What is the best executive search software? Depends who you ask. Every search firm has different needs and so the best solution for one firm may not be the best for a second.
However, “which executive search software supplier provides the best service?” Well, that’s much easier to define. The majority of specialist vendors have publicly available reviews on sites like Trustpilot. To help you understand which provider offers the best service, we’ve put together this summary of Trustpilot scores for executive search CRM suppliers, correct as of February 9, 2024.
Trustpilot rating: 4.8 on 784 reviews (as of February 9, 2024).
(NB – Talentis is actually covered by two Trustpilot reviews. Support is provided by Ikiru People – rated 4.8 on 784 reviews. In addition, Talentis and sister product GatedTalent have a combined product review of 4.5 on 1,373 reviews).
What we say:
”Talentis brings together AI and big data to revolutionize the executive search process.
Talentis is unique. While traditional recruitment software was designed to make it easy to source information from the web and store it in a local database, our platform turns this worldview on its head.
We eliminate data entry by 90% by removing the need to “create” records almost entirely. Instead, we’ve built a talent graph of around one billion URLs.
Our advanced “big data” and AI technology associate these URLs with the people and companies that they relate to. These public profiles then become your core “records”, saving the need to maintain this biographical data yourself. We then “tag” this public information with your proprietary information – project information, notes, contact data. Exclusively seen by you via a Chrome extension.
Talentis streamlines the process of finding, engaging, and sourcing candidates. It simplifies your data maintenance and leaves you to get on with what matters.
Cloud-based, easy to use, fast SaaS executive recruiting software and CRM
ChatGPT-driven AI search across c559M public profiles, regardless of LinkedIn subscription or network
Fast, easy to use project management, reporting and business development functionality.
Next generation Add-Ins for Microsoft Word and Outlook, plus a “featured” Google Chrome extension
Free demo, free trial, no setup costs and a choice of monthly or annual subscriptions”
Trustpilot rating: 4.8 on 784 reviews (as of February 9, 2024).
(NB – FileFinder support is provided by Ikiru People – rated 4.8 on 784 reviews).
What we say:
FileFinder Executive Search Software is a robust executive recruiting CRM used by thousands of executive recruiters around the world.
FileFinder is designed with Executive Researchers, Consultants/Partners and Business Owners in mind and offers unparalleled depth of functionality.
Web Research Zone is an essential tool for Executive Researchers. Customizable search strings in Web Research Zone help the whole team to find the best and relevant candidates for their projects.
Consultants and Partners love the ability to work on their search assignments without leaving MS Outlook, access their database anywhere on any device, and “cannot live without” the business development functionality in FileFinder.
Business owners can monitor performance through an array of KPIs and gain insights into search projects via powerful build-in customizable reports.
Trustpilot rating: 4.4 on 13 reviews(as of February 9, 2024).
What the vendor says:
“Firefish will help you expand on your black book strategy by adding in new techniques and technologies that will futureproof your executive search business in an ever-changing recruitment landscape.
Passive Candidate Tracking: Build your black book with intelligent passive candidate tracking.
Task Management: Automate alerts, triggers and follow-up actions.
Candidate Search: Find candidates and contacts within your database in seconds.
2-way Outlook Integration: Firefish seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Office 365 so your Outlook inbox and calendar sync perfectly.”
Trustpilot rating: 4.4 on 89 reviews (as of February 9, 2024).
(NB – Vincere support is provided by the Access Group, rated 4.5 on 2,005 reviews).
What the vendor says:
“Next-gen executive search software tailored exclusively to the modern recruitment specialist. From advanced executive retainer management to specialized micro-site client portals. Streamline your executive search process with a system that’s built to help you scale.
Manage retainers using the Invoice Scheduler: Quickly schedule the retainer tranches for invoicing and adjust on the fly. These are then sent automatically to clients and fed straight to analytics.
LinkedIn sourcing: Vincere enables you to seamlessly source and secure top candidates for Executive and C-suite positions all from LinkedIn in a few clicks.
Client Portal: Designed specifically for executive search, Vincere’s client portal is specific to one search assignment.
Find new matches with talent pools and saved searches: Engage with talent pools to keep passive candidates engaged and augment these with saved searches to ensure no new matches are missed.”
Trustpilot rating: 4.4 on 4,596 reviews(as of February 9, 2024).
What the vendor says:
“Zoho Recruit helps you devise a robust executive search process by establishing seamless collaboration with candidates, clients, and vendors for both retained and contingent searches.
Source high-profile talent: Zoho Recruit’s Source Boosters feature makes it easy for you to find candidates from various sources.
Employee referral: Your employees might have engaged with several potential candidates in their career and it can be very fruitful to leverage their network to source candidates for executive level roles.
Establish exceptional client relationships: Zoho Recruit’s client portal helps you establish clear communication with your clients and maintain consistent client records.
Define and track KPIs: With Zoho Recruit, you can track important metrics like age of job, time to fill, and time to hire, as well as view related reports through Zoho Analytics.”
Trustpilot rating: 3.7 on 1 review(as of February 9, 2024).
What the vendor says:
“Recruiterflow offers a modern and intuitive executive search software to run and scale your executive search firm.
Customizable & Visual Candidate Pipelines: Applicant tracking software that puts relationships and people front and centre.
Become true partners with your clients: Recruiterflow’s client portal helps you collaborate with your clients in real-time. Unlock the power of true partnerships.
CRM that’s so much more than just to “manage” relationships: Executive search is all about being able to become a trusted partner rather than just another vendor. Recruiterflow’s CRM helps you do exactly that with your clients & candidates.
A search that goes way beyond “keywords”: A massive number of filters to help you unearth just the right candidate in your database.”
Trustpilot rating: 3.5 on 3 reviews(as of February 9, 2024).
What the vendor says:
“RecruitBPM’s all-in-one executive search software elevates executive and direct hire firms, blending ATS with advanced CRM, AI, automation, and analytics for superior talent sourcing, stakeholder management, and streamlined recruitment processes.
Using enhanced candidate targeting with AI tools
Robust CRM tools for effective stakeholder engagement, fostering strong relationships in executive search and direct hiring., you can address talent shortages in executive search and direct hire sectors.
Streamlined talent acquisition workflow, optimizing time-to-hire and improving candidate experience in high-stakes executive hiring.
Advanced talent acquisition features, tailor-made for executive-level talent acquisition and direct hiring efficiency.”
Trustpilot rating: 3.2 on 2 reviews(as of February 9, 2024).
What the vendor says:
“For executive search professionals who know what it takes to deliver white glove experience to both discerning candidates and clients alike, Crelate is your secret weapon for staying organized, thoughtful, and proactive with your entire network.
Built for networkers and networking: Crelate is designed from the ground up to easily manage, engage and grow networks, which builds talent pipelines simultaneously.
Candidate, contract, and engagement tracking: Crelate lets you track what’s important in the background of all your hard work.
Fast and simple Talent Relationship Management: Crelate makes it simple to track all your interactions with contacts as an executive recruiter. It takes only a few clicks to track a conversation you had with someone.
Keep your clients informed: Crelate offers advanced analytics and can help you build out custom reports in Microsoft Word that can look and say exactly what you need them to for your customers.”
Trustpilot rating: 3.0 on 2 reviews(as of February 9, 2024).
What the vendor says:
“Organize your executive search workflow with Recruit CRM’s executive search software with ATS and CRM.
Manage: Manage candidates, clients, resumes, emails, and everything in between. Access Recruit CRM from any device and from anywhere.
Engage: Be in touch with your candidates and clients all the time. Never miss any important emails, appointments henceforth.
Source: Source candidates, clients from LinkedIn right into your executive search software. Parse resumes from emails, send emails and request for updated version of resumes.
Chrome Extension: Source for candidates, contacts, and companies with Recruit CRM’s Chrome Extension. Highly Optimized for LinkedIn, Xing, and Zoominfo.”
Executive search software products with no presence on Trustpilot include:
“Invenias is purpose-built for the executive search industry with a user-friendly UI to help drive adoption. Access Invenias on desktop, web, or mobile and leverage our tight integration with Microsoft Office so that your team can easily collaborate and access data anytime, anywhere.
Streamline processes while staying compliant: Focused exclusively on executive search, Invenias was developed with deep industry knowledge that helps search practitioners place exceptional leaders while ensuring you stay compliant.
Find talent with your existing workflow: Invenias is easily configurable to your existing processes, tightly integrated to Microsoft Office and available on mobile, allowing you to work the way you want.
Build stronger relationships: By leveraging Invenias to eliminate repetitive processes and ensure the accuracy of your data, you’ll free up time for your team to focus on what matters most – building exceptional client and candidate relationships.
Capture high value talent insights: Capture the data you need – including Likes & Feedback, scoring & assessment, references and referrals from trusted sources.”
“Spend more time addressing critical client leadership needs, being a strategic partner, and staying at the leading edge of recruiting technology with Loxo powering your executive search firm.
Talent Intelligence Workflow: Allows you to work on more searches at once, driving 2-5 times more placements per recruiter each year by drastically reducing the amount of manual work required.
Instant talent pipeline ranked by best match: State-of-the-art recruiting technology gets smarter with every search, so that you find the perfect match for your job with the click of a button.
Talent Intelligence Platform: Source from the gold mine that is your internal database and then filter using custom tags and other data you actively use.
Collaborate easily and transparently with clients and hiring managers: Invite individuals to collaborate on specific jobs. Easily configure the stages your clients can see by checking boxes for the stages they do and don’t have visibility into.”
