One of the questions I frequently get asked is when is it the right time to hire a fractional CMO?
Of course, every business is different, and everybody’s circumstances vary. However, there are a couple of stages of the start-up and scale-up business where bringing in a fractional CMO could be highly beneficial.
Organisations with founder/CEO led marketing
When businesses are very early start-up or relatively small, founders and CEOs often do the marketing themselves. This is challenging, stressful and often not productive.
That stage may be too early to bring in a fractional CMO for a given number of days a week or month. If revenue and/or funding are not in place, a business may not be able to afford a fractional CMO. Instead, I would usually recommend coaching – it’s a very low-cost way of accessing the knowledge and experience of a senior marketing pro. It means the founder is still doing the marketing, but at least they have some guidance and support. Working with a coach experienced in working with start-ups could help kick-start your marketing – find out about my founder marketing coaching here.
Organisations with founder/CEO managed marketing
As the business grows, many founders and CEOs find themselves managing marketing directly (rather than executing it themselves). In this scenario, either a junior marketing person, a small marketing team, or an agency executes the marketing but reports to the founder.
That can work fine for a while, but as the business grows, marketing takes up too much time and too much head space.
And that becomes a generator of stress.
Deep down, that founder knows that they are not leading the best marketing for the business because they’re not a marketing specialist.
They’re also not doing the best by those people who are in marketing.
Motivating them becomes a struggle, productivity decreases and – if you’re not careful – the business starts to go backwards.
Traditionally, that’s the point of where the business feels it needs to bring in somebody to help with this, a full-time marketing head, marketing director, or a CMO.
But they’re quite expensive hires and can be quite difficult hires to make.
Instead, that is the point where the business could start considering hiring a fractional CMO, somebody who can come for a couple of days a week or a few days a month. That person can quickly start to do some of the heavy lifting in terms of getting the strategy right, getting the organisation in the right place, getting the processes right, and getting the execution on point.
And importantly, they will coach and mentor the existing team, or manage the agency, to ensure they are working effectively.
What businesses see is a rapid return on investment. More of the founder/CEO’s time is freed up, and stress is reduced. And the business will start to see a greater return on marketing because they’re using a seasoned professional to do it.
Businesses at an inflexion point – growing/not growing, pivoting, product launches, strategy changes or personnel changes
Things change fast in business. Being able to navigate change is a life skill most successful start-up and scale-up leaders have. However, you don’t need to do it alone and you don’t have to manage the change across the whole organisation personally.
Any change in the business has an impact for or on marketing. And I’d argue that marketing should be involved in any major change in the business. Your existing team may not be ready to do that.
To help you get through inflexion points, hiring a seasoned pro could be the answer.
You may also find these resources helpful: