Fractional Sales Leadership: A purpose-built tool for CEOs

Ryan Chappelle

03/14/24

Why should you consider hiring a consultant to serve as a fractional sales leader? As someone who has spent 25 years in the trenches of new business sales and enterprise sales leadership, I once questioned the need for transient leadership in sales. However, my perspective has shifted, particularly as I’ve immersed myself in the SMB market. Witnessing the struggles of emerging companies to commercialize and grow, I now believe Fractional Sales Leadership (FSL) should be a standard tool in the bag of CEOs, especially SMB leaders looking for a low expense approach to mitigate risks and enhance outcomes.

We’ve all witnessed the hurried rush to push products or services onto the market. With limited financial resources and an urgent need to achieve positive cash flow, many companies opt to hire inexperienced sales leaders to minimize costs and expedite deployment, often placing them in player-coach roles. This approach can be the right one when you know the market deeply, WHY clients will hire you, and the commercial foundation has been built.  When these gates have not been met, frustration and stagnant growth are commonly the outcome.  While this scenario isn’t universal, it occurs frequently enough to warrant attention, as evidenced by a 2023 Sales Xceleration survey of SMBs, revealing:

1. 95% rate their organizational sales performance as poor or below average.
2. 54% lack a clear value proposition.
3. 73% are unaware of what sets their offering apart.
4. 57% lack deep understanding of the market and competition.

The Challenge

Does your organization find itself on the wrong side of these metrics? Signs may include:

• A do-it-yourself sales strategy devoid of process, methodology and feedback mechanism.
• Absence of necessary technology tools.
• Prioritize the hiring of inexperienced lower paying staff to control costs.
• Lack of a sales enablement team for support.
• Frustration due to excessive discounting to win deals.
• Undefined value proposition.
• Lack of market, competitor, and client perception awareness.
• Absence of a consistent 3-year strategy.

To address the challenges, SMBs need an enterprise sales leader capable of market understanding, crafting a go-to-market strategy, implementing sales methodologies, and continually monitoring performance using appropriate analytics. Essential to these activities are deep market understanding and sales enablement technologies to operationalize strategies effectively.

The common recourse might be to fold to financial pressure, hire an inexperienced sales leader and push forward aggressively, driven by time constraints and the growth demands of stakeholders. While this approach may work when the foundation is solid, it poses high risks amidst the aforementioned challenges.

The Benefits

So, why not hire an enterprise sales leader outright? The answer lies in the word “expensive.” The solution? Fractional Sales Leadership. FSL enables SMBs to leverage enterprise sales leadership expertise without bearing the full financial burden associated with hiring them full-time.

The advantages of hiring a Fractional Sales Leader are manifold:

1. Access to deep expertise without the full-time expense.
2. Experience in market-driven go-to-market strategies.
3. Reduced risk of failure through optimal resource allocation.
4. Objective, fresh perspective without organizational biases.
5. Agile problem-solving abilities.
6. Rapid implementation of improvements based on experience.
7. Implementation of sales enablement strategies.
8. Dual role: strategic advisor and operational executor.
9. Extensive industry network.

A Recommendation

Objectively assess your organization’s needs and deploy the appropriate solution. Don’t overlook the importance of market development.  Do you truly understand why your client will buy from you or are you just trying to differentiate by doing something the other guy isn’t? Do you have a solid commercialization foundation including process, methodology and analytics in place?  If not, let a fractional sales leader assist in establishing this foundation, and subsequently transition to the chosen full-time team after the commercial engine is running efficiently. The right FSL can even aid in qualifying and selecting your execution team.

Interested in exploring Fractional Sales Leadership?  Contact me and I am happy to provide you with a list of guiding principles to consider interview questions that will help you find the right one!