When to hire a full-time CRO
Convert the seat when the plan justifies the cost and the system is already running: a repeatable playbook proven three times, a team of eight or more to lead, a forecast Finance signs, and a board that needs a full-time owner of the number — usually past $5M–$10M ARR.
The signals. The same deal has been won three times on one playbook. The first account executives have ramped and are at or near quota. Pipeline coverage is stable at three times or better. The forecast has been within ten percent for two quarters. The next plan needs more hiring than a fractional leader can manage well in two or three days a week.
What the fractional CRO does then. Writes the job description from inside the seat, defines the scorecard, helps run the search, sits on the interviews, and coaches the hire through the first two quarters. A fractional CRO who resists the hand-off has built a dependency; a good one plans it from the first month.
What not to do. Do not hire the full-time CRO to build the system — that is the expensive way to run a diagnostic. Hire them to scale a system that exists. The most common failed CRO hire is a scale-stage executive dropped into a company that has not finished Stage 03.
When the seat stays fractional. Some companies never need a full-time CRO: a strong VP of Sales plus a fractional CRO on one day a week can carry a company past $20M ARR if the motion is repeatable and the founder owns the board relationship. The test is the plan, not the title.
The hand-off page I use is the same one that tracks success at 30, 60 and 90 days: milestone, evidence, date.
How I work
Three ways to engage — the two-week diagnostic, the ninety-day foundation, the retained seat — and the terms in one paragraph.
Open »The Revenue Diagnostic
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.
A few times a month, by email. No list is sold or shared; one click to leave.