Fractional, interim, advisor, consultant: who owns the number?
The difference is accountability and time: a fractional CRO owns the revenue outcome part-time over months; an interim CRO holds the seat near-full-time until a permanent hire; an advisor offers judgment without ownership; a consultant delivers a project and leaves.
Fractional CRO. Two to three days a week, six to eighteen months, accountable for the number. Builds the ICP, pipeline, forecast, cadence and first hires, and in founder-led companies closes the founding deals. Best when the company needs senior revenue leadership before it can afford or justify a full-time executive.
Interim CRO. The same work with a different clock: a leadership gap after a departure, a board reset, or a pre-transaction period, covered for a defined term at a fixed number of days a week, with the search for the permanent leader built into the plan. The interim de-risks the permanent hire by writing the job description from inside the seat.
Advisor. Judgment, introductions and pattern recognition on a monthly call. No accountability for outcomes and no operating work. Valuable, but not a substitute for someone running the function.
Consultant. A defined project — a pricing study, a sales-process design, a market assessment — with a deliverable and an end date. Consultants hand over a document; they do not run the quarter.
Ask who is on the hook if the quarter is missed. If the answer is you, you have an advisor or a consultant. If the answer includes them, you have a fractional or interim CRO.
I work fractional and interim; the terms for both are on Work With Me.
How I work
Three ways to engage — the two-week diagnostic, the ninety-day foundation, the retained seat — and the terms in one paragraph.
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Thirty questions across six pillars, including the one nobody else scores: the AI agents already in your revenue engine. A score, three findings and a ninety-day plan.
Run the diagnostic »New essays and operator tools, as they publish.
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