The idea of fractional leadership isn’t new, however the ways in which this hiring model are being used is constantly evolving. We came up with this approach to resolve several different kinds of business challenges. The model isn’t limited to just start-ups or SMB’s who can’t afford to hire full-time executives.
Here are a couple other scenarios where you might benefit from a fractional leadership model.
- Starting a new project – your leadership staff is already maxed out yet you have an innovative idea that is time sensitive. You want to be first out of the gate and you need some help to get things moving in the right direction. You’ll need a product roadmap and a plan. You’ll also need to choose the right technology platforms to maximize your scalability and conforms to your current support model. You don’t want to hire full-time resources, because you’ll just have to let them go in 3-6 months time when the project is complete.
- Need a fresh perspective – the company has hit stall speed. You’re not growing or gaining market share. Your products have gotten stale and your team is burnt out trying to come up with creative approaches to turning things around. A fractional model gives you a low cost option to get some independent opinions and some new options to consider. Maybe you modernize an existing product, or just change the GTM approach.
- Lost a key resource – a senior team member has decided to leave the company. You’re actively trying to find the right replacement, but you’ve gotten hundreds of applications, meanwhile the work is piling up and things are falling behind. A fractional model can help in both instances. Shore up the current workload and leverage your new team to find the right candidate for your business going forward.
- Your sales force lacks Enterprise Sale experience – they’re great at taking orders, but getting into the field, making connections, having a value based discussion with larger customers is proving to be a challenge. Leverage the network of your fractional leaders to generate new leads. Use their sales experience to demonstrate a consultative sales approach and to enable your current sales team. They might even help you close that monster deal that’s been in the CRM tool for the last year.
- Looking to acquire another company – you’ve decided to try and expand through acquisition. There are several potential targets out there, but the technology is complex, there are a million things to consider, like the pricing model, support, use of open source, regulatory compliance, platforms and data, reliability, the list goes on and on. Bring in a fractional team to help drive the research and evaluation so that you can make the best decision.
These are just some of the scenarios where a fractional leadership model would prove beneficial. With The Tech Leads, you’ll get all this and more, for as long or as short as you need it. No hiring cycle needed, just give us the background on your needs and we’re off to the races.