Fractional sales management is a great way for startups and businesses to solve sales challenges. They’re another tool in the founder’s toolbox that can be used to improve the overall performance of their company. Here are a few things fractional sales management can bring to a company.

Coaching & Training

Developing individual sales team members is not only a great way to improve sales numbers but also retain talent. Bringing in a fractional sales manager who has a background in coaching and training can transform average sales teams into high performing sales teams. Just like in sports, good coaches know how to get the most out of their direct reports. 

Many companies struggle with growing revenue at a pace they desire. So they focus on improving the top of the funnel. A fractional sales manager can absolutely help with prospecting strategies which leads to SDRs booking more meetings. They can also help with improving the conversion rate of the sales team. Account Executives who receive proper coaching and training from a sales manager often see their results improve quickly.

As the team grows, new hires will need to be trained on the sales process. Of course this can fall on the shoulders of one of the Founders or business owner. However, this is not the best use of their time. Being able to shift the responsibilities of training new salespeople to a fractional sales manager is a major time saver for Founders. Again, fractional sales management is about bringing in an outside expert that helps solves challenges and frees up time for others.

Proper Sales Management

As the name suggests, fractional sales management will provide salespeople with proper sales management. This will include developing team members, retaining top talent, and helping individuals solve sales problems. This also includes taking on one of the most important sales management responsibilities, one on ones. One on ones are often neglected by Founders on a regular basis. One on ones allow an individual salesperson to provide updates on their role, their sales pipe/forecast, and voice any other concerns or needs. This is an opportunity to solve sales problems on an individual basis. As a fractional sales manager, individual salespeople will likely be more forthcoming than they would be with a Founder or business owner. It’s a different dynamic. Good fractional sales management will be able to help salespeople during the one on ones more effectively from a sales perspective than a Founder or business owner.

Sales Playbooks

As the company grows and new sales team members are brought on, it’s important to have a sales playbook. Fractional sales management can be responsible for compiling the necessary information. If you’re a Founder or business owner you may have zero experience creating a sales playbook.

A fractional sales manager has created sales playbooks before at previous companies. This is essentially the sales manual for current and new hires. It will accelerate the learning process for new salespeople. For current salespeople, they can refer to it so they don’t have to bother one of the Founders.

Improve Lead Conversion

One of the main responsibilities for any fractional sales management hire is to improve lead conversion throughout the sales funnel. This means at every step of the sales funnel, they should be diagnosing the sales conversion issues and determining what needs to be done to solve the conversion problems. Often founders or business owners think they need to push more leads through the top of the funnel when they actually need to fix their conversion rate issues.

Improving the sales team’s performance on discovery calls is an important part of a fractional sales manager’s responsibilities. They should spend time working with individual members of the sales team, listening to sales calls, and joining when possible. They can provide live coaching via Slack and review recorded calls on Zoom. Fractional sales management is a great way to improve conversion rates through the sales funnel by coaching salespeople up. If they can move more discovery calls to the next stage in the sales funnel, more deals will close.

Help doesn’t end with discovery. The fractional sales manager should help with every single step through the sales process, including improving the conversion rate on demos, contracts, and whatever other steps your sales process consists of.

It’s very possible that fractional sales management pays for itself within the first week. There are sales teams that lack management and are making simple mistakes that everyone at the startup is missing. With a fractional sales manager, they should be able to quickly diagnose any obvious problems. This could be transformative for some salespeople and ultimately the startup or business.

Improve Lead Generation

Bringing in fractional sales management to improve outbound lead generation is one of the more common reasons to bring in a fractional sales manager. This could be the responsibility of a Fractional SDR Manager or Fractional BDR Manager. They would be responsible for building lists of prospects and coming up with an outbound campaign to book new meetings. They would provide guidance and best practices around things such as how to make cold calls, cold email best practices, rewrite cold email copy, design outbound sequences, plan the overall sales lead generation strategy, and implement any new sales tools. If your prospecting needs work, this is an area they can help with. It may be as simple as recommending the best sales tools for prospecting. or completely overhauling the sales strategy.

Improve Team Morale

Sales at early stage startups or small businesses is a roller coaster. Some days the sales team will feel like they’re killing it, and other days it will feel like the startup is going to fail and they should find a new job. Having fractional sales management in place is a good way to keep the ship steady.

