Fractional sales leader or full-time VP Sales: which do you need?
It depends less on who you hire and more on whether the way you sell is repeatable yet. A full-time VP Sales makes sense once sales already repeat: you know who your ideal customer is, and there is enough pipeline for a permanent leader to scale what is working. Fractional commercial leadership fits the stage before that, when you are still fixing how you sell. Conversion might be patchy or pricing unsettled, the CRM might not reflect reality, or most deals still need the founder in the room. A fractional leader gives you senior ownership of pipeline, conversion and forecasting now, without making a permanent hire before the business is ready for one. For many teams we see, the order that works is a diagnostic first, then fractional leadership, then the permanent hire. At that point, the fractional leader steps away.
- 0:00A big hiring call
- 0:18The real question
- 0:28When full-time is right
- 0:50When fractional fits
- 1:22Who this is for
- 1:32The order that works
- 1:52Not fewer salespeople
Read the full transcript
Hiring a full-time VP Sales is a big call for a growing B2B business. Get the timing right and they scale what already works. Get it wrong and they can spend their time working out what works, instead of scaling it.
So the real question isn't who to hire. It's whether the way you sell is repeatable yet.
A full-time sales leader makes sense once your sales already repeat. You know who your ideal customer is, and there's enough pipeline that a permanent leader has something real to grow. At that point a strong hire can build the team around a pattern that's already proven.
Fractional leadership fits the stage before that. It's for when you're still fixing how you sell. Maybe conversion is patchy or pricing is unsettled. Maybe the CRM doesn't reflect what's really going on, or most deals still need the founder in the room. You need senior ownership of pipeline, conversion and forecasting now, but a permanent hire would be scaling something that isn't working yet.
We see this most with technical founders taking a new product to market, from early stage through to Series A.
For many of the teams we see, the order that works is evidence first, through a diagnostic. Then fractional leadership, until the business is ready for the permanent hire. When that moment comes, the fractional leader steps away.
None of this is about doing without salespeople. It's about making sure the person who leads them walks into something that works.
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