Priority, Project and Retained searches are varying forms of retained search. The difference is in the level of financial commitment the client is willing to make to engage the search and thus the level of staff involvement the recruiting firm can allocate to filling the position. However, a retainer of any kind will not make a search that has unrealistic expectations, a better search.
As a rule, Executive Search, which requires one-third down and one-third thirty days later, is used primarily to fill senior level positions. While they are given top priority, by their very nature these searches often take longer.
Priority and Project searches are filled faster than Contingency searches because we are committed to work on them first. We know the client is relying on us exclusively and we have a relationship to protect. In fairness, it must also be said that these searches usually take less time to fill because the client has some "skin in the game" and is not just "window shopping". Therefore, their own hiring process takes less time since they are more committed to action.
With Contingency Search, there is no commitment on the part of either party. Therefore, contingency search is done on a time available basis. However, because there is no commitment, it behooves the recruiter who is working on contingency to proactively present "your candidates" to other companies. That is the only way recruiters can minimize their downside risk and better insure a placement to cover the investment of their time. Usually, when working contingency, recruiters take on more searches than they can fill and work the "easy" ones first. The question is; who gets left with the "hard" ones? Most often, it's the company that's trying to fill the position. With a single source relationship the degree of difficulty is unimportant, we are committed to filing all of your openings.
The final considerations when using Contingency Search are quality and service. When fee income is based on who gets a resume in first, quality necessarily suffers and the client actually has to do more of the work. What kind of results would you expect if you hired two painters to paint your house and told them that whomever finished first would get paid?
As far as service is concerned, don't you have a different relationship with companies who partner with you than you have with the job lot broker who constantly shops the market looking for deals?