Hire a fractional Sales Director
A fractional sales director builds the sales function that lets the founder stop selling. They own the process, the pipeline discipline and the people, and they are usually hired at the exact moment founder-led sales stops scaling.
What a fractional Sales Director owns
- A repeatable sales process rather than whatever the founder does instinctively
- Pipeline management, forecasting, and telling you which deals are not real
- Hiring, onboarding and managing sales people, which most founders do badly
- Pricing and commercial structure alongside the CFO
- The CRM actually being used, which sounds small and is not
Signs you need one
- You are still closing every deal personally and it caps how fast you grow
- You hired a salesperson, it did not work, and you are not sure why
- Your forecast and your actuals have never once matched
- Deals stall in the same place every time and nobody has fixed it
What it costs in the UK
Often part fixed fee, part performance-linked. Agree the structure in writing before starting.
Rates are set by the operator and paid to them directly. We are not in the payment path, and the operator never pays us a fee.
How this compares
A salesperson sells. A sales director builds the machine that lets other people sell, which is a different skill and the one founders usually need first. Hiring a rep before the process exists is the most common and most expensive mistake here.
What to look for
- They should ask about your average deal size and cycle length in the first conversation
- Someone who has built a function, not only hit a number inside one
- Match the motion: enterprise, mid-market and self-serve are genuinely different
- Be clear on any performance element up front, in writing
Common questions
- What does a fractional sales director cost in the UK?
- Typically £700 to £1,300 a day, commonly one to two days a week. Some work partly on a performance basis, which can align incentives well but should always be agreed in writing before anything starts.
- When should I hire one instead of another salesperson?
- If you do not yet have a repeatable process, hiring a rep usually fails, and the failure is expensive and slow to diagnose. A sales director builds the process, then hires into it. If the process already works and you simply need more capacity, hire the rep.
- Can a fractional sales director manage my existing team?
- Yes, that is a common arrangement, particularly where a team has grown without proper leadership and performance has drifted.
- How long does it take to see results?
- Process and pipeline hygiene usually show inside a month. Real revenue impact tracks your sales cycle, so a three-month cycle means three months minimum before you can judge it fairly.
- Do you take a commission?
- No. You pay the operator directly and we take nothing from it. The operator never pays us a fee either.
Operator Search: £999 to run, £2,500 if you hire
Can't find the right Sales Director, or haven't got the time to look? We run the search and put three vetted operators in front of you in five business days. Both numbers agreed before anything starts, and the operator pays nothing either way.
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