When Cash Isn't the Whole Story: Equity and Alternative Comp in Fractional Work (2)

What he had was a quarter ahead of him that turned on a single, named outcome: launching a new product line into a new region, with a revenue target, by a date already on the board. Would I tie a portion of our fee to whether we hit that target?

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Why Discounting Will Cost You More Than the Discount

Every sales rep who has ever worked with me will quote you one of my favorite sayings: “do not discount.” I mean it. Discounting feels generous in the moment, and as consumers we love it. As sellers, we should be very careful with it.

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Fractional CXO vs. CRO vs. CCO: Who Owns What in the Revenue Lifecycle

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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When Cash Isn't the Whole Story: Equity and Alternative Comp in Fractional Work (1)

A founder once slid a term sheet across a coffee table and asked, with the practiced casualness of someone who had done this many times, whether I would consider taking part of my fee in equity. He named a percentage. He named a valuation. He did the math out loud.

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Picking the Niche Before the Niche Picks You: A Methodology, Not a Slogan

In other blog posts I have argued, more than once, that there are riches in niches. The argument is true. It is also incomplete. Telling a new fractional to find a niche is like telling a swimmer to find the other side of the lake.

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Fractional vs. Consultant vs. Recruiter: Which Sales Leadership Fix Fits Your Situation?

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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The Best Fractional Sales Leadership Options in 2026: An Honest Comparison

Vendux is one of the options listed. We've worked hard to describe every other provider fairly, because a comparison you can't trust is one that helps no one. Where Vendux is genuinely the better fit, we say so; where another firm is, we say that too.

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The Long Summer: What Real Vacations Taught Me About Leadership, Recovery, and Perspective

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 Shortlist Lie: Why Your Executive Search Was Decided Before You Saw the Candidates

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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Why the Best Operators Choose Fractional (And What That Means for You)

The standard narrative about fractional executive hiring goes like this: companies that can’t afford a full-time CFO or CMO hire a fractional one instead. It’s a practical workaround: useful, cost-efficient, and something you grow out of once the company reaches a certain size. That narrative is incomplete.

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