Is it time to hire a Fractional CMO?

…Let’s have a little fun with this and imagine your business is a ship — a beautiful, grand sailing vessel.

Early on, as entrepreneur you put together the scrappiest of crews to sail the boat on every journey.

You hire the crew… 

And set the destination… 

And navigate the course… 

And steer the wheel… 

And bark out commands… 

To make sure the ship gets from port to port.

Then after a few successful journeys, you realize you need to grow your crew for less scrambling and scrapping. 

You do, and each talented crewmember you add helps each journey go smoother.

So you hire a larger crew, and grow the experience of each crewmate…

And each journey is a little better than the last, getting from port to port with more efficiency and less stress.

But you’re still the ship’s captain, steering the wheel and barking out commands… And carrying the weight of each journey on your shoulders from moment-to-moment, as long as that ship is on the seas.

You keep adding to the crew and adding to the crew, and the ship is sailing well…

But your personal role only seems to grow with every journey and every crewmember.

At some point, you decide it would be nice to simply set a destination for the ship (KPIs), and have someone else captain the boat that gets you there.

Perhaps even to have a fleet of ships — marketing, sales, operations, etc. — that each have their own captain, all working together to get you and your cargo to the desired destination.

And so you need to hire a trusted ship captain. 

In this case, someone who can take over as captain of your marketing ship, and run the crew. 

Someone who can help you pinpoint your “what” destination (more leads, clients, sales, profits) and translate that into “how” (strategy) and the recruitment and management of “who” (team, vendors) that will get it done.

Notably, this hired captain COULD probably set the sails and swab the decks and do every crewmate’s job in a pinch. 

But their role — what they are uniquely good at, and are being hired to do — is to captain this ship to its destination…  A destination set by YOU — the magister navis, the master of the vessel (the former entrepreneur, now owner/CEO) — who decides the destination and still holds the ultimate authority even as your marketing captain (CMO) is given authority to control this ship to its destination.

… So… 

When is it time to hire a Fractional CMO?

When — for whatever reason — you feel like you want someone to come in and captain the marketing ship…

Rather than captaining it yourself through every journey and campaign and funnel launch.

Whenever you’re ready to elevate yourself… 

… From entrepreneur and day-to-day captain of the journey…

… To the true visionary leader, owner, and CEO of your business.

Or perhaps you’d like to learn more about my process first.