In today’s competitive business landscape, flexibility is key.
Discover from our recent webinar how fractional sales professionals can drive your business growth while minimizing costs.
Presented by fractional sales experts who have helped leaders like you scale their business.
STEVE CATON
Founder and CEO
of Altezza Solutions
SEAN O’SHAUGHNESSY
Founder and CEO
of New Sales Expert
CRAIG JOHNSON
COO and Integrator
of Altezza Solutions
RICH COCUZZO
President of Sales
Velocity Advisors
Fractional sales pros offer a flexible solution for scaling your sales efforts without the need for full-time hires.
By integrating experienced sales talent part-time, businesses can align with core values, manage lead generation, and close deals efficiently.
Key strategies include identifying the right roles for fractional sales, implementing structured onboarding processes to ensure smooth integration, and maintaining ongoing training and development for optimal performance. Additionally, measuring success through both leading and lagging indicators, alongside setting clear objectives and key results (OKRs), ensures that sales investments deliver measurable growth and long-term success.
Scaling Smart with Fractional Sales Pros
Fractional sales professionals work 5-15 hours per week, offering companies flexible access to experienced sales talent without the financial commitment of a full-time hire. They integrate seamlessly into your existing team, ensuring alignment with your company’s core values and overall vision. Fractional sales professionals can manage the full sales cycle—from surfacing marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) to closing deals, or they can focus on specific sales functions, depending on your needs.
Example: If your internal team struggles to close leads, a fractional sales professional can step in, focus on lead qualification, and move MQLs down the sales funnel to drive revenue.
Which Roles Work Best:
Fractional roles are best suited for Account Executives, Business Development Managers, and specialized sales roles. These professionals excel in driving new business, qualifying leads, and managing long-term client relationships.
Challenges like cold calling, which is notoriously hard, become more manageable with their expertise, allowing your team to focus on what they do best, while the fractional pro takes on lead generation and initial outreach.
Signs You’re Ready
If your company is facing “owner distraction,” meaning the leadership team is spread thin across too many responsibilities, it’s a sign that bringing in a fractional sales professional could help relieve pressure. Additionally, if you’ve hit a growth ceiling, where the business cannot expand further without additional sales capacity, or you’re launching into a new market, fractional sales professionals can inject the competitive energy needed to break through these barriers and unlock new revenue streams.
Actionable Tip
Businesses with a strong lead foundation, but lacking the time or skill to close deals, should consider fractional sales pros to focus specifically on those conversion points.
Measuring Return on Investment (ROI)
It’s crucial to change the way businesses view sales and lead generation—they are investments, not expenses. Every dollar spent on sales should be seen as an opportunity to create more value rather than a cost to the business. With the right processes, fractional sales teams can generate a significant return on this investment.
Leading vs. Lagging Indicators
To measure ROI effectively, businesses need to track leading indicators (proactive metrics like lead generation, outreach efforts, and pipeline velocity) alongside lagging indicators (reactive metrics like closed deals and revenue growth). By focusing on both, companies can forecast more accurately and take action before problems arise.
Example: A leading indicator could be the number of qualified leads passed from marketing to sales, while a lagging indicator might be the revenue generated from those leads three months later.
Setting and Monitoring OKRs
Establishing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) ensures that both short-term activities and long-term goals are aligned. Objectives provide the broader vision, while Key Results are measurable, time-bound targets that drive execution. By regularly monitoring these OKRs and maintaining feedback loops, sales teams can remain agile and adjust strategies to meet targets effectively.
Actionable Tip
Regularly review both leading and lagging metrics to ensure that your investment in fractional sales professionals is driving the expected results, and make adjustments to strategy as needed to stay on course.
Best Practices for Onboarding & Leading New Sales Reps
Implementing a robust onboarding process is crucial for fractional sales professionals, just as it is for full-time hires. Start with a comprehensive orientation that introduces new hires to the company’s culture, mission, and values. Outline clear expectations for their role from day one, including performance metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Example: For a new sales rep, setting expectations around how many leads they should qualify per week and how many deals they should close within the first 90 days can help keep them focused and driven.
Clear Role Expectations
Define what success looks like for your new sales reps early on. This includes making sure they understand how they will be measured, whether through lead conversion rates, revenue targets, or client retention metrics. By being transparent about the criteria for success, you set the stage for high performance from the outset.
Actionable Tip: Use sales KPIs to track progress, such as how many contacts the fractional sales pro has made, how many opportunities are being created, and the time to close deals.
Ongoing Training & Development
Don’t treat onboarding as a one-time event. Continuous learning through advanced sales training, workshops, and personalized coaching helps reps sharpen their skills and stay motivated. Offer frequent one-on-one coaching sessions where strengths can be capitalized on and weaknesses can be addressed.
Example: Role-playing different sales scenarios can help reps become more comfortable handling objections and closing deals.
Motivation and Engagement
Engage your sales reps by setting clear, achievable goals and recognizing their achievements publicly. A healthy sense of competition—such as through sales contests—can also boost performance, especially in high-energy sales environments. Implementing a recognition system where top performers are rewarded further motivates them to exceed targets.
Actionable Tip: Introduce friendly sales contests to incentivize productivity, such as offering rewards for the first person to close 10 deals within a quarter.
Is Your Business Ready For a Sales Professional?
As an entrepreneur, letting go of the sales process is one of the best things to let go of if you want to scale your business. However, it’s important to be sure you don’t jump the gun!