Sometimes they are flexible, maybe even adjusting to your availability. And there are what I would label “best practices” in Business Development for a fractional executive that, in the end, allow building a pipeline.
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The ratio between those two is a balancing act, one that does determine whether the solopreneur is successful and their practice survives. But is there an ideal ratio, an ideal amount of time to spend on Business Development?
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What needs to be different when you interview a candidate for a fractional executive role, like a Fractional VP of Sales or Fractional CRO? They are hired for a specific task, period of time, or interim role. Interview for the skills required to complete those shorter-term goals; everything else is gravy.
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Frequently, when speaking with startup founders, I hear the comment, “we are not ready for a sales leader.” The reasoning provided includes lack of funds (“we need to generate some revenue first”), a sequence in hiring (“we are busy hiring AEs and SDRs”), or delays in product development (“the product is not ready for primetime”).
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In a recent conversation with a founder, she shared that it was important to her that certain positions like her VP of Sales be W2's employees, given the confidential business info they would know and have access to. Are W2 employees better at keeping proprietary business information confidential than 1099 contractors?
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From a legal perspective, when you work with an independent contractor, you relinquish control over how, when, and where they do their work. Though, when work is about outcomes and results, isn’t controlling the how, when, and where control for the sake of control?
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Half of those hired in from the outside turn out to be unsuccessful. That is a staggering statistic, and from a sales leadership perspective completely in line with other stats frequently quoted: a 2.5-year average tenure of a sales leader and only 1.5 years for the first VP of Sales a company hires.
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The OECD defines a scaleup company as a company having an average annualized return of at least 20% in the past three years with at least ten employees at the beginning of the period.
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Van de Groep & Olsthoorn identify nine success factors and, like me, argue that the success of any fractional or interim executive assignment is primarily the result of matching the right leader into the organization. Let me put those nine factors to the test, though, specifically for a fractional or interim sales leader.
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Fee models for fractional executives have an art and a science, a balance between multiple factors, and an element of “as-high-or-as-low-as-desperation-takes-you” to it. And that is not too different from the permanent job market.
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