When Should You Hire a Fractional VP of Sales and Marketing?

In today’s competitive business environment, companies of all sizes face challenges in driving revenue growth and maintaining profitability. Whether you’re a startup, a growing mid-sized business, or even an established company facing a downturn or launching an aggressive growth plan, there are times when bringing in an experienced leader to spearhead your sales and marketing efforts can make a significant difference. However, hiring a full-time executive can be expensive and risky, particularly if you need more time to be ready for that commitment. A newly hired Sales and Marketing VP can take eight to eighteen months to hit the ground running. This is where a fractional VP of Sales and Marketing can be an ideal solution.

What is a Fractional VP of Sales and Marketing?

Businesses have hired fractional CFOs for years. I started offering these services in response to my client’s demands. I am a Fractional Sales and Marketing VP who focuses on quickly assessing the current state of the business, understanding your growth objectives and BHAG, and helping create a strategic plan, organizational structure, and tactics to achieve growth objectives.

Why do organizations want to consider a fractional Sales and Marketing VP?

1. The departure and or retirement of a Vice President of Sales.
2. The launch of growth initiatives that require new skills and experience or periods of organizational restructuring can present significant challenges to impact sales velocity. When this occurs, teams need to act quickly but do not want to make a rash hiring decision for such a critical key role.
3. Some hire an Interim ( Fractional) VP of Sales and Marketing to focus on the growth strategy, sales and marketing strategic planning, and getting everyone on the sales team in the right seat and concentrate on the right goals and deliverables.
4. Often, working with the senior leadership team, we create the job description for the new VP of Sales and Marketing, and I often help recruit, onboard, and coach this leader to reduce the time to impact their hire.
5. In some companies, I work alongside the current sales and marketing VPs and specifically focus on scaling the business with their help and insights.

I provide this service and am currently acting in this capacity for two clients as I write this post.( if you want to learn more let’s chat)

Another question I often receive is below…

What are the Signs( Symptoms) You Need a Fractional VP of Sales and Marketing?

1. Stagnant or Declining Revenue: If your company has hit a plateau or is experiencing a drop in revenue, it’s a clear sign that you might need a strategic intervention. A fractional VP can provide the expertise to quickly analyze what’s going wrong and devise a plan to get back on track.

2. Lack of Leadership in Sales and Marketing: Many growing companies reach a point where their internal teams are overwhelmed, or there needs to be more leadership guiding the overall strategy. They have salespeople who have become sales managers but need more training and experience than a VP of sales and marketing. A fractional VP can temporarily fill that gap, providing the leadership necessary to align your sales and marketing efforts.

Having led sales and marketing teams for nearly 40 years, I have not seen it all, but I feel I’m close. As one client shared.” You can see around corners we did not even know were coming, and you know how to navigate the shifts we have never experienced before.”

3. Uncertainty in Scaling: If your company is at a critical growth stage but needs to figure out how to scale your sales and marketing efforts effectively, a fractional VP can help you develop and implement a scalable strategy without the long-term commitment of a full-time hire.

4. Budget Constraints: You may recognize the need for top-tier sales and marketing leadership but need more budget for a full-time executive. A fractional VP provides the expertise you need at a fraction of the cost, allowing you to invest in growth without overstretching your financial resources.

5. Need for a Fresh Perspective: An external perspective is sometimes crucial to identify blind spots and new opportunities. With their varied experience across industries, a fractional VP can bring fresh ideas and innovative strategies that your internal team might overlook. We are not biased by how we do things around here or by politically incorrect secrets stalling growth. We assess, discuss the findings, develop a plan with your team, and launch. After launch, we measure what matters and adjust as we learn more.

6. Prepare the Business for Sale: Often, I find businesses that want to improve revenue and gross profit margins, the diversity of their accounts, and increase market share and customer satisfaction to prepare for a sale of their business. We use an assessment, like running an MRI on your business, to quickly understand the current state and design and implement a plan to reach the desired future state to maximize the selling price and owner value. If your current team could have accomplished this without help, they would have, so you bring in someone who has done it several times.

What Will a Fractional VP of Sales and Marketing Do?

A fractional VP of Sales and Marketing is typically a seasoned executive who works part-time with your company. Their primary goal is to drive revenue growth and ensure profitability by optimizing your sales and marketing strategies. The engagement is about Driving Explosive Growth, not the number of hours they work each week.

Here’s what they(we) typically do:

1. Strategic Assessment and Planning: A fractional VP will first assess your current sales and marketing efforts. This involves analyzing your sales pipeline, marketing campaigns, customer acquisition strategies, and overall market positioning. Based on this assessment, they will develop a strategic plan to address gaps, capitalize on strengths, and drive growth. We’ll assess your sales team’s skills, motivations, and beliefs and modify organizational structure when needed. We consider your customer satisfaction and net promotor score. We run a net profit by-customer analysis to identify profit-leaking customers and launch plans to correct them.

