US Leadership Entry PlanThree weeks$13,000

Before you spend four months searching, spend three weeks finding out if the person exists.

Three weeks. $13,000. Credited in full against your search fee.

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01What the Entry Plan is

What we actually do in the market for you.

We go into the American market and approach four to five executives who fit your role.

Not names from a database: real people, contacted for you, this month. They send us their CV, tell us what they earn, where they will and won't work, and what they think of your job description.

Nobody is being sold a shortlist. The point is not to present candidates, it is to find out whether the role you have written down can be filled at the salary you have budgeted, in the city you have chosen, before you commit four months to finding out.

What three weeks buys you

3 weeksBriefing to report
4-5Executives approached
$13,000Fixed fee
100%Credited against your search

02The problem

The expensive mistake is made before the search starts.

Most companies entering the United States decide three things before they call anyone: the title, the salary, and the city. In our experience they get at least one of them wrong, and frequently all three.

The title is a level too senior or too junior for the way American companies are actually structured. The salary was calculated from the European or Israeli parent's band, and would be read as an insult by a credible US candidate. The city was chosen because that is where the lawyer registered the entity, not because that is where the talent lives.

By the time a full search launches on those three assumptions, the error is already priced in. The company then spends four months and a great deal of money discovering it.

The Entry Plan exists to find the error first.

03What you receive

Five things you keep, whether you work with us afterwards or not.

Everything below is delivered in three weeks and handed over in full at the end of it. Nothing is held back to make you commission the search.

01

Four to five real executives, approached in the market for you.

Not a database export. Not profiles we already had. We identify who fits, contact them directly and confidentially, and secure their agreement to participate. For each one you receive their full CV, their current base salary, bonus and equity, their location and relocation position, their view on hybrid and remote, and their honest reaction to your draft job description, including what they would want changed before considering it.

These are not candidates yet. Nobody has been sold anything. They are a live sample of the market, telling you the truth because nothing is at stake for them yet. That is the only moment you will ever get an unfiltered answer.

02

A properly written US job description.

Not a translation of your European specification. A document written to attract an American executive: correctly levelled title, US-standard structure, the reporting line described in a way that will not frighten a strong candidate, and the parent-company relationship framed as an opportunity rather than a constraint. Yours to keep and use, whether you work with us or not.

03

A compensation architecture, not a number.

Base, target bonus and how it should be measured, equity or phantom equity where a US subsidiary cannot issue parent stock, long-term incentive design, benefits load, and the employer burden that foreign companies consistently forget: US base salaries are quoted before roughly 20 to 30% of additional employer cost. You will receive the number to put in the budget, not the number on the offer letter.

04

A location, hybrid and remote recommendation.

Where this specific talent actually lives, what it costs to move someone, which cities you will lose candidates in because of brand recognition, and whether this role can be remote at all. Some can. Most first-country-manager roles cannot, and we will tell you why.

05

The questions you must answer before a search can succeed.

Ten to fifteen questions, specific to your situation, that we have watched derail American hires for foreign companies: who signs the offer, who owns the budget, what happens when the US executive disagrees with headquarters, what authority this person actually holds, and what the parent will do the first time an American candidate negotiates. If you cannot answer these, a search will fail regardless of who runs it.

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04How it runs

Three weeks, start to finish.

One fixed sequence. You know on day one what lands on which day, and who from your side is needed when.

  1. 01

    Week 1. Briefing

    We interview whoever will manage this person and whoever they will need to influence at headquarters. We draft the job description.

  2. 02

    Week 2. Market approach

    We identify and contact executives who fit. We collect CVs, packages, constraints and their reaction to the specification.

  3. 03

    Week 3. Presentation

    A live session with your leadership team, and the full written report. You keep everything.

05The price

One fee, agreed before we begin.

$13,000Fixed fee

$13,000, fixed. No hourly billing. No expenses. No extensions. If you commission a full retained search with us within six months, the entire $13,000 is credited against the search fee.

Fixed, not estimated

One number agreed before we start. No timesheets, no expense line, no request for an extension halfway through.

Credited against a search

Commission a full retained search with us within six months and the entire $13,000 comes off the search fee.

Credited against a hire

Hire one of the executives we introduce during the Entry Plan and the $13,000 is credited against the success fee.

Written down first

Every line of this is in your engagement letter before we begin. There are no surprises in our fee structure and there never have been.

If you hire one of the executives we introduce, on a $200,000 package

Entry Plan

$40,000 in total

A success fee of 20% of first-year total compensation, minimum $30,000, with your $13,000 credited against it. Roughly a quarter less than a full search, because you accepted a shorter list.

$54,000

Our standard 27% retained search on the same package: a longer list, a wider market sweep and the full assessment process behind every name.

This is stated here, and in your engagement letter, before we begin.

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06Who this is for

A board that has never hired an American executive before.

Companies headquartered outside the United States making one of their first American leadership hires. The sector is not the qualifier: the situation is. We have run this for pharmaceutical groups, industrial manufacturers, real-estate developers and software companies. What they had in common was a board that had never hired an American executive before.

Founded in France in 1987. Building American leadership teams for foreign companies since 2012.

07Start here

Start your Entry Plan

Seven questions. Olivier replies personally within one business day.

Olivier Safir

Three weeks from now you could have four real people, their packages, and an answer.

Tell us the role you are considering and where the company is headquartered. Olivier reads every enquiry himself and replies within one business day.

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Or write to us at clientsrelations@pactandpartners.com