What Is A Fractional Executive and Is Now A Good Time To Hire One For Sales?
If you're running a business, you have to think about sales every day. After all, sales can propel or stand in the way of revenue, growth, and overall success.
But what if you don't have the budget or workload to justify hiring a full-time sales executive? That's where fractional executives come in. They're experienced professionals who provide their expertise and leadership on a part-time basis to businesses in need of specialized skills.
So, what's the benefit of hiring a fractional executive for sales? Well, for one, you can optimize your resources and stay competitive in the market. These executives are experts in formulating sales strategies, building sales teams, and achieving target goals.
If you're considering bringing on fractional executives, we're here to walk you through how these professionals can help your business thrive.
What is a fractional executive?
Typically, fractional executives, like a VP of sales, focus on a particular business department; however, they can also act in broader capacities depending on their level of expertise and the company's needs. They may work independently or in a group as part of a business consultancy.
Unlike full-time consultants, or full time executives, a seasoned professional can work for multiple firms and don't need to be engaged for long periods of time. Companies often hire them to address specific problems and part ways afterward.
Companies hire part-time fractional executives across multiple disciplines, including:
Fractional chief executive officers (CEOs): A chief executive officer offers high-level executive leadership across all facets of the organization
Fractional chief financial officers (CFOs): Provide extensive financial know-how to help businesses attain financial balance
Fractional chief technology officers (CTOs): Ensure the company has the technological leadership expertise needed to thrive in the current market environment
Fractional chief marketing officers (CMOs): A fractional CMO has a similar role as fractional sales consulting professionals as they're both concerned with boosting the company's sales
Fractional General Counsel (FGOs): Bring deep knowledge of contracts, IP law, product protections, and more
Fractional Operations Officer (COOs): Drive successful implementations of new business ventures
Fractional Product Officer (FPOs): Develop new product lines or fix existing ones
But one of the most productive fractional roles is the Fractional Sales Officer.
A fractional sales executive can help you develop effective sales strategies, simplify your sales processes, provide on-demand sales leadership, guide your sales team to success, and ultimately boost your revenue, among other services. By focusing on these key areas, you can expect to see some serious success and growth for your business in the long run.
What are fractional executive services?
Have you ever noticed how some businesses struggle to make sales even when they’re doing everything right? It’s not always their fault, though—factors like the pandemic, changes in consumer behavior, and economic trends can all greatly impact sales.
In such times, businesses and those in an executive role must rethink their sales strategies to meet new market conditions and consumer demands. And that is why companies should start engaging fractional executives.
Using fractional executive services can help cushion the effect of unforeseen situations like lockdowns and ensure that businesses are in tune with consumer behavior and general market trends.
Why Companies Should Consider Hiring a Fractional Executive
In order to keep up with the fast-paced world of business, companies need to be flexible and adapt quickly. That's where a fractional executive role can really make a difference on a company's growth. Here’s why you should consider hiring a fractional leader.
Budget
One of the major problems affecting small businesses and mid size companies alike is budget constraints. Consequently, organizations must be financially prudent to meet their operational needs.
Businesses of any size need to hire experienced professionals to handle certain operations. Fortunately, businesses can circumvent common budget limitations by hiring a fractional CFO.
Getting these professionals on board in a fractional engagement, or flexible work arrangements is cost-effective as they only provide part-time services. As a result, companies can cut overhead expenses they would have otherwise incurred for full-time employees.
Meanwhile, they’d still tap heavily from a fractional talent’s expertise and get a better ROI.
Strategic Approach
Like budgeting, a business needs a strategic sales approach to scale up—and this is an area where a fractional executive can make an impact.
Market dynamics change rapidly; if businesses don’t respond appropriately, sales can dip, adversely affecting revenue. Fractional executives and fractional leadership can prevent this from happening as they have the expertise and have garnered years of experience.
Expert Insight
Fractional executives can provide businesses with expert insight into sales without stretching their budgets. Compare it to having a full-time employee who requires incurring expenses across utilities, insurance, and even rent for workspace.
Worst still, the business might fall short of its target despite spending significantly more money.
Fractional executives, on the other hand, don’t always need to be physically present, as they can pass ideas via calls, texts, or emails. As a result, businesses can spend significantly less while potentially getting a better ROI.
CRM
Fractional sales executives are masters of CRM technology and SaaS, allowing advanced integrations with other technologies and increasing sales power at every stage.
Many B2B services businesses purchase a Hubspot license and fail to set the software up properly on day one. This leads to systemic problems -- lost data, lost sales, lost productivity -- that can impact the day-to-day job of every sales employee.
Fractional Hubspot experts set up every setting to match the business goals of the company, enable advanced reporting powered by accurate data, optimize sequences and AI tools, and properly train the sales team to get the best from the CRM. In this way, sales enablement becomes an everyday tool that drives a lot of revenue.
Flexible Relationship
Businesses face problems on a regular basis. These issues may range from difficulty in devising the best sales strategy to figuring out how to stop the business from hemorrhaging money.
Whenever these problems occur, a fractional executive can come in, offer solutions, create a growth pathway for the business, and exit soon after. The nature of their job is flexible, so they don’t have to commit to long-term contracts, which may have huge financial implications for the business.
Expansion
If you're looking for some sales expertise, a fractional sales executive might be just the ticket. They can offer insights into sales and other departments, all while being cost-effective due to their part-time engagement. Plus, they're great at teaching a sales culture and guiding your existing sales team, which can really help improve their performance and outputs.
Common Pitfalls of a Fractional Executive
If you're considering bringing on a fractional executive, it's important to consider your specific needs and goals. You'll want to ensure they have industry experience and can bring valuable insights and expertise to the table. But before hiring one, consider these factors that can hinder success.
Lack of Confidence
Ordinarily, when a new leader comes on board, it takes a while before they gain the confidence of everyone across the organization. Working reduced hours makes this task even more difficult for fractional executives.
Therefore, a business must seek fractional executives whose reputations precede them and commit to supporting them in the staff's eyes. This will help establish mutual trust and confidence between both parties more quickly.
Poor Communication
Poor communication issues are nothing new in the workplace. It gets even trickier for fractional executives as they’re not always around the office. This disconnection may leave them unaware of real-time developments, which can adversely impact the company.
To combat this problem, companies can use project management tools like Slack or Trello, where team members can post updates for everyone to see.
Bad Cultural Fit
Cultural fit encourages hiring people with similar values and belief systems. The idea is to ensure recruits seamlessly integrate into the company and have an accelerated positive relationship with their new colleagues.
As mentioned earlier, fractional executives need the trust and confidence of staff to help them commence work immediately. Seeking executives who are a cultural fit at the outset makes this possible, as they blend almost immediately with others.
Lack of a Clear Objective
A fractional executive may not perform successfully if the hiring company cannot specifically identify its needs. Determining the professionals and skills required without understanding the areas of need is fraught with pitfalls.
That’s why businesses must define their objectives and identify specific challenges before contacting a professional fixer. In other words, they must identify and match the problem with the appropriate expert. We recommend a fractional sales assessment from Mindracer before committing to a hire for optimal results.
How to Find the best fractional executive for your business?
You know how crucial it is to have a strong executive team. But how do you go about finding the perfect fractional executive for your business? Here are some tips to help you find the right one.
Evaluate Your Sales Need
When considering hiring a fractional executive, it's important to take a step back and evaluate where your business could benefit from expert guidance. One critical area to focus on is your sales team.
If your sales team is struggling or underperforming, a fractional executive can provide valuable expertise and guidance to help them reach their full potential. Is the CRM and all your analytics in top form? By identifying these areas for improvement and bringing in a fractional executive to address them, you can drive sales and achieve greater success for your business.
Identify Gaps in Sales Leadership
To boost your sales performance, it's important to identify areas where your sales leadership could improve. If you've noticed your team isn't communicating or making the same mistakes repeatedly, it might be time to seek extra help.
Bringing in a sales expert on-demand can help address these issues and get your team back on track. With some tweaking, you can improve your team's performance and take your business to the next level!
Determine the Skill Sets and Expertise Your Business Needs From a Fractional Executive
Before hiring a fractional executive, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of the attributes and qualities that will help your company achieve its sales objectives.
Here are some of the most important qualities to keep in mind:
Proactivity
Great communication skills
Broad marketing expertise and excellent networking skills
Experience in digital marketing resources
Confidence and optimism about achieving the stated goals
A clear understanding of the company's product or service
Before hiring, remember to check a potential fractional executive's track record and credentials. Also, it is important to do a background check to ensure that every record adds up. This will further enhance the chances of a successful partnership.
How Mindracer Can Help
One thing that has become essential for many companies, particularly small-to-medium-sized ones, is hiring fractional executives. These experts can help businesses increase their sales with their knowledge and leadership.
There are numerous advantages to bringing one on board, including cost-effectiveness and a flexible working relationship. Furthermore, they offer a wealth of expertise, strategic thinking, impartiality, and more.
However, companies need to assess their current sales situation before hiring a fractional executive. This is where Mindracer can help by providing sales consulting tailored to your company's needs.
Keep in mind that the current market is extremely competitive and unforgiving, so it's easy to be knocked out. That's why working with industry experts who know how to guide a business in the right direction is vital.
So, what are you waiting for?
Get in touch with us today so our fractional sales managing consulting team can help you optimize your sales and scale up your business.