When to hire a fractional CRO vs a VP of Sales

Hire a fractional CRO when revenue has stalled, or a step change is coming such as a new market, a raise or an exit, and you need someone senior to own the whole revenue engine rather than just the sales team. If the strategy is sound and you simply need more selling capacity, hire a VP of Sales instead.

Signs it’s time for a fractional CRO

These are the patterns I see most often in mid-market companies that need senior revenue leadership:

• Growth has stalled and nobody can say why. Is it the product, the pricing, the channels or the execution? Everyone has a theory and nobody has the data to settle it.
• The founder or CEO is still the head of sales. It worked in the early years. Now it’s limiting both the pipeline and the CEO.
• Sales and marketing disagree about the pipeline. Marketing says it’s sending enough leads, sales says they’re the wrong ones, and the forecast is a negotiation rather than a number.
• Pricing hasn’t been reviewed in years. Or discounting has quietly become the default way to close.
• You’re entering a new market or channel. What worked at home, or through direct sales, isn’t translating to partners, carriers or a new region.
• A raise, IPO or exit is on the horizon. Investors will test the go-to-market story hard, and it needs to hold up.
• The board doesn’t trust the forecast. Numbers change late in the quarter and nobody is surprised any more.

One of these on its own might be a management issue. Several together usually means no one senior owns revenue end to end.

Fractional CRO vs VP of Sales

This is the decision I’m asked about most, and getting it wrong is expensive. The two roles sound similar but solve different problems.

Dimension	Fractional CRO	VP of Sales
Owns	The whole revenue engine: strategy, pricing, channels, marketing, sales and the forecast	The sales team and the sales number
Main question	Are we going after the right customers, in the right way, at the right price?	How do we hit this quarter’s target with this plan?
Usually reports to	The CEO, with a direct line to the board	The CEO or a CRO
Best when	The strategy, model or engine needs fixing or rebuilding	The strategy works and you need more output from it
Time	Part-time, typically for a stage of growth	Full-time, ongoing

The common mistake

The most common mistake I see is hiring a VP of Sales to fix a strategy problem. A good VP of Sales will execute the plan they’re given. If the pricing is wrong, the target segment is too broad or marketing and sales are pulling in different directions, a strong VP of Sales will burn out trying to sell their way past it. Twelve months later the business has lost a good hire and still has the original problem.

The reverse mistake is rarer but real: hiring senior strategic help when the plan is fine and you just need more people selling it.

A sequence that often works

For many mid-market companies the answer is both, in order. A fractional CRO first, to diagnose the engine, reset pricing and channels, and put a revenue rhythm in place. Then a VP of Sales, hired into a clear plan with targets that make sense.

My own path into the CRO seat followed a similar logic. At an ASX-listed technology company I was first engaged as a consultant to build the global go-to-market strategy. The company then created the role of Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer, and I took responsibility for all sales and marketing and a global P&L of around A$15M, so the strategy I’d written was the one I had to deliver. You can read the full story in building a global go-to-market, and more about how I work with SaaS and technology companies.

When not to hire a fractional CRO

A fractional CRO is the wrong choice if:

• You haven’t found product-market fit. Before that, the founder should usually keep selling, because they’re still learning what customers will pay for.
• The plan works and you need capacity. Hire a VP of Sales or more salespeople.
• You need a full-time leader in the market every day. If you’re running a large sales team through a critical period, interim or full-time cover is better. I compare the options in fractional vs interim executives.
• The real problem is operational. If deals are being won but launches slip and delivery breaks, a fractional COO is the better first hire.
• Nobody will act on uncomfortable findings. A CRO who can’t change pricing, channels or team structure is just an expensive adviser.

What the first months look like

The first month is a diagnosis of the revenue engine: pipeline, pricing, channels and conversion, using the data you already have, however messy. The second is agreeing a go-to-market plan with clear targets and owners that the board can track. By the third, the biggest leak is being fixed and there’s a weekly revenue rhythm in place that the team will keep running.

I’ve set out what the first 90 days of a fractional engagement look like in more detail, including what a CEO should be able to point to by the end of them.

What it costs

My fractional CRO seats start from A$12,000 + GST a month for about one day a week, and a two-week diagnostic sprint starts from A$15,000 + GST. For market rates and how that compares with a full-time executive, see what a fractional executive costs in Australia.

Not sure which you need?

If you can’t tell whether you have a strategy problem or a capacity problem, that’s exactly what a short conversation can sort out. Read more about how I work as a fractional CRO and CMO, or get in touch and I’ll give you a straight answer, even if it’s “hire a VP of Sales”.