Executive search has hit “rock bottom” and it is time for search firms to fight back by marketing their services better, according to Derek Smart, the chair of the Association of Executive Recruiters (AER).

Smart told Recruiter that there was a perception among many employers that they could do executive search for themselves.

This had been compounded by the effects of the recession, and fee reductions of 25-33% in the last two years.

“I would have thought we have hit rock bottom,” Smart told Recruiter.

However, Smart said the perception that clients could recruit as effectively themselves without the help of executive search firms was misplaced. “It is only after organisations receive CVs that the work really begins,” he said.

“It comes back to skills, and the best way we can fight back is push the idea that ’we will handle the whole thing: from start to finish’.”