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Until recently, a chief growth officer’s (CGO) guidance was unattainable for businesses with limited budgets. Ironically, they had to wait to grow enough to afford a full-time expert whose primary duty is to facilitate sustainable business growth. That’s not the case anymore, as businesses of all sizes can now hire a CGO and get a powerful revenue-boosting strategy for a “fraction” of the cost.
Fractional CGOs come with all the benefits of their full-time counterparts but without the long-term commitment, fixed schedules, and complex onboarding procedures. With their on-demand guidance, you can hit all your revenue growth goals, expand your market reach, and supercharge your customer acquisition and retention efforts.
If these benefits speak to you, read our guide to learn more about the role of a fractional chief growth officer. We’ll explain how fractional hiring of CGOs works and what duties the role entails. You’ll also discover expert advice for recruiting a fractional CGO and get introduced to MarketerHire, a platform that connects you with top-notch marketing experts.
What Is a Fractional Chief Growth Officer?
A CGO is a high-level executive who devises and helps execute strategies for sales generation, customer retention, and rapid business growth. When you hire them on a fractional basis, they devote only some of their time to your business. In many cases, they also work for other companies besides yours.
Compared to traditional hiring, the fractional model offers you flexibility. You can hire a CGO for as many hours as you need to or for specific projects. Their hours are adjustable, so they can switch to full-time work during particularly demanding periods.
Legally speaking, fractional employees are independent contractors. Still, besides the flexible schedule, they share few similarities with typical freelancers.
When you hire a freelancer, they work on a small set of tasks and aren’t involved with the rest of the company. Meanwhile, fractional employees are regarded as internal team members. They integrate into your company and can build strong relationships with you and your team. This allows them to better understand your values and provide personalized guidance.
Check out the table below for a quick comparison of full-time, freelance, and fractional work:
Business Growth Duties for Fractions CGO's
A fractional CGO’s primary goal is to help the business hit its revenue goals. Fractional CMOs have the same goal, but their means are different. The CMO focuses on marketing alone to drive revenue, while the CGO unifies the marketing, sales, and product side of the business to attract, retain, and convert leads.
A fractional CGO’s duties may include:
- Analyzing the company’s revenue and sales cycles
- Researching the market and competitors
- Devising a strategy to optimize the sales funnel, close more sales, and retain customers
- Identifying the most effective channels and verticals to drive growth
- Planning the strategy execution, prioritizing work, and allocating resources
- Tracking the performance and correcting the course if needed
- Managing growth teams and identifying and filling skills gaps
- Set and achieve aggressive growth goals to accelerate growth
Fractional CGOs usually have a narrower scope of work than full-time CGOs due to their limited availability. They focus primarily on analysis and strategy but may take on other duties as needed.
Key Benefits of a Fractional Chief Growth Officer
Below, we’ll break down the top six perks of hiring a fractional CGO:
- Lower costs: The fractional recruiting model lets you harness C-level expertise without breaking the bank. Also, you’re paying only for the time and effort you need, so the invested resources are used efficiently
- Flexibility: You can scale your CGO’s hours, adapting them to your needs and resolving emerging challenges quickly
- Faster hiring: Since hiring costs are lower, you don’t need to wait long for funding. Fractional executives are also more flexible with their time and available for prompt engagements, so you can hire a CGO whenever your business needs it
- Lower risk: Having the guidance of a fractional CGO from the start is crucial to setting your business up for success. The CGO can identify lucrative investment opportunities and minimize the risk of making poor financial decisions
- Objectivity: Although they’re part of the team, the fractional CGO has external experience that allows them to be more objective. They can bring in a fresh perspective and come up with groundbreaking ideas
- Easier transition to a full-time role: Hiring a fractional CGO lets you assess their expertise and personality before potentially taking them on full-time, reducing the risk of a bad hire
When To Hire a Fractional Chief Growth Officer
Here are some signs that you should start looking for a fractional CGO:
- You want to develop your first growth team
- Your existing growth teams work in silos and need to be united
- Resources are limited, and you need to figure out how to make the most of them
- Your existing growth efforts haven’t been successful
- You’re experiencing a slow period or a complete downturn
- You’ve been chasing short-term profits without considering the long-term effects
A fractional CGO can stand in for a full-time CGO who’s absent for a longer time, ensuring your growth efforts continue without delay. They can also be a great temporary solution when you’re looking for a full-time CGO but need their guidance urgently. If your fractional CGO performs especially well, you may even want to consider transitioning them to a permanent, in-house role in your company.
