I am about to ruffle some feathers.
I contend that most full-time CROs struggle to succeed as Fractional CROs.
I also contend that I lost my hair from the years of deep sales experience and nothing else. If you have beautiful hair it’s because you don’t have enough sales experience :)
Being a great full-time CRO does not automatically make you a great Fractional CRO.
It takes time to learn how to be successful as a Fractional CRO (or Fractional CMO, CFO, CTO, etc.)
Most Full-Time CROs: “Here is my 90 day plan, after which I will be ready to make changes and you will start to see improvements. I will understand the culture and build relationships so that I can gain alignment across stakeholders before we touch anything revenue-related.”
Good Fractional CROs: “Your pipeline’s a mess, you have no qualification process. Jenny and Steve think we do different things, pricing is confusing, and your sales team’s chasing the non-ICP inbound leads. I can fix most of that by Friday.”
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The mindset and approach is very different. They are totally different sprints.
Most companies who hire their first full-time CRO, think they just invested in a money-making machine. I mean, it’s why you hire a Chief REVENUE Officer. To build revenue and to put money in your pocket.
Plot twist: You just hired someone who needs to learn the business for 3 months before showing you some wins.
This might be ok, if your company is doing well, and the hiring of a CRO was for leadership and long-term growth. But if you are an early stage company, or are stuck in a big rut, or have zero leads coming in, you need things to get back on track fast.
Some companies don’t need more meetings about having meetings or someone wasting time on your money by using their 90 day plan to tell you the obvious.
I am not bashing full-time CROs here. Not all full-time CROs are like this and not all fractional CROs are great. Hiring a premium full-time CRO is exactly what you should be doing once you reach a certain stage of growth.
There are many great full-time ones I would recommend - such as Ryan, Meredith and Chris.
And just as many great Fractionals - Mark, Adam, Brandon (CMO), and Scott.
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Tangent: note me recommending my competition. Why???
Three reasons
1) These are good people and I believe in relationships and people before business
2) There people help me and I help them - I am not for everyone and neither are they
3) Abundance mindset - there is more than enough to go around.
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Here’s what a great Fractional CRO gets you.
They have seen it all. They have worked across a dozen or more different clients. For a full-time CRO, twelve different roles and jumping around might be viewed as a red flag. For a Fractional CRO a dozen or more clients is a badge of honor. It means we have seen it all. Different problems, different personas, different founder and team challenges - all of which leads to learning and the ability to find the way to growth. A great Fractional Executive can see what’s broken fairly quickly and knows how to fix it fast.
A Fractional CROs bread and butter should be their get sh!t done process (I need to trademark that 🙂).
Identify the problem/s
Prioritize importance with CEO (includes recommended fix for each problem)
Get rest of team on board -- over-communication
Put resources in place for each fix
Implement and get sh!t done.
What’s that? You think the process is way too simple?
Yes it is and here’s why.
Time kills early stage companies. Time kills companies with no leads. Time kills companies that are not growing.
There is one more difference worth pointing out. A Fractional Executive gives you the results without the drama.
When I was a full-time executive and moving up in my career I was mistakenly fixated on titles (as many people are). Fractional Executives don’t care about what you call them (if they do - don’t hire them). We don’t care about titles or office politics, we care about solving the problems, about making the numbers work and about leaving the company in a significantly better place than when we got there.
Our job is to put ourselves out of a job.
GTM is your only moat. Get it right. Or GTFO.
P.S If you are a CRO or CMO maybe you need to think about whats right for you. I used to be a decent full-time CRO but I am a GREAT Fractional CRO.
Why GTM or GTFO Exists: The GTM is bar is low - big talkers, best practices and bullshit. Being elite is your moat. Do the work that matters and get sh!t done.
If this was valuable, please share it , post it, comment on it, or DM me. GTM or GTFO comes out every Sunday. See you next week.
Also, "time kills deals" 😃
You gotta strike while the metal is hot!