Chapter Two: The Rise of the Fractional Marketing Leader

What actually is a fractional marketing leader?

Consultants vs. Agencies vs. Contractors vs. Fractional Leaders

I’m very likely oversimplifying here, and perhaps some consultants, agency owners, and contractors will take issue with my characterizations of what they do.

It’s also obvious that not all consultants are the same, nor all agencies. There’s a world a difference between, for instance, a solo consultant and a global firm. Or between a boutique agency and multi-billion-dollar advertising and marketing conglomerate.

My ambitions in this section are modest. I just want to answer a question I’m frequently asked: 

What’s a fractional marketing leader?

First, let’s address some of the skepticism that often underlies that question.

While I firmly believe we’re on the road to fractional roles becoming much more common, for now it does raise some eyebrows.

Some questions I’ve been asked, or heard from other fractional leaders that they’ve been asked:

Are you unemployed?

The assumption here is that this is a resume gap filler, like attempting to cover for a period of joblessness by saying you were traveling across Asia or “attending to family matters.”

The whole stigma of gaps in your resume is another topic entirely (Gasp! You don’t follow a perfectly predictable path of continuous role-after-role work?) but the point remains. Just like your grandma assumes you want to get married, buy a house, and have children, the vast majority of people assume you want a fulltime job. It’s just the natural order of things.

Unless you’re starting a company, putting a snappy logo on some business cards, renting an office or a storefront and doing all the expected entrepreneurial things, then surely you must be looking for a job. 

And failing.

And attempting to hide your shame with this fractional mumbo jumbo.

Are you unemployable?

Perhaps it’s worse than we thought. Maybe you just can’t get a job – or keep a job – and you’re resigning yourself to some weird purgatory of white-collar day labour.

Are you starting an agency?

That sounds respectable. Exciting. Sexy even. But you haven’t rented a swanky office or hired anyone so either you really suck at starting an agency or we’re back to “are you unemployed?”

Fractional marketing leadership is very different from an agency model where the “job to be done”, as the late, great Clay Christensen famously put it, often involves a specific deliverable such as a campaign, a website, the launch of a new channel or similar.

Another common scenario is an Agency of Record relationship, generally involving a wide range of agency staff delivering ongoing services to the client across creative, content, campaign execution, technical orchestration and integration and much more.

That’s not what this is either. 

Are you a contractor?

Legally yes. And for tax purposes too.

I'm a sole-proprietor. I don't receive benefits. I invoice my clients on a monthly basis.

Most contractors, I think, work full-time hours with a single company so I don't really think of myself as a contractor, and I don't describe myself that way.

Are you a consultant? 

As any fan of knowyourmeme.com will tell you, the actual line in So You Want to be a Pirate! is actually “Good guess, but actually no” when the pirate captain is asked about the success of his luxuriant beard.

Kinda works both ways.

Fractional marketing leaders do operate somewhat like consultants, but here’s where I draw the distinction: We don’t just tell you what you need to do; we roll up our sleeves and help get it done.

In my fractional leadership roles I’ve done cross-functional deep dives, led workshops, introduced new frameworks, built playbooks, retooled positioning and branding, recommended alternative organizational structures, advocated for new ways of measuring and compensating employees and lot of other consultant-type activities.

I’ve also done exactly what a fulltime permanent marketing leader does. Holding regular one-on-ones with the team, meeting with customers, writing blog posts and all sorts of other content, participating in weekly leadership meetings, working the booth at tradeshows, scoping new marketing roles, working career fairs, interviewing and hiring... the list goes on and on.

Not usual consultant stuff.

The Value Proposition for a Fractional Marketing Leader

In subsequent chapters I’ll substantially expand on the benefits - for companies and for individuals - of embracing a fractional model. For now, here’s the basic pitch:

-        All the accumulated wisdom and experience of a seasoned leader

-        All their creativity

-        All that they’ve learned

-        All the value of their network

For much less than the cost of hiring them fulltime. And with all the flexibility that comes with an engagement of flexible duration, and expandable / retractable scope.

Let’s get started

Often, I put it this way:

We’re aligned on where the company is today and on (generally) where it needs to go. 

There’s a lot of stuff to figure out, and a lot to do, to get there.

We’re not yet sure of all the steps, all the needs, all the challenges, or how long it’s going to take.

We respect each other. We believe in each other. We’re developing a lot of mutual trust. 

There’s a good marketing team in place, and they need strong leadership to keep getting better.

No one on the team is ready to step up to the leadership role right now, and you don’t want to set anyone up to fail. Perhaps they'll be ready in time, especially with some good coaching and participation in solid strategic work.

You’re not yet ready to make the substantial investment in a permanent marketing leader. Or the position has recently been vacated and you’re not sure of the right sort of leader for the long term.

You know that leaving the team leaderless would be a mistake. It will hurt the business, damage team morale, and could result in key people leaving. You can’t let this happen.

Let’s get started.

I’ll come in two days each week (or one, depending on our agreement) and we’ll get to work. 

If you’re not happy with how things are going, stop paying me and I’ll stop coming in.

We’ll still be friends.

It’s amazing the pressure this takes off a CEO, compared to the usual rigmarole of hiring. Especially leadership hiring.

Lots more to follow in subsequent chapters including:

-       Why fractional leadership is good for companies (at least six reasons)

-       Why fractional leadership is good for individuals (at least eight I can think of)

-       How fractional marketing leaders find clients (several approaches)

-       How fractional marketing leaders price their work (several viable models)

-       How to get off on the right foot in a new engagement