The rise of the fractional executive movement has been rapid over the last few years and is rocketing in our new post-Covid reality. Simply put a Fractional executive is someone who fills a senior executive position in a part-time or short-term capacity, usually 5-25 hours per week. They are traditionally C suite (CRO, CTO, CPO, CMO, CFO) and VP Level (Sales, Product, Marketing, Rev Ops). A Fractional exec is a great way to bring significant experience to your business in a targeted, flexible manner.

This is especially true for start-up and scale-ups as getting a key executive on board full-time is going to take a large investment, one that your startup might not be able to afford at this time, despite the need for that leadership.  Leveraging a fractional approach allows you to build an experienced team without having to spend your entire raise!

There are 3 significant tailwinds that I see driving this movement:

1. Talent in Market: in this current downturn there are a large number of experienced folk who have been affected by layoffs.
2. Profitability is the new Growth: growth at all costs has been replaced by runway management and burn control.
3. Flexible lifestyle: accelerated by Covid, many corporate types are realising that life can be more than 100-hour weeks.

Fractional Versus Consulting:

One of the key differences is that a fractional executive will get hands-on operational, think more like a part-time employee than a fly-by consultant.  The brief usually contains both strategic work and operational components, with the latter including anything from the implementation of changes, team management, hiring, business development, essentially anything that the business requires.  I get deep into the weeds, including logging into your systems, writing copy, taking sales meetings, the lot.

So what does a Fractional VP Sales actually do?

Breaking it down into the two categories above, these are some of the areas I have worked on for clients:

Strategic:

• Go To Market strategy development/review
• Designing and executing sales process + methodology
• Value Proposition Development/review - this is key!
• Sales Playbook development/review
• Sales Performance Review
• Revenue and Sales Process Mapping and planning
• Team Design and KPI planning
• Tech stack + automation development/review

Operational:

• Team Management - pipeline analysis and review, deal quarterbacking, coaching, mentoring, performance
• Business Development - everything from leveraging my network, to writing outbound copy, website, sales decks
• Interviewing for Sales and other positions
• Sales Forecasting
• Design and run skills workshops
• Strategic Account Planning

When do you need a fractional VP Sales?

When you need Sales expertise but can’t afford to outlay $350k+ (plus benefits, options, etc) is the short answer!  For startups who have raised a round but don’t want to spend 40% on a single hire (direct quote) then the flexible approach of a fractional VP Sales could the right approach for you.  If you have been running sales yourself, but have hit your bandwidth limit or your sales machine isn’t performing as it should be, then it’s worth considering.

If you want to find out more, then please reach out to us here at the community of fractional executives.

Note - this is a cross post from my personal site at www.zacharyking.com.au