Fractional Sales Director or an outsourced sales agency?
The short answer: a fractional Sales Director brings the judgement for part of a week; an outsourced sales agency brings something different that is often confused with it. Here is what each one actually owns, what they cost on the same basis, and when to pick the other one.
What an outsourced sales agency actually is
An external team that prospects and books meetings on your behalf, usually paid monthly with a target attached.
What each one owns
| A fractional Sales Director | An outsourced sales agency |
|---|---|
| Who you sell to, at what price, and why they buy | Volume of outbound activity, immediately and at scale |
| The pipeline: stages, forecasting and what is actually real | A team that already exists, with no hiring lead time |
| Hiring and coaching the salespeople you already have | The tooling and the lists, which you do not have to buy |
| Closing, and teaching the company how to close | Meetings in the diary, which is the thing being paid for |
What neither of them does
Neither fixes an offer nobody wants. If the product does not sell when you sell it yourself, more outbound simply finds out faster and more expensively.
How each one fails
The fractional Sales Director: Being asked to personally make the calls, which is a senior day rate spent on activity rather than on the system that produces it.
An outsourced sales agency: Booking meetings for a business that cannot yet convert them, which fills a diary, burns a market and teaches the company nothing.
What they cost, on the same basis
A fractional Sales Director charges £700 to £1,300 a day, and most engagements run one to three days a week. A monthly retainer, often with a per meeting or per opportunity element, and a contract with a minimum term. The monthly and annual arithmetic for the fractional side, against a full-time equivalent, is on the cost page for this seat.
Pick an outsourced sales agency when
- The sales motion is proven and the only missing ingredient is volume
- You need activity this month and cannot wait to hire
- The market is large enough that burning some of it does not matter
We would rather say that plainly than win an engagement that was the wrong shape. Nobody pays us to list on the bench, so there is nothing in it for us either way.
When you want both
A sensible order rather than a pairing. Get the motion right with a fractional seat first, then buy volume against something that is known to convert.
Common questions
Is a fractional Sales Director cheaper than an outsourced sales agency?
On a like-for-like basis it usually is, because you buy the days you need rather than all of them. A fractional Sales Director runs £700 to £1,300 a day, most often one to three days a week. A monthly retainer, often with a per meeting or per opportunity element, and a contract with a minimum term. But cheaper is the wrong question if the work genuinely needs the other one.
When should I pick an outsourced sales agency instead?
The sales motion is proven and the only missing ingredient is volume You need activity this month and cannot wait to hire The market is large enough that burning some of it does not matter
Can I have both?
A sensible order rather than a pairing. Get the motion right with a fractional seat first, then buy volume against something that is known to convert.