The short answer
Typically £4,000–£12,000 per month. Depending on what the business needs.
A fractional CRO engagement in the UK typically runs between £4,000 and £12,000 per month. The range is wide because the scope varies significantly: a business with a 5-person sales team, a broken CRM, and a board to report to needs more than a founder with one AE and a clean pipeline.
The right number is one that makes commercial sense relative to the problem being solved and the revenue being generated. For most B2B businesses between £500k and £5M ARR, a fractional engagement at £4,000–£8,000/month is a fraction of what the revenue problem is costing them.
What follows is a transparent breakdown of what drives the fee up or down, and how it compares to the most common alternative: hiring full-time.
Fractional CRO (UNFYS)
Scope and fee agreed after Discovery Week
Full-time CRO / VP Sales (UK)
Base salary only; add NI, pension, benefits, equity, and a 3–6 month ramp before they're effective
Discovery Week (entry point)
Fixed fee. One-time diagnostic before any engagement is scoped.
What affects price
What drives the fee up or down.
Team size and complexity
A revenue function with five reps, a marketing team, and a CS function requires significantly more involvement than a founder-plus-one-AE setup. More people means more coaching, more pipeline reviews, and more management work.
Depth of build required
Starting from scratch (no documented process, no working CRM, no qualification framework) takes considerably more than iterating on a foundation that mostly works. The messier the starting point, the higher the early-stage investment.
Urgency and timeline pressure
If there's a fundraise in 90 days or a board meeting in three weeks, the pace and intensity of work increases accordingly. Speed costs more, but the alternative is usually worse.
Board-level reporting and investor involvement
An engagement that includes board reporting, investor update support, and commercial narrative input carries more responsibility and more time commitment than one that's purely internal.
Clear and bounded scope
If Discovery Week reveals one specific, bounded problem (a CRM that needs rebuilding, a single process gap), the project scope is tighter and the fee reflects that.
A capable team in place
If you have reps and managers who can execute with direction rather than needing hands-on coaching, the fractional work is focused at a more strategic level and the time commitment is lower.
Established process foundations
A business that already has documented process, a reasonably clean CRM, and reliable reporting needs less foundational work. The fractional engagement builds on what's there rather than creating it from scratch.
The real comparison
Fractional vs hiring a full-time CRO in the UK.
When fractional makes sense
The ARR question.
Below this level, the revenue problem is usually a product or market problem rather than a commercial infrastructure problem. The ROI on a fractional engagement is hard to justify. Discovery Week may still be useful, but a full fractional engagement typically isn't yet.
This is where a fractional CRO typically delivers the clearest ROI. Revenue exists and is growing, but the infrastructure isn't keeping up. A full-time CRO hire isn't justified yet. The business needs senior commercial leadership but can't afford or justify a £150k+ headcount.
At this level, some businesses still benefit from fractional — particularly if the commercial infrastructure was built properly and just needs ongoing leadership. Others are ready for a full-time CRO. A good fractional engagement will tell you when you're ready for the permanent hire, and what that person's brief should look like.
At scale, the revenue function is complex enough to warrant full-time senior commercial leadership. Advisory or a time-limited Project engagement may still be relevant, but ongoing fractional leadership is typically not the right model at this level.
At UNFYS
How pricing works here specifically.
Every engagement starts with Discovery Week, a fixed-fee diagnostic that costs from £3,000. That's where I understand the business well enough to scope anything that comes next properly.
Fractional engagements are priced from £4,000/month on a monthly retainer. Project engagements (fixed-scope builds) are priced from £10,000/month. Advisory from £1,000/month. The specific fee for any engagement is agreed after Discovery Week, based on what the business actually needs.
I don't bill by the hour. I don't pad statements of work. The fee reflects the scope, complexity, and commercial impact of the engagement, not the number of hours it takes.
The right starting point is a conversation.
Discovery Week is how I scope any engagement properly. Five days of structured diagnostic work, ending with a clear roadmap and a specific proposal.
Book Discovery Week