Fractional sales leadership
Fractional sales director
A fractional sales director is a senior sales leader who works in your business part-time, usually one day a week. I run the sales system, coach the people selling and work on live deals. You get senior leadership without a full-time salary, a recruitment fee or months of ramp, on month-to-month terms.
Signs you need a fractional sales director
- You're still the best salesperson in the business, and the busiest
- You've hired salespeople and nobody is leading them
- A senior sales hire left, or didn't work out
- Nobody can tell you what will close this quarter
- The board or an investor keeps asking why the pipeline isn't growing
What does a fractional sales director do?
For the days we agree, I run your sales function as if it were mine. That means a written diagnosis of where things stand, an ideal customer profile and ideal customer situation, a pipeline review every week, enrichment and outbound built on that profile, a playbook covering the full sales cycle and coaching on live deals.
Where you already have a sales lead, I work alongside them. Where you have junior salespeople and no leader, I run the sales side day to day until you hire your own. The sales process and playbook and CRM and pipeline work usually comes first.
What you get
- A research paper on the current state of play, agreed with you
- Ideal customer profile and ideal customer situation documents
- Weekly pipeline reviews that show what's in play
- Outbound sequences and enrichment built in your own tool accounts
- A playbook draft covering the full sales cycle
- At 90 days, a working sales system you can see and run, and the first numbers from it
Worth knowing: You see the system improve month by month, with each step shown as it happens. I don't hand over a strategy deck and leave, and I don't promise revenue by a date.
How it runs
Five stages: meetings with you and the team, a written diagnosis, process mapping, a structured build and launch. By 90 days you can point to documentation of how your sales system is set up, what works and what gets improved next. Start dates are set with you when we agree the scope. To compare it with a permanent hire, run your own figures through the hire cost calculator.
Industries I know from the inside
From experience
Seehab AhmedFounder, Stratus Growth
I'm not there to manage the team or the relationships. I'm there to find what's broken and help fix it, or build it from scratch, and to make the people already doing the job more successful.
In the sales organisation I led, more than 10 junior reps were promoted to mid-level, 3 to team lead and 1 to manager. The forecast I reported to the board stayed within 10% of the monthly target.
Related
- ServiceFractional sales leadershipFractional commercial leadership gives a founder-led business a senior sales leader for a day or two a week. I find what's broken in your sales system, or build it from scratch, and make the people already selling more successful. You get a working system you can see and run, and you own all of it.
- ServiceSales process and playbookThe stages, qualification and handovers written down, so every lead gets handled the same way.
- ServiceCRM setup and pipeline managementHubSpot rebuilt around how you sell, with fit scoring and a weekly pipeline review.
- BookFree scoping call60 minutes on what's happening in your business and whether I'm the right person to help. If I can't help, I'll tell you what would.
- ServiceGo-to-market strategyWho to sell to, what to say, which channels and in what order, tested with real prospects within weeks.
- Free toolHire cost calculatorThe first-year cost of a full-time sales director: salary, employer National Insurance, pension, recruitment, your own time and the months before they hit target.Cost a full-time sales hire
Questions people ask
What does a fractional sales director cost?
Is it one day a week?
What if I already have a sales manager?
When would you manage the team directly?
Two ways to start
Free
You're weighing up ongoing help
A 60-minute call to work out what's going on and whether I'm the right person to fix it. If I'm not, I'll say so on the call and tell you what would help instead.
£150 · One hour · No VAT is charged
You have one question that needs a straight answer
Bring the question. You leave the hour with my answer and the reasoning behind it, with no retainer and no obligation afterwards.
Not sure which? Answer three questions and I'll point you to the right one.