Two Ways to Hire a Head of Client Strategy

Hunt Club sources candidates through operators who refer people they've actually worked with, which is a real advantage for a client-facing agency role, since a peer referral tells you something about how a candidate performs under a client's scrutiny, not just what their resume says. That signal matters more here than in a purely internal role.

The tradeoff is time and structure: a Hunt Club search is a managed, recruiter-led process aimed at a permanent hire, which means a longer runway and less flexibility if your needs shift mid-search.

Bolster puts you in the driver's seat, browsing vetted candidates directly, including people open to fractional or interim client-strategy roles while you figure out whether the position needs to be permanent. That flexibility is valuable for an agency still working out what growth actually requires: sometimes it's one senior hire, sometimes it's a fractional leader helping restructure account teams before a permanent hire is even the right call.

The tradeoff is that you're doing more of the vetting yourself, without a recruiter pre-screening for client-facing polish, which matters more here than for a purely internal or technical role.

SHRM's 2025 benchmarking survey found the average cost of an executive hire at $35,879, against $5,475 for a nonexecutive role, once agency fees and internal time are counted¹. A Hunt Club search for a permanent head of client strategy will land near that executive figure; a fractional engagement through Bolster runs as an ongoing rate instead, which is the lower-commitment option while an agency is still proving out its growth thesis.

SHRM's 2025 data also put the median time-to-fill for a nonexecutive role at 44 days from requisition to offer accepted, with executive roles often running longer². If a specific client relationship is at risk right now, that lag matters more than the fee difference, and a fractional hire through Bolster can typically start faster.

A permanent hire through Hunt Club carries more downside if the fit is wrong, since you're committing to full-time compensation and the client relationships they've built become entangled with their tenure at the agency. A fractional hire through Bolster is easier to end if it's not working, but it carries its own risk: a client who's built trust with a fractional leader may be unsettled if that person's engagement ends and a new one starts.

Weigh both risks against your actual client base. Agencies with a handful of large, high-touch accounts should lean toward whichever option offers more relationship continuity; agencies with many smaller accounts have more room to experiment.

If you already know the role is permanent and you have the budget for full-time compensation, start with Hunt Club and lean on its referral model to find someone with real client-facing credibility. If you're still testing whether the agency needs a dedicated growth or strategy leader at all, start with a fractional engagement through Bolster and use the first few months as real evidence rather than a guess.

Whichever path you choose, involve a client-facing account lead in the interview process, not just the founder, since they'll spot red flags around client chemistry that a founder focused on strategy might miss.

Use these rules of thumb to choose:

• Start with Hunt Club if the role is clearly permanent and the budget supports full-time pay, and lean on its referral model for client-facing credibility.
• Start with a fractional engagement through Bolster if you're still testing whether the agency needs a dedicated growth or strategy leader at all.
• Treat the first few months of a fractional engagement as evidence of what the role needs before committing to a permanent scope.
• Build a tough client scenario, such as a client threatening to leave over disappointing results, into the interview on either platform.

The strongest predictor of success in this role isn't years of experience or agency pedigree, it's how a candidate handles a tough, specific scenario: a client threatening to leave over disappointing results. Build that scenario into the interview on either platform, and listen for whether the candidate has a concrete plan versus a vague reassurance about relationship management.

Candidates who can walk through a real prior example, including what they changed and how the client responded, are showing you exactly the skill this role actually needs day to day, which is a far better signal than a polished pitch about their general philosophy on client service.