Some things in life are just a whole lot harder to do alone:
Riding a see-saw.
Playing tennis.
Growing a business.
When companies want to grow, they often need help. Will that help come in the form of an internal, full-time hire? Or is it better to start with an external partner?
Many scaling businesses now use fractional marketing and sales support teams to help them hit their goals while managing costs. After all, access to a full sales and marketing team for the price of a single employee sounds like a dream come true. But how do these partnerships work? What can businesses expect? Are they worth the investment?
We’ll break it down into simple terms and help you choose the right path forward for your unique situation. These are the nine most frequently asked questions about using an external sales and marketing partner:
What is Fractional Sales & Marketing Support, Anyway?
Fractional marketing support means hiring a marketing expert for a certain amount of time per week or per month. This strategy allows small businesses to access high-level skills without full-time employee costs. If your company needs access to marketing strategy and specialist support, fractional access gets you what you need without blowing the bank.
Fractional sales operations support works in a similar way. You get a proven sales support structure using sales activity strategy, analytics insights, automation support for sales activities, and sales technology integration. The person running point on your sales operations support will help optimize your business’s sales process using intentional, proven strategies.
Choosing outside partners for these roles can be great for smaller businesses. It’s a quick way for your business to gain access to expert knowledge and fresh ideas.
A study found that small companies using fractional support see a 20-30% increase in sales performance. This collaboration can help businesses grow without taking on unnecessary expenses.
Is the Financial Risk Lower With an Outside Sales & Marketing Partner?
When businesses consider their sales and marketing support options, cost is always a factor. Hiring a full-time sales and marketing director may seem like a good idea, but it can be expensive. Salaries for sales and marketing directors can range from $70,000 to over $120,000 a year, depending on experience. This doesn’t include the other costs of a full-time hire, like health insurance, retirement plans, overhead, or expenses.
Partnering with an agency can be more cost-effective. The right sales & marketing agency will work with you to make sure you get what you need to grow your business at a price your budget can support. You can pay for the services you need without a long-term commitment. For example, you might only need help with a specific project. An agency can provide that support without the expense of a full-time employee. You get all the marketing strategy to hit your business goals without the extra overhead.
Plus, the right agency should bring a team of experts to the table, with different skills like social media, graphic design, and SEO. This can boost your marketing results without increasing your costs. More about this below!
How Long Does It Take to Onboard an Outside Sales & Marketing Partner?
Onboarding an external marketing partner should always be faster than hiring new full-time employees. While the process of recruiting, vetting, and getting a new hire up to speed can take months, a partner can get up to speed and onboard in a fraction of that time.
Firstly, external sales and marketing partners already have the skills you need to hit your business goals. They bring years of experience and know what works. New hires may need more training and support to learn the ropes.
Secondly, onboarding paperwork and compliance can slow down hiring new staff. External partners usually handle their own paperwork, and they are the ones who have the impetus to make onboarding smooth, simple, and speedy — the right marketing partner should prioritize your experience as a new client.
Working with an external partner can also be more flexible than working with an internal stakeholder. If a project changes, it’s easier to adjust and pivot quickly. You can also scale efforts up or down based on your needs, budget, and results.
How Do I Foster Sales and Marketing Alignment With an Outside Partner?
The right partner knows the value of sales and marketing alignment, and they’ll lead the charge for you.
When sales and marketing work together, they achieve better results for the business as a whole. This partnership can lead to higher sales and improved customer satisfaction. For example, companies with aligned sales and marketing teams see up to 32% more revenue.
That’s why the right partner should take responsibility for creating strategies that support sales and marketing alignment in your business. Your partner should also reach out to the sales team to evaluate their needs, results, and the quality of leads coming from marketