Knowledge Hub
10/05/2025
Stop Hiring Full-Time VP's of Sales (Until You Read This)
In today's SaaS landscape revenue teams are asked to do more, faster and drive results in areas they never had to before (10 years ago the thought of running content campaigns was completely out of the question). Being a revenue leader is about delivering transformational impact in compressed timeframes, through unprecedented change with AI, reduced teams and a market that's shifting rapidly.
Businesses demand all of the above, which is why startups cannot afford to waste capital on a bloated leadership layer. The cost of hiring mistakes (monetary, social capital, or even organisational collapse) means Fractional Leadership is becoming increasingly common.
After six years leading sales teams and over a year operating fractionally, I've been on both sides of the fence. And the last 4 years in SaaS have been unlike any experience I had in the preceding 9 years.
So, if you're considering how you want to expand your revenue efforts for your business, you should know what's out there.
Below are the 4 core strengths of outstanding Fractional Heads of Sales that I've seen, which will give you decision-making guidance on that next Senior hire.
1.) Rapid Impact Through Strategic Assessment
The best fractional sales leaders excel at quickly diagnosing sales challenges and implementing effective solutions with minimal guidance
Discover how fractional sales leadership can transform your business and how hiring fractional CMOs can benefit you.
There's no luxury of a six-month learning curve.
During a typical 3-6 month engagement, they focus on three key metrics: sales pipeline health, conversion rate optimisation, and customer acquisition cost. Key traits include strategic thinking, adaptability, and a proven track record of sales success.
The difference-maker? The ability to jump in and contribute immediately, relying on experience to take the reins of the sales organisation without much background knowledge. It's pattern recognition at scale: seeing what others miss because you've been there before.
2. Systems-First Approach to Scalability
The biggest differentiator that great fractional leaders bring is moving beyond the modality of quick wins in revenue, but instead balancing the fine act of creating immediate wins whilst also building the machine that generates it longer-term.
They evaluate existing sales processes to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement. They streamline workflows, implement best practices, and leverage technology solutions such as CRM systems. But it goes deeper than tools.
Their role involves building a robust and scalable sales structure that can support future growth, developing key sales metrics, setting up sales systems, and establishing accountability measures
The key to successful fractional sales leadership is establishing a culture where sales is valued, strategic, and supported. When you leave, the system stays. It's a value chain that exists for repeatability over immediacy.
3. Results-Driven Accountability with Knowledge Transfer
Here's the dirty little secret that truly sets fractional sales leaders apart: A fractional leader is focused and accountable to results rather than time. When hiring traditional, full-time sales leaders we like to believe we're indexing for outcomes, not hours. But even anecdotally most of us have experienced the dud hire whose CV didn't match the reality.
6 months of ramp time into 6 months of assessing and whipping, leads to a 12 month waste of runway in one of the most precarious scaling points of a business. So yes, hiring fractionally drastically reduces those time horizons but paradoxically when biasing for short-term contracts companies become laser-focused on the outcomes; the scarcity mindset kicks in and becomes useful.
65% of companies were able to retain and leverage the knowledge imparted by their fractional leaders even after their contracts ended.
So fractional sales leaders provide targeted training and coaching programs designed to enhance sales skills, improve techniques, and align sales practices with the organisation's strategic goals. The best fractional leaders build capability as opposed to dependency. When they exit, the organisation is stronger.
4. GTM Specialist, Not Just Sales Expert
With all of the aforementioned pressures of adapting in 2025, here's the modern reality: the best fractional heads of sales aren't just sales leaders but are morphing into full-stack GTM specialists.
The lines between sales, marketing, and customer success have blurred. Fractional VPs/'Heads of' help craft and execute effective GTM (Go-To-Market) strategies while scaling teams and refining processes. They understand that revenue doesn't happen in a vacuum.
A great fractional leader can:
Align sales and marketing on ICP and messaging;
Advise on product-market fit based on market feedback;
Design customer success handoffs that reduce churn;
Build partnerships that create distribution leverage;
Optimise the entire revenue engine, not just the sales motion.
When working alongside a Chief Revenue Officer, the fractional Head of Sales helps develop and implement bespoke sales plans and is committed to working with marketing leadership to optimise the inbound lead generation process into an 'all-bound' revenue engine. Gone are the days of fighting over lead ownership and racing to the bottom: there's simply too little time and too much risk to be this siloed.
In 2025, if you can't speak fluently across the entire go-to-market motion then you're limiting your impact. The companies that win don't have partisan functions rather they have integrated revenue teams. And fractional leaders need to architect that integration.
Considerations When Hiring Fractionally
Of course it would be remiss of me not to mention what you miss when deciding to move towards a part-time hire > a full time placement.
Limited Availability & Divided Attention
The fact of hiring a fractional leader is the same across any discipline: you pay less therefore you get less attention. If you're able to plan ahead and effectively communicate this isn't a dire problem. But if you need someone to put out fires or jump into deals on a whim then fractional sales leadership might not work for you.
Reduced Cultural Integration
Does culture eat strategy for breakfast? I am more of a balanced diet kinda guy, and personally think you need a bit of both. Fractional leaders are never as embedded culturally as FTE's are, so if you need everyone in sync in a more dynamic workplace then this is a consideration.
I work hard with my clients to ensure I am part of the furniture early on. I think being part of the culture of a business is important so I index towards this. Not every fractional leader will do this (and not every one needs to frankly) so be aware.
Strategic Continuity vs. Tactical Execution
Instead of joining with a wide-ranging brief, intra-departmental responsibilities and one eye on promotion opportunities, a fractional sales leader joins with just a set of pre-agreed tasks.
The reality: This focus can be a strength OR a limitation. Fractional leaders excel at solving defined problems but may not evolve with your business the way a full-time executive invested in their career trajectory would. They're solving your problem with one eye on their responsibilities with other clients as well.
The Bottom Line
Fractional sales leadership isn't about doing the job of a full-time VP/'Head of' for less money. It's about delivering concentrated expertise that creates lasting organisational capability.
Companies that implement fractional sales leadership strategies witness an average increase of 24% in their sales revenue, with conversion rates improving by up to 35%.
The future belongs to leaders who can assess quickly, build systematically, transfer knowledge intentionally, and think holistically across the entire go-to-market motion. With the pace of coding co-pilots (see: vibe coding), reduced capital requirements to launch & a tricky talent market we're seeing more companies launch from nothing, with less people and agility often beating perfection.
If you're in a position where you need to scale fast but want to do it right the first time, then hiring a Fractional Head of Sales/GTM might be your best bet for success.
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