The role
What a Fractional CRO actually does
A Chief Revenue Officer owns the full revenue function: pipeline, process, people, reporting, and how the business goes to market. A fractional version does all of that, on a part-time basis, for businesses that need the capability but aren't at the stage where a full-time hire makes commercial sense.
That's not a junior version of the role. It's the same work, the same responsibility, and the same accountability, just structured differently. You get a senior commercial brain embedded in your business without committing to a £150k+ salary and everything that comes with it.
The distinction that matters: fractional isn't advisory. I'm in the work, not commenting on it from outside. The pipeline reviews are real. The rep coaching is real. The board-level reporting is real. The difference is that I'm across a small number of engagements, not one.
What's in scope
- Revenue strategy and go-to-market planning
- Pipeline management and forecast accountability
- Sales process design and enforcement
- CRM architecture and revenue reporting
- Team management, coaching, and performance
- Hiring briefs and interviewing
- Board-level commercial reporting
- Marketing to sales handoff and alignment
- Pricing and commercial model input
- Founder extraction from day-to-day deals
The diagnostic
Eight signs you need a Fractional CRO
You're still the reason deals close
Every significant opportunity needs you on at least one call. Your reps are capable people who can't close without you in the room.
Your pipeline is a guess
You can't forecast within 30%. Your CRM reflects optimism rather than reality, and your quarterly numbers regularly surprise you, in both directions.
You've hired salespeople who haven't delivered
Two or three reps in, and performance is inconsistent. You're not sure if it's a hiring problem, a management problem, or a process problem.
Revenue grows, but it's exhausting
The numbers look fine on the outside. Inside, it's running on effort and founder time. That's not a revenue operation; it's a treadmill.
You can't afford a full-time CRO yet
You're between £500k and £5M ARR. You need senior commercial leadership, but a £150k+ hire isn't justified by the current revenue base.
You're about to raise and your revenue story isn't clean
Investors ask about pipeline, forecast accuracy, sales efficiency. You don't have clean answers. That's fixable, but not overnight.
Marketing and sales aren't aligned
Leads fall into a gap. Nobody owns the handoff. Marketing blames sales, sales ignores marketing. The pipeline doesn't reflect what marketing is generating.
You don't know what to build next
You know the revenue function isn't working as well as it should. You're not sure whether to fix the process, hire differently, or restructure how you go to market.
The comparison
Fractional CRO vs hiring full-time
- Senior leadership from day one: no ramp period
- Embedded, not advisory: in the work, not commenting on it
- Month-to-month or defined engagement: no permanent headcount
- Built-in cross-company pattern recognition
- Everything designed for handover, not dependency
- Starts with Discovery Week: diagnosis before prescription
- Typically a third of the cost of a full-time CRO
- 3–6 month search and notice period before they're in seat
- 3–6 month ramp before they're fully effective
- £120k–£180k+ base salary plus equity and benefits
- High risk if the hire is wrong: expensive and disruptive to unwind
- Often the right answer, but only once you have the process, team, and scale to justify it
A good Fractional CRO will tell you when you're ready for the full-time hire, and what that person's brief should look like. Building toward a permanent Head of Sales or CRO is often the point of the engagement.
How technology fits in
AI accelerates the work. It doesn't replace the thinking.
AI tools, when used properly, mean a Fractional engagement covers more ground in less time. Pipeline analysis, qualification frameworks, reporting structure, call coaching documentation: the execution layer moves faster. But AI is a multiplier. It requires clean data, honest pipelines, and documented process to work from. That's what the Fractional engagement builds first.
How it works at UNFYS
Every engagement starts with Discovery Week.
Before committing to a fractional engagement, I spend a week doing a structured diagnostic on your revenue function. You leave with a clear roadmap. I leave knowing whether fractional is actually the right model, and if it is, what it needs to look like.
If Project is the right answer (a defined, fixed-scope build), I'll say so. If you need Advisory rather than embedded leadership, I'll say that too. The model follows the diagnosis, not the other way around.
In practice
What fractional engagement looks like in the real world.
"The founder was on 100% of deals. Within 9 months, he was on fewer than 20%. First unassisted close within 12 weeks."
Read the full case study →Ready to stop being the reason deals close?
Book Discovery Week. A structured diagnostic of your revenue function — and a clear roadmap at the end, regardless of what comes next.
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