Audience
- Founders
- CEOs
- MDs
- People leaders
- Marketing leaders
- Agencies and growth businesses
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 don't know 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 not sure what level you need
- The salary, location or hybrid model may not attract the people you want
- The brief has become a shopping list
- You need to understand where the relevant talent actually sits
- You want market evidence before committing to a search
When this makes sense
- Before launching a senior or specialist search
- When a role has been difficult or previously unsuccessful
- When salary, scope, title or structure needs checking
- When you need a practical market view rather than a long consultancy exercise
Where this service fits
Market Intelligence & Advisory is useful before, during or instead of recruitment.
Service areas include salary benchmarking, talent mapping, competitor intelligence, brief design, market testing and hiring advisory.
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 intelligence
How are comparable businesses structuring and hiring their marketing teams?
Brief design
What level and type of person does the business actually need?
Market testing
Will the salary, location, hybrid model and proposition attract the people you're targeting?
Hiring advisory
Interview structure, assessment and practical advice around making the decision.
Commercial reality check
Does the person you are 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?FAQs
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 David what you're thinking and he'll help you work out whether the brief, salary and candidate market actually stack up.