A founder once asked me, over a long lunch, whether she should hire a fractional CRO, hire a full-time VP of Sales, retain a sales consultant on a project basis, or sign with the agency her board had been recommending.
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That is not how most fractional engagements end. A more common pattern is the slow fade — fewer meetings, more autonomy for the team, a renewal conversation that drifts past its date, and eventually a polite email about wrapping up.
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There's a moment in every deal that almost no one designs. The contract is signed, the sales team rings the bell, and the customer — who has just spent real money on a promise — is quietly passed to whoever happens to handle “onboarding.” That handoff is where loyalty is won or lost, and most companies treat it as an afterthought.
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The principle is simple: when you sell less time, you charge a higher rate per hour. When a client commits to more time, the per-hour rate goes down, but the total compensation goes up.
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Every few weeks a founder or owner asks me some version of the same question: “Do I need a CRO, a CCO, or a CXO — and what's the actual difference?” It's a fair question. The titles have multiplied faster than anyone's ability to keep them straight, and hiring the wrong one is an expensive way to find out you misread the problem.
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Most sales-leadership problems come down to one of three needs: you need advice on what to fix, you need to hire someone permanently, or you need someone to actually lead sales right now.
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Some childhood privileges only reveal their true value decades later. For me, one of those were the long summer vacations—three to four weeks each year, spent traveling across Europe.
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The standard executive search slate contains three to four candidates. AESC member firms and most retained search practices converge on this number for a reason — and it isn’t the one you’ve been told.
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Some habits never leave you. They simply evolve. For me, puzzling has always been one of them—a quiet, obsessive activity that pulls me in completely and refuses to let go until the last piece clicks into place.
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