How to Attract Top Executive Talent to a Growing CPG Brand
Attracting top executive talent is one of the biggest challenges facing a growing CPG brand.
A $20 million or $50 million consumer company may be competing for the same executive talent as established brands with significantly larger compensation packages, bigger teams, and more recognizable names. So how does a growing CPG brand compete?
The answer isn't always to offer more money. The strongest executive candidates are often evaluating the opportunity as a whole: the company's growth potential, the role's scope, the founder relationship, the level of autonomy, and the impact they can have.
At Fairfield Partners, we see this firsthand when helping high-growth consumer brands attract experienced leaders. The companies that consistently generate interest from strong candidates know how to sell the opportunity — not just the job.
Why Top Executives Aren't Always Looking for a New Job
Many of the strongest candidates for senior CPG roles are passive candidates. They already have a good job. They're leading a team, earning competitive compensation, and aren't actively scrolling through job boards. That means a traditional job description often isn't enough to get their attention.
A compelling executive opportunity needs to answer a different question: Why should this person leave a successful situation to join this company?
For a passive executive, the answer may be:
The opportunity to build something significant
A company with exceptional growth potential
Greater ownership and decision-making authority
The chance to build and lead a team
Meaningful equity upside
A compelling founder or CEO
An opportunity to enter a category with strong momentum
The ability to have a visible impact on the business
This is why executive recruiting for CPG companies requires more than posting a role and waiting for applications.
What Makes a CPG Leadership Opportunity Compelling?
Top executive candidates are evaluating the company just as carefully as the company is evaluating them. A strong leadership opportunity should clearly communicate five things:
1. The Growth Story
Why is this company positioned to win? Candidates want to understand the trajectory of the business, not just its current revenue. Explain:
Where the company is today
How quickly it is growing
Where growth is coming from
Which channels are expanding
What the next major milestones are
What the company could become in three to five years
A strong growth story gives a candidate something to believe in.
2. The Scope of the Role
Senior executives want to know what they will actually own. Instead of simply saying "lead the sales organization," explain what that means. Will the executive:
Build the sales team?
Create the retail strategy?
Expand into national accounts?
Manage brokers and distributors?
Own the P&L?
Build new systems?
Participate in board meetings?
Help shape company strategy?
The more clearly the opportunity is defined, the easier it is for a candidate to understand their potential impact.
3. The Problems They Get to Solve
Great executives are often attracted to difficult problems. A company shouldn't hide its challenges during recruiting. It should explain them. For example:
"We've grown from $10 million to $30 million in three years. We're now entering national retail, and we need a sales leader who can build the infrastructure and team to support that next stage."
That's more compelling than: "We're looking for an experienced VP of Sales to join our growing team."
The first communicates scale, momentum, challenge, and impact.
4. The Founder and CEO Relationship
For a founder-led CPG company, the CEO-executive relationship can make or break a hire.
Strong candidates want to understand:
What decisions will they own?
What does the founder continue to own?
How does the leadership team make decisions?
How open is the CEO to being challenged?
What level of autonomy will the executive have?
Who ultimately makes strategic decisions?
A candidate may be excited about the business but walk away if they believe the founder won't actually give them the authority to do the job. The best executive recruiting processes make this dynamic clear early.
5. The Opportunity to Build
Senior executives often want to build, not simply maintain. A growing CPG company can offer something a large corporation may not: the opportunity to create something from the ground up.
That could mean building:
A finance function
A national sales organization
A marketing team
A supply chain infrastructure
A leadership team
New retail channels
A company's next stage of growth
For the right candidate, that level of ownership can be more compelling than a larger title at a more established company.
Compensation, Equity, and Executive Incentives
Compensation still matters. A growth-stage company shouldn't assume candidates will accept significantly less simply because the opportunity is exciting. Instead, think about the total executive compensation package.
This may include:
Base salary
Annual bonus
Performance incentives
Equity
Benefits
Long-term incentives
Severance or other protections
For a startup or emerging CPG brand, equity can be an important part of the value proposition. But candidates need to understand what they're being offered and how the equity fits into the broader opportunity.
Compensation should also be benchmarked against the market for comparable companies, roles, and stages of growth. A compelling story can't compensate for a package that is fundamentally uncompetitive.
Sell the Company, Not Just the Position
One of the most common mistakes in executive recruiting is focusing too heavily on the job description. Top candidates aren't just asking: "What will I be doing?" They're asking: "Why should I care?"
A strong executive pitch should communicate:
The company: What makes the brand special?
The market: Why is the category attractive?
The growth: What momentum already exists?
The challenge: What needs to happen next?
The impact: What can this person change?
The upside: What could this opportunity become?
This is especially important when a growing CPG brand doesn't have the name recognition of a major consumer company. You may not be able to compete with the brand recognition of a Fortune 500 company. But you can compete on access, ownership, impact, and growth potential.
Make the Role Bigger Than the Job Description
The best executive candidates want to know whether the role will matter. Instead of describing responsibilities only, describe the outcomes the executive will own. For example:
Instead of: "Oversee the sales team and manage key retail accounts."
Consider: "Build the sales organization and national retail strategy needed to take the brand from its current footprint to the next phase of distribution."
The second version gives the candidate a much clearer picture of why their leadership matters. This is particularly important for CPG companies hiring their first senior leader in a function. A first CFO, COO, CMO, or VP of Sales may have the opportunity to fundamentally shape how that function operates for years to come. That is a meaningful selling point.
Move Quickly Once You Find the Right Candidate
Strong executive candidates don't stay available indefinitely. A slow hiring process can cause a growing CPG brand to lose candidates who are already employed and have multiple options.
Before beginning a search, align internally on:
The role's responsibilities
Decision-making authority
Compensation range
Equity structure
Interview process
Key decision-makers
Timeline
Then keep the process moving. A candidate shouldn't have to wait weeks between interviews or wonder where they stand. Speed doesn't mean rushing the decision. It means removing unnecessary friction from the process.
At Fairfield Partners, we help clients create a structured executive search process that keeps both sides engaged while allowing enough time for meaningful evaluation.
How to Attract Executive Candidates Who Aren't Actively Looking
If the best candidate is already employed, you have to reach them differently. This is where executive search firms can provide meaningful value. Rather than relying on inbound applicants, a search firm can identify executives who have the specific experience a company needs and engage them directly.
For a CPG brand, that might mean targeting leaders who have:
Scaled a similar consumer company
Built a national retail presence
Managed a specific category
Led a comparable stage of growth
Worked successfully with founders
Built teams from the ground up
Navigated fundraising or M&A
The goal isn't simply to produce a large candidate pool. It's to reach the right candidates, including people who weren't planning to make a move until they heard about the right opportunity.
A Practical Framework for Attracting Top CPG Talent
Before launching an executive search, make sure you can answer these questions:
Why this company?
What makes the brand and opportunity special?
Why now?
What growth or change is creating the need for this leader?
Why this role?
What will the executive own?
Why this candidate?
What experience makes someone uniquely valuable here?
What's the upside?
What could the company and role become?
Who will they work with?
What are the CEO, founder, board, and leadership dynamics?
What can they change?
What decisions and outcomes will they control?
What's the package?
How do compensation, equity, and incentives compare with the market?
If these answers are compelling, you have the foundation for an executive opportunity that can compete for top talent — even without the resources of a large CPG company.
Attracting the Right Executive for Your Next Stage
The strongest CPG executive candidates aren't simply looking for another job. They're looking for the right opportunity.
For a growing consumer brand, that means clearly communicating the company's vision, momentum, challenges, culture, and potential — while giving the executive enough authority and upside to make the opportunity meaningful.
At Fairfield Partners, we help high-growth consumer brands do exactly that. Since 2005, we've specialized in executive search across food, beverage, supplements, personal care, pet care, and other consumer categories.
Our industry expertise gives us access to experienced CPG leaders, including passive candidates who may not be actively searching but could be the right fit for a compelling growth opportunity.
We help clients define the leadership need, develop the candidate profile, reach the right market, and evaluate executives against both the role and the company's stage of growth.
