Who it's for
Founders, CEOs, MDs, People leaders, marketing leaders and agencies making an important hiring or team decision.
Market Intelligence & Advisory
Before you recruit, make sure the brief actually stacks up.
Sometimes the most useful thing I can do is tell you not to start recruiting yet.
Maybe the salary is wrong. Maybe the brief is actually three jobs. Maybe you're not sure what level you need. Or maybe you want to understand where the talent actually sits before committing to a search.
What it solves
You're missing the market evidence needed to decide what to hire, what to pay or whether the brief is realistic.
When it makes sense
Before, during or instead of recruitment when salary, scope, structure, talent availability or market reality needs checking.
Where this service fits
Market Intelligence & Advisory is useful before, during or instead of recruitment.
A defined piece of research to give you useful evidence before committing to a search. Sometimes the answer is to reshape the brief or salary. Sometimes it's not to recruit yet.
Market Intelligence
Get the market facts before you make the hiring decision.
Sometimes the answer is to recruit. Sometimes it's to change the brief, change the salary, go Fractional — or not hire yet.
Market Mapping
Where does the relevant talent actually sit?
Salary Intelligence
What does the market realistically pay?
Talent Availability
How much relevant talent is actually out there?
Competitor Intelligence
How are comparable businesses structured?
Hiring Feasibility
Does the brief and proposition actually stack up?
Decision
A clearer picture. A better hiring decision.
What we can investigate
Salary benchmarking
What are comparable people actually earning across Manchester, the North West and wider UK?
Talent mapping
Where does the relevant talent sit and how big is the realistic candidate market?
Competitor / team intelligence
How are comparable businesses structuring their marketing, digital or agency teams?
Brief design
What level and type of person does the business actually need?
Market testing
Will the salary, location, hybrid model, title and proposition attract the people you're targeting?
Hiring advisory
How should you structure the interview, assessment and eventual hiring decision?
Commercial reality check
Does the person you're describing actually exist — and what are they going to cost?
No 87-page consultancy deck.
Just useful information that helps you make a better hiring decision.
Sometimes that means sharpening the brief. Sometimes it means changing the salary. And sometimes it means not recruiting yet.
Public recommendations
What people say about working with David.
Short excerpts from public LinkedIn recommendations, used here because they speak to the work behind the brief.
Read LinkedIn recommendationsHonest adviceMark VarleyCommercial & agency leader · June 2026 “He has a refreshingly honest approach and believes in doing things the right way.”
Public LinkedIn recommendation
Common mistakes
What usually gets in the way.
Starting recruitment before the brief is commercially clear
Trusting salary calculators without checking the real market
Assuming the person you have described exists at the salary you want to pay
Mistaking competitor gossip for useful intelligence
Related services
Other routes that may fit the brief.
Permanent Recruitment
Permanent RecruitmentRetained Search
Retained SearchRelated insight
Useful reading before you hire.
What Should You Pay a Senior Marketing Hire in 2026?
What Should You Pay a Senior Marketing Hire in 2026?How to Hire a Marketing Director Without Wasting Six Weeks
How to Hire a Marketing Director Without Wasting Six WeeksHow Much Does Senior Marketing Recruitment Cost?
How Much Does Senior Marketing Recruitment Cost?Manchester & North West Marketing Salary Guide 2026
Manchester & North West Marketing Salary Guide 2026FAQs
Clear answers before a conversation.
Can Essential help with salary benchmarking?
Yes. David can help sense-check salary, level, location, hybrid expectations and whether the package fits the market you're trying to reach.
What is talent mapping?
Talent mapping means working out where the relevant people actually sit, how large the realistic candidate market is and where the search may become difficult.
Can you help design the brief before recruitment starts?
Yes. Sometimes the biggest value is working out whether you need a Marketing Director, Head of Marketing, Performance Director, Fractional CMO or something else entirely.
Is this a big consultancy project?
No. It is practical hiring advice and market intelligence designed to help you make a better decision, not a giant deck nobody reads.
Next step
Need to check the market before you recruit?
Tell me what you're thinking. I'll help you work out whether the brief, salary and candidate market actually stack up.