“Clockwork is an innovative and highly flexible software that supports executive recruiters and executive search firms at every stage of the search life-cycle.
Streamline client and team collaboration from setting the search strategy through to making a final decision and offer.
Leverage insights and proprietary talent intelligence based upon past relationships and work.
Simplify the entire search lifecycle from business development (CRM) to growing your firm and your team.
Clockwork delivers best practices, thought leadership, training and for not only using our platform, but running a great end-to-end search process.”
“Move leadership candidates through key search stages and track every interaction from across your entire team along the way. Win more business by leveraging your talent network as a competitive advantage.
Manage your talent network: Thrive is built to manage leadership talent networks, giving you a complete view of your talent network—not just who works here.
Build your bench: Scale sourcing operations without making a mess of your data. Thrive makes it easy to add and update contacts and companies, so you always have the most up-to-date information on hand.
Place the best talent faster: Track every interaction, assess and stack rank candidates, and easily collaborate with hiring teams.
Get better as you go: Thrive’s reporting and analytics gives you the insights you need to elevate executive hiring strategies.”
“With the vast set of tools available to you in Tracker, you have everything you need to run Executive Search such as a traditional integrated Job Board Search but more importantly tools like a free LinkedIn Extension which is quickly becoming the platform of choice for headhunting.
Recruitment & Applicant Tracking: Fully integrated Applicant Tracking System (ATS) enables your recruiters to source candidates, nurture and match applicants, and make more placements.
Sales & CRM: Tracker helps you build better client relationships, generate and qualify better leads, and manage your entire sales pipeline in a visual and intuitive interface.
Automation: Rocket boost activity with Automations directly in Tracker for boosting activity, enhancing productivity, and cutting out busy work.
Marketing: Amplify your marketing efforts for recruitment and sales with branded email and text campaigns built directly into Tracker.”
“Cluen’s solution, Encore Max, is used by executive search consultants, legal recruiters, in-house talent acquisition teams, government entities, universities, and venture capital/private equity firms all over the world.
Less data entry: Parse your résumés/CVs and LinkedIn profiles quickly, leaving you more time to do important search work.
More automation: Reduce administrative tasks with process-based workflows. Track referrals and use reporting tools to send periodic notifications or thank you notes.
Maximize relationships: Effectively source candidates and clients by tracking business and social relationships, investment relationships, board memberships, referrals and more.
Capture communications: Automatically track all of your business related email communications, meetings and tasks, regardless of which device or email program you prefer to use.”
“Fast growing executive search firms use Longlist to find and engage candidates, fill jobs faster, and ultimately grow revenue.
Sourcing extension: Source candidates from various platforms easily with our browser extension.
Personalized multi-channel campaigns: Never miss a beat and keep yourself top-of-mind for senior executives.
Visual job pipeline: See the entire job progress in a glance. Update by dragging and dropping into place.
Reach more people than ever: Longlist integrates with Email, SMS and Whatsapp so that you can reach candidates where they are.”
Questions to ask potential executive search software suppliers
When it comes to considering software for your executive search firm, here are some questions to keep in mind:
Is the product built for executive search? Retained and executive search assignments have unique progress steps and reporting needs that many mass-recruitment CRM systems can’t accommodate. It’s best to start by selecting product that are purely designed for executive search.
How time-consuming will data entry be? For search firms without legacy data to migrate, most supplier provide an empty platform. By definition, this means that putting information in quickly is key. (Note: our product Talentis avoids this by providing “one click” access to 559M public profiles from day one!)
What are the project management capabilities? Executive search mandates involve many stages of project management that keep multiple stakeholders on the same page when it comes to progress and phase completion. With international and multi-office search firms, this is very important, as are workflows which involve regular client updates and reporting. The right executive search software for your business should be a versatile project management tool, as well as a CRM.
How do I access my platform? Executive search professionals are often on the move, working in increasingly flexible working patterns and often needing access to their database and tools outside the office to keep deals moving at great pace. A modern executive search platform should be accessible as a web-based application.
Does it integrate with my day-to-day tools? The key to efficiency is plugging in various systems together to streamline processes. It gets rid of manual and administrative tasks and data copying, saving huge amounts of time better invested in finding and assessing candidates. The best software options for your executive search firm will connect with other IT products in your tech stack – such as Outlook integration to let users access CRM data directly from their inboxes.
What other products will I need? Remember that most platforms require other products to make the most out of them, such as LinkedIn licences, sourcing tools or contact information suppliers. When considering cost, ensure you get the full story!
Service, service, service! If the vendor has a poor Trustpilot score, ask why. If they don’t have a Trustpilot score at all, ask why even louder!
We’d love to talk to you about how Talentis can help with your executive search software needs. To schedule a demo followed by a free trial, get in touch with our team today!
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