They’ll provide a third party ear to hear the concerns of sales team members. They will likely be privy to information that the Founder or business owner will miss because they have a hundred other responsibilities to deal with. When the sales team is feeling down and they will, they can provide motivation and improve the sales team morale. A fractional sales manager could implement Spiffs or other sales team competitions.

Implement New Processes

Startups and small businesses, especially early stage ones, lack defined processes. Fractional sales management can come in and put tailored processes in place to help scale the sales function. This will create a foundation for efficiency and organization. As new sales teams grow, fractional sales managers who put processes in place will save founders major headaches down the line.

This structure makes it easier to measure sales activities. It also provides a starting point that can be iterated on as the company evolves.

Implement New Sales Technology

The sales technology space is crowded. Fractional sales management well versed in sales tools will help founders avoid expensive unnecessary tooling. They’ll also make sure they’re ready for some tools. Looking at ZoomInfo Pricing you can see how expensive contact data can be. However, fractional sales management may be able to justify the cost based on your deal size and close rate. If they notice there’s a data problem and the Hunter.io alternatives are not needed, they may want to upgrade. 

Sales technology also needs to be implemented at the right time. Sales tools amplify behavior. If you’re sending great emails that are converting to meetings but not using a sales engagement platform like some of these SalesLoft competitors, it may be time. If your outbound game is struggling, adding tooling will not solve the problem. There are other sales tool consideration basics like making sure you select the best email warm up tool.

Buying any new software for a startup or small business can be a major investment. Having fractional sales management who is able to train the sales team on the new purchases is key. Otherwise, you’ll buy new tools that you think will help solve your sales problems that will never get used.

Free Up Time

Fractional sales management frees up time for founders and business owners. Small sales teams do not require full time sales managers. However, they do require time. Anywhere from 5-20+ hours per week depending on the sales team is a reasonable expectation of time commitment to maximize a sales team’s potential. Founders and small business owners simply do not have this time available. They have to deal with product, fundraising, marketing, recruiting, finance, operations, HR, and more. Freeing up even 5 hours per week with fractional sales management would be a huge win for a founder. Not only will the time be freed up but the team will perform better under a fractional sales manager.

Hiring

Hiring for sales is hard because salespeople are usually good at selling themselves. Fractional sales management can bring in an upgraded hiring process which will weed out bad candidates. They can also handle most of the sales role interviewing, leaving only the best candidates for the founders or business owner to interview.

They can create structure and a process for hiring which should result in better hires. This also can improve the candidate experience. Creating a sales interview scorecard with roleplays can upgrade what is usually an informal and unstructured process.

Bring In A New Perspective

Fractional sales managers bring in a new perspective. They come to your organization to solve problems, usually on a temporary basis. With this type of role, they have a fresh perspective on the organization. They’ve usually had multiple sales roles and might be the first actual sales manager to take a look at the overall sales process. Even though they’re fractional management, they’ll be able to have a major impact because they haven’t been in the day-to-day weeds of the startup. They’ll question the status quo.

Sales managers require a unique set of skills and qualities to lead a sales team effectively and drive revenue growth for their organization. Here are some key skills and qualities that a successful sales manager should possess:

Strong leadership skills: Sales managers should have the ability to motivate, inspire, and lead their team to achieve their goals.

Excellent communication skills: Sales managers must be able to communicate clearly, both verbally and in writing, with their team, customers, and other stakeholders.

In-depth knowledge of sales techniques and strategies: A sales manager should have a strong understanding of sales techniques and strategies, such as prospecting, lead generation, objection handling, and closing deals.

Analytical skills: Sales managers should be able to analyze sales data to identify trends, opportunities, and areas for improvement.

Customer-focused mindset: A sales manager should have a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences and be able to develop strategies that meet those needs.

Coaching and training skills: Sales managers must be able to provide effective coaching and training to their team to improve performance and drive results.

Strategic thinking: Sales managers should be able to think strategically and develop long-term plans that align with their organization’s goals.

Results-driven attitude: Sales managers should have a strong desire to achieve sales goals and drive revenue growth for their organization.

Adaptability: A sales manager should be able to adapt to changes in the market, customer needs, and industry trends.

Relationship-building skills: Sales managers should be able to build strong relationships with customers, prospects, and other stakeholders to drive sales success.