2. Team Alignment and Leadership: A vital responsibility of a fractional VP is to align your sales and marketing teams around a common goal. They’ll ensure that both teams are working together seamlessly ( no Silos) with clear objectives, KPIs, and communication channels. They may also mentor existing team members, providing them with the guidance and support needed to elevate their performance.

3. Sales Process Optimization: The fractional VP will analyze your sales processes and identify areas for improvement. This might include refining your lead generation tactics, improving conversion rates, shortening the sales cycle, and implementing more effective sales methodologies. Often, we fine-tune your formal sales process and train your sales team to use it.

4. Marketing Strategy and Execution: On the marketing side, the fractional VP will oversee the development and execution of campaigns that align with your business goals. This could involve refining your brand messaging, enhancing your digital presence, optimizing your content strategy, and ensuring that your marketing efforts effectively generate qualified leads for your sales team. We conduct a digital footprint audit. Is your website functioning as the lead generation machine it should? How does your site perform compared to your competitors? What keywords and phrases draw customers to your site and your competitors? We leverage the voice of customer research and often fine-tune the value proposition, as many companies have dated value propositions that no longer resonate with customers. As the VP of Sales and Marketing, I have a Lasor-like focus: Our marketing is designed to help sales achieve growth expectations. If you cannot connect the dots between a proposed marketing plan and how it drives and supports explosive growth, it will not be implemented.

5. Performance Monitoring and Adjustment: Once strategies are implemented, the fractional VP will closely monitor performance, using data and analytics to track progress against goals. They will make necessary adjustments in real-time, ensuring that the company stays on track to achieve its revenue and profitability targets. If teams lack real-time data, we often work with IT and create Power BI dashboards.

6. Short- to Medium-Term Focus: A fractional VP often focuses on achieving short- to medium-term objectives.( although, as of late, I have helped teams write three-to-five-year strategic growth plans) They are typically engaged for a specific period or until certain goals are met. This makes them highly results-driven, focusing on delivering measurable outcomes within a set timeframe. Often, as we engage with clients, they have action lists as high as 20 to 30 key indicators. If you have that many initiatives, I promise none are receiving the focus of key initiatives. Working with the leadership team, we identify yearly and quarterly critical areas of focus, and they are to be at most four to five action items, and leaders are to own at most one. Our focus is executing the right plans that drive the growth the owners require.

7. Organization design and structure: future buyers who pay a higher than industry multiple do so for strategic reasons. One strategic consideration is whether this company has the proper organizational structure and has A players in crucial leadership roles. Potential buyers will pay more for strong teams with the bench strength to grow and A players leading the way. Often, we complete a functional accountability exercise and identify key roles that need to improve, be added, or be upgraded for future growth.

What a Fractional VP of Sales and Marketing Does Not Do

While a fractional VP can bring significant value to your business, it’s essential to understand what they typically do not do. This is the area that causes the most friction with clients. They often want and expect the hours of a full-time VP of Sales and Marketing, although they are paying a fraction of the cost. You need us to work on strategy and execution, not being pulled into the weeds of the business or drama with different departments infighting if that is occurring. We will identify the issues and make suggestions, but we must not get sucked into the weeds, as this will negatively impact our results.

1. Daily Operational Tasks: A fractional VP is not involved in the day-to-day execution of sales and marketing tasks. They provide strategic direction, leadership, and oversight, leaving the tactical execution to your internal teams.

2. Long-Term Executive Commitment: A fractional VP is not a long-term hire. They are brought in for a specific period or purpose, so they only typically commit to the company within the scope of their engagement. If you need long-term leadership, you may eventually need to transition to a full-time executive position, and a strong fractional VP will also assist in this process.

3. Replace Your Sales and Marketing Teams: A fractional VP is not a substitute for a competent sales and marketing team. They enhance and optimize the performance of your existing teams but do not replace the need for dedicated staff members who handle the execution of strategies.

4. Handle Administrative Work: A fractional VP needs help to handle administrative or support tasks. They focus on high-level strategy and leadership, so routine administrative duties should remain with your existing administrative or operations staff.

Hiring a fractional VP of Sales and Marketing can be a game-changer for companies looking to get their revenue and profits back on track or leaders preparing to sell their business. They bring a wealth of experience and strategic insight that can make a real impact without the cost and commitment of a full-time executive.

However, engaging a fractional VP with a clear understanding of what they will and will not do is essential. When leveraged correctly, they can help your company navigate challenging times, optimize your sales and marketing efforts, and set you on a path to sustainable growth.

Does your business need a sales and profit increase jump start?

Did your business take a hit during the pandemic, and have sales and profits never recovered?

Has your current VP of sales decided to retire unexpectedly?

Would your team value an industry veteran coming alongside to scale your business strategically?

Let’s schedule a call if you want to learn more about bringing on a fractional VP of sales and marketing to drive explosive growth in your organization.