers nothing. Compare the seven terms of each agreement rather than the two numbers.
When does the guarantee window start?
It depends on the agreement, and the difference matters. Some guarantees start the clock on the signed offer, others on the candidate's first day of work. Those can be weeks apart. Ask which date your guarantee uses and get it in writing, because a window that starts at signing gives you less coverage than one that starts on day one.
What voids a placement guarantee?
Common void conditions include a change to the role or compensation after the start date, a change of manager, skipped onboarding steps the agreement required, an unpaid invoice, and a missed notification window for reporting the departure. None is unusual, but many firms keep the list in the contract rather than the marketing. Ask for the full list in writing before you sign.
What are Revenue Bench's guarantee terms?
A 90-day replacement guarantee on every placement: if the hire is not working inside the first 90 days from their start date, one free re-run of the search, no conditions, and whether it is working is the client's call. Every placement also includes a 90-day onboarding coach who meets the hire weekly and reports to the hiring manager. Terms as stated in July 2026.
What happens when a placement guarantee is used?
Under Revenue Bench's published terms, the client decides the hire is not working inside the first 90 days from the hire's start date and tells Revenue Bench the guarantee is being used. Revenue Bench revisits the written success profile and runs the search again at no additional fee. One free re-run applies, with no conditions, and whether the hire is working is the client's call.
How long does a replacement search take?
When the bench covers the role, kickoff to shortlist on the re-run is commonly 2 to 4 weeks, and a pure targeted search takes longer. Offer, acceptance, training, and the replacement hire's start follow the shortlist.
Does a placement guarantee refund the fee?
A replacement guarantee returns a search rather than money. Under Revenue Bench's published terms, we run the search again at no additional fee, with one free re-run and no conditions. A fee refund is a different guarantee type, so buyers should confirm the remedy in writing.
How many times will a recruiter re-run a search?
The agreement sets the number of re-runs, and buyers should get that number in writing before signing. Revenue Bench's standard agreement provides one free re-run at no additional fee, with no conditions. Market practice varies by firm.