What To Look For in a Fractional Chief Growth Officer
A CGO should have an educational background in business or marketing, ideally accompanied by an MBA degree. They must have over ten years of leadership experience in business development, marketing, or sales, including an array of past accomplishments to show for it. Preferably, that experience should be with companies like yours.
As for the skills and traits, prioritize the following when choosing your fractional CGO:
- Data analysis
- Relevant software proficiency
- Communication skills
- Strategic thinking
- Quick decision-making
- Problem-solving skills
Before you start sourcing, consider what your fractional CGO will be doing to get a better idea of the top skills to screen for. Don’t forget to take cultural fit into account—your fractional CGO should align with your business’ core values for easier collaboration.
Optimizing the Relationship With Your Fractional Chief Growth Officer
The tips in the following table should help ensure a successful collaboration between you, your team, and the fractional CGO:
Challenges of Hiring a Fractional Chief Growth Officer
To find your fractional chief growth officer, you can either recruit them yourself or partner with a recruiting agency or platform.
If you’re on a tight budget, it might make more sense to opt for in-house recruiting, but it can turn out to be more expensive. Recruitment is a complex effort, especially when it comes to C-suite roles. Sourcing, screening, and interviewing candidates can sometimes require months of work.
In-house recruiting is also risky. If you make the wrong hiring decision, you’ll need to redo the entire recruiting process and deal with any damage the incompatible hire might have caused.
Because of these issues, an on-demand recruiting platform such as MarketerHire is your best bet. It pre-vets all candidates and offers free trials and rematching, making the hiring process effortless and risk-free.
Why Is MarketerHire the Best Choice for Hiring a Fractional Chief Growth Officer?
Whether you need a fractional CGO to boost your revenue or a full-time growth marketer to strengthen your team, MarketerHire has your back. It’s a matchmaking platform that connects you with elite expert marketers across all niches and verticals within days.
With over 25,000 successful matches under its belt, MarketerHire knows the ins and outs of the marketing recruiting business. It has worked with a wide range of companies, including renowned brands like:
- Netflix
- Forbes
- HelloFresh
- Skillshare
- Logitech
MarketerHire’s matching engine, called MarketerMatch, combines AI and human insight to zero in on the perfect candidate from its network of pre-vetted talent.
The vetting process is rigorous and run by industry experts, ensuring only the top 1% of applicants pass. It comprises multiple stages, including skills assessments, test projects, and live interviews. Many of the experts in the network have also worked for household brands, such as PayPal and Uber.
Besides being fast and effective, MarketerHire’s recruiting process is painless due to its white-glove, concierge-style service. You only have to share your needs, and the platform’s experts will handle all the hard work for you. You’ll get support from your dedicated marketing manager before and after hiring.
To remove any risk associated with hiring, MarketerHire offers two weeks of free trial and free rematching if you’re not happy with your match. Thanks to its no-obligation, short-term contract, you can also scale up and down or cancel the collaboration as needed.
How MarketerHire Works
If you decide to partner with MarketerHire, here’s what the recruiting process will look like:
- Describe your needs: Meet with your dedicated marketing manager to discuss your company and goals
- Meet your match: The MarketerHire team will find you a suitable candidate within only 48 hours
- Make the hire: Your new fractional CGO can start working alongside your team in around three days
Besides growth-oriented positions like a CGO, MarketerHire helps you hire for numerous other marketing roles, including paid search marketers, social media managers, and fractional CMOs. The platform can even match you with full-time Expert Assistants in case your marketing, design, or sales team is stuck with repetitive tasks that hamper growth.
Reach out to MarketerHire and jump-start your growth initiative with a best-in-class CGO!
Other Fractional Hiring Resources To Check Out
We’ve written many other articles on fractional hiring—you can find some in the table below:
