Executive search · ABL & factoring

Category search for roles generalists can't fill.

The talent for these roles is employed and not looking — concentrated in fewer firms than generalist search ever reaches.

Hiring for specialty finance? Start with ABL or Factoring.

The sourcing problem

Not a talent shortage. A process failure.

Field examiners in ABL and client auditors in factoring are employed and not looking. They don't respond to generic outreach. A recruiter who has never mapped this market can't write a message that earns a response.

Most searches fail before a single candidate is contacted. The role is defined by credentials and years of experience rather than performance outcomes. That brief goes to a recruiter whose source companies are wrong, whose candidate pool is active applicants, and whose outreach reads like every other message in the inbox.

The result is a long search, a hire the manager had to talk themselves into, and the wrong conclusion: "the talent isn't there." The next search runs the same process.

How we work

Performance profile first. Then sourcing.

Every assignment follows the same sequence. The role is defined by outcomes before a single name is pulled. The sequence is not flexible.

01
Role architecture

The search opens with a performance profile: what the hire must accomplish in the first twelve months. That document drives every sourcing and screening decision that follows. Not a credential list.

Outcomes-defined before sourcing begins
02
Direct outreach to employed candidates

Source companies mapped. Outreach written to earn a response from someone who wasn't looking. The candidate pool is built for this search, not recycled from a database.

Direct outreach into the employed market
03
Evidence-based assessment

Finalists are evaluated against the performance profile through structured screens. Each comes with a written synthesis: explicit strengths plus stated risks and candidate-arranged references.

Written synthesis before any finalist introduction
One engagement type

Search Assignment.

Selective engagements. We confirm fit before opening a search.

Front-end diagnostic
Search Calibration

A paid front-end diagnostic before the full search opens. We confirm the role, market, and economics are real. You get a written recommendation on whether to proceed.

Includes
  • Role scorecard and performance profile
  • Compensation and geography reality check
  • Candidate-liquidity assessment
  • Written go / revise / stop recommendation

Calibration fee credited against the placement fee if the search proceeds.

Search Assignment

A focused search for an operations-critical role in field exam, collateral monitoring, client audit, or adjacent specialty-finance workflows. Role architecture built from performance outcomes. Direct outreach to employed candidates. Evidence-based finalist assessment. Managed close.

Includes
  • Performance profile and job scorecard
  • Direct outreach to employed candidates
  • Structured candidate screens
  • Written finalist synthesis
  • Candidate-arranged references
  • Close support through accepted offer
Not a fit for
  • Volume staffing or temp placements
  • Broad finance roles outside the niche
  • Exploratory: no live vacancy or approved budget
Discuss terms Fee structure discussed on the introductory call

Engagement terms, including fee structure, guarantee terms, and timeline, are scoped to the specific search and confirmed before the assignment opens.

Fit

Who this is built for.

Strong fit: ABL
  • ABL lender-services firm with a live vacancy in field exam or collateral monitoring.
  • Prior generalist search returned active applicants with no lender-services background.
  • PE-backed or owner-led shop building examiner bench after an acquisition.
Strong fit: Factoring
  • Independent factoring or commercial finance firm with a live vacancy in client audit or AR verification.
  • Prior search where the recruiter couldn't define the role or reach working client auditors.
  • Owner-led factor where one open seat creates immediate portfolio risk.

Both verticals: live vacancy with approved budget. No internal function capable of reaching the passive market.

Not a fit
  • Large bank ABL or commercial finance divisions with mature internal talent acquisition.
  • Volume staffing, temp or contract, or broad finance roles outside the specialty niche.
  • No live vacancy, no approved budget, or no firm intent to use external search.
  • Role and economics haven't been validated. We confirm both before a search opens.
What we see in the market

Two narrow markets. One process.

ABL field exam

The ABL field exam candidate pool is concentrated inside roughly 25 independent lender-services firms nationally — the full list published by ABLPage.com, the industry’s own reference directory. BLS does not track this role as a separate occupation. Fewer than ten positions are posted nationally at any given time.

Factoring AR verification

The AR verification candidate pool sits almost entirely inside independent factoring operations. The IFA counts roughly 375 member companies globally. The role title varies — field rep, AR specialist, audit associate — and rarely appears on job boards in a form that maps to the actual work.

Source: ABLPage.com field exam provider directory; BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook (Financial Examiners, SOC 13-2061); IFA member directory; ZipRecruiter market activity data.

Start here

Tell us about the role.

Come with the vacancy. In the intro call we pressure-test whether the role, market, and economics support a real search and tell you clearly if they don't.

  • The role you're trying to fill plus how long it's been open
  • What previous sourcing has produced, if anything
  • Timeline and urgency
Book a call

Prefer to write first?

Include your firm, open role, vacancy duration, and sourcing already tried. Response within one business day.

  • Firm name and your role
  • The open vacancy and how long it's been open
  • What previous sourcing has produced
  • How soon you need someone in the seat
connor@ledgerstoneadvisory.com