There are many ways strained budgets could prevent your small business from growing at the speed you desire. It can curtail your marketing activities and keep you from investing in assets essential for expansion. It can also hold you back from hiring the right people for critical positions. This can often leave you juggling multiple responsibilities to fill the void.
And one of the most critical areas that a limited budget could impact is the sales function. Experienced sales managers come at a high price, making them unaffordable for smaller enterprises. So, many a time, business owners end up assuming the role of sales leadership.
But this is hardly productive, considering the long list of responsibilities usually borne by entrepreneurs. And in the long term, it could compromise the efficiency of high-impact activities. This is why fractional sales managers have grown in popularity in recent times. They could be the perfect cost-effective solution that can save small businesses from a stagnant sales department.
Who is a Fractional Sales Manager?
In simple terms, a fractional sales manager is a sales resource shared among several enterprises. These are sales experts with extensive experience holding senior executive roles. And they will work part time with your business and others to provide sales leadership for each operation. This means you will bear only a part, or fraction, of their total cost.
Small businesses often favor this model since it’s more affordable than hiring a full-time expert to lead the sales department. Besides, you will often not even require a high caliber sales leader on a full-time basis to manage a small sales team, especially in the early stage of the business.
So, hiring a fractional sales manager instead could provide a better solution for your company’s needs.
Advantages of hiring fractional sales managers for small businesses
There are several business-critical advantages of fractional sales management that have made them increasingly popular among small enterprises.
Unburdening the CEO from the sales function
When the CEO or business owner assumes the role of the sales leader in the absence of an expert, their attention gets divided among a countless list of tasks. And the result? The sales activities, together with other critical areas, could lose due focus, invariably hampering business growth in the long run.
But it’s not just the business that will suffer. It could be severely straining for the CEOs as well. But a fractional sales manager could unburden the CEOs from the sales function and free up their time to focus on areas where they could contribute most.
An affordable solution that comes at a fraction of the cost
Experienced sales leaders are expensive because of the incremental value they can bring to your business by driving sales growth. This is why the largest corporations offer sky-high paychecks in a bid to allure the best sales executives.
But fractional sales management is an affordable model that allows small enterprises to benefit from a high-caliber sales expert without incurring a massive cost. This is because they work as a shared resource, where their monthly income is shared among several businesses.
Sales expertise of a senior sales leader
A CEO or a marketing manager cannot replace a sales leadership role. It requires specific expertise and skills that can only be acquired with years of experience.
And fractional sales managers are often highly skilled and experienced sales leaders with an accomplished sales record. They also come with strong leadership backgrounds and have deep knowledge about setting up effective sales departments. So, their in-depth expertise will provide unmatchable value to your business.
What can you expect?
Needless to say, a fractional sales manager’s role is different from that of a full-time sales leader. They could visit your office a few times a week depending on your business needs. This frequency could even be less and limited to a few meetings a month as time goes by.
But regardless of this, they can still add significant value to your business. They will establish sales processes, evaluate, coach, and train the existing team, identify hiring requirements, set up KPIs, develop tracking and reporting systems, evaluate performance, and initiate reward programs. They can instill discipline in the sales team and provide tremendous focus and direction. Overall, they will look after both the strategy and execution of a high-caliber sales function.
Is fractional sales management right for your business?
One of the biggest challenges of running a small business is stretching your limited resources without hitting the breaking point. And if that means adding the responsibilities of a sales leader to your existing workload, it won’t be long before you encounter its regretable consequences.
Without the right sales expertise, your revenue will take a hit and business growth could become stagnant. And this will further make it difficult for you to afford a senior sales leader, and your business will continue to choke in a vicious cycle.
But a fractional sales manager could help overcome this challenge with a cost-effective solution for small enterprises—especially for those that cannot justify or bear the cost of an expensive sales expert. But is it right for your business?
It can be an excellent model for small-scale companies with a handful of salespeople and without an organized sales department. Although fractional sales managers cannot commit the time required by large sales teams, they can yield significant benefits for a team at their initial growth stage. They do this by bringing in their expertise to set up the required systems, processes, and skills to build a high-performing sales function.
However, before making a commitment, carefully evaluate whether and how your business can benefit from such a model. It certainly requires a new way of thinking about how you organize your business and position it for growth. And if you think it’s right for your company, then assess past performances and credentials before selecting your fractional sales manager.
