How to choose a fractional CMO: 10 questions to ask before you hire

Why the choice matters

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works with your business part-time. The title is popular now, and it covers very different people: experienced revenue leaders, agency owners with a new label, and consultants who mostly write strategy decks. The questions below help you find the first kind.

The 10 questions

1. “What revenue number have you owned?” Look for someone who has been accountable for acquisition, pipeline or revenue, not only for campaigns or followers.
2. “What will you do in the first 30 days?” A good answer is a diagnosis: where leads come from, where they are lost, what your real acquisition cost is. A finished strategy in week one is a guess.
3. “Will you work with our sales team?” Revenue is won or lost between marketing and sales. A CMO who will not touch the sales process can only fix half the problem.
4. “Have you worked with a business like ours?” B2B and B2C growth are different. Ask for an example at a similar stage and in a similar way of selling.
5. “How will we measure progress?” Expect a short list of business numbers, such as qualified enquiries, conversion rate, acquisition cost and pipeline, reviewed on a fixed rhythm.
6. “How much of your time will we get, and when?” Get the involvement in writing: leadership meetings, working sessions and response times.
7. “Will you manage our team and agencies?” A fractional CMO should set priorities, brief and review work, and hold people accountable, not just advise.
8. “What do you need from us?” The right answer includes access to sales data, pricing and the numbers. If you are not willing to share them, the engagement will struggle.
9. “What happens when the engagement ends?” Good fractional leaders leave behind a working system and a team that can run it.
10. “When would you tell me I don’t need you?” An honest leader has a ready answer, for example when one good performance marketer would be enough.

Red flags

• Guaranteed results, rankings or a fixed number of leads.
• A ready-made plan before they understand your business.
• No interest in your sales process or numbers.
• Examples that are all about activity (posts, campaigns, followers) and none about revenue.

When you may not need a fractional CMO

If you already know exactly what is broken and simply need execution, a strong specialist or a well-briefed agency may be enough. A fractional CMO is most useful when you need senior judgment: setting priorities, connecting marketing to sales, and owning the result.

How Grow with VJ approaches it

Vijayshree Kalani has worked as a fractional CMO for an enterprise SaaS company and as Chief Revenue Officer of an online school, so every engagement starts from the revenue number. Read more about the Fractional CMO and CGO service, or what drives fractional CMO cost in India.