Fractional sales leadership might sound like an unusual concept to a beginner. Most business owners and sales professionals know that excellent leadership is essential to company growth.
With the right leadership team, organizations can grow revenue, unlock new opportunities, and improve workplace productivity and efficiency. However, not every business has the budget, or the resources to hire their own head of sales, VPs, or sales leadership teams full-time.
With a fractional sales leadership approach, companies of all sizes can access more of the talent and guidance they need to transform sales processes, without a huge initial investment.
Here’s what you need to know to get started.
What is Fractional Sales Leadership?
Fractional sales leadership, or “fractional sales management”, is the process of hiring leadership professionals to work in a sales team on a part-time basis. An outsourced VP of sales or sales management professional dedicates a portion of their time to a company each week.
Some smaller sized businesses may just hire a fractional sales leader for a few hours a week. Others will ask for assistance between 20 and 30 hours a week. The exact workflow of your fractional leaders, and the number of hours they spend “on the job” will vary depending on your needs.
Though it seems like an odd concept, many smaller companies have chosen to hire a fractional VP or sales manager in recent years.
Business owners are constantly looking for ways to cut costs, meaning it’s becoming less common for some brands to hire full-time employees. Additionally, freelance work is becoming more common, with many professionals now looking for flexible working agreements.
Fractional sales leaders offer companies an easily accessible, and budget friendly way, to elevate their teams without hiring new employees long term.
These leaders can offer access to everything from exceptional training, guidance on implementing new sales strategies, and even assistance with budgeting, hiring, and planning.
What Does a Fractional VP of Sales Do?
Fractional sales leaders can come in a variety of different forms, depending on the needs of your business. They’re usually C-level executives, but they can all focus on different aspects of your sales strategy. For instance, you could hire a fractional SDR, BDR, or Sales Manager.
A fractional VP (Vice President) of sales is perhaps the most common option for sales teams. These VP’s essentially perform all of the tasks of a traditional VP, just on a part-time basis. They can use their years of experience in the sales industry to assist with:
- Sales coaching: A factional VP of sales can offer sales training and coaching for team members, guiding staff through sales plans and methodologies.
- Sales management: Managers can also help companies with retaining top talent, solving common sales problems, and finding ways to optimize the sales cycle.
- Creating processes: A part-time sales management professional can create processes, policies, scripts, and sales playbooks for other team members to follow.
- Boost lead generation and conversion: By guiding and directing employees, fractional leaders can enhance the quality of generated leads, and increase conversions.
- Improve team morale: A good sales leader can significantly improve the company culture in your business, reducing turnover, and keeping employees motivated.
- Implementing technology: Some fractional sales leaders can assist companies with implementing, configuring, and using new technologies for the sales cycle.
- Hiring: Leaders can be tasked with bringing new sales professionals into the team. They can handle everything from interviewing, to onboarding new employees.
Most importantly, a fractional sales leader frees up the time of business leaders and founders, so they can focus on what they do best. They bring a new perspective into the business to transform the sales plan, and help your entire organization to run like a well-oiled machine.
When Should Companies Consider a Fractional Leader?
A strategy for fractional sales leadership can deliver many potential benefits to companies. They save other business leaders time, help to coordinate employees, and boost sales revenue. However, fractional leaders may not be right for every business.
As part-time employees, fractional leaders can’t give their full attention to one business. This could make them less ideal for growing companies looking for rapid scale. Many established companies prefer to hire a full-time sales leadership team, to ensure ongoing success.
However, smaller companies and startups can unlock a number of advantages with fractional leadership. If your company lacks a dedicated professional committed to leading your sales team, a fractional leader can help bridge the gaps. Even on a part-time basis, these professionals can improve sales performance, empower teams to accomplish more, and drive better business outcomes.
Additionally, a fractional sales leader will always be a better option than having no sales leadership at all. A sales team without proper management can easily lose direction and struggle to reach their targets. Sales leaders can help to improve individual employee performance, and positively influence the growth of a sales team as a whole.
Should You Invest in a Fractional Sales Leader?
Like many hiring strategies in the sales world, fractional sales leadership has pros and cons. Although having a full-time sales leader in your business will generally drive better results for your company in the long-term, fractional leadership still has its advantages.
A fractional sales manager will often be a more cost-effective hiring option for companies with limited budgets. They can give your business founders the freedom to focus on other things, like developing new products, creating partnerships, and optimizing the brand.
What’s more, they ensure that your team members have access to proper sales management, expertise, and guidance. If your team lacks an effective sales leader, and you don’t have the budget or resources to hire a full-time VP or manager, fractional sales leadership could be perfect for you.
Learn more about how you can improve the performance of your sales team, and unlock new results in your company by joining in the next round of our CXO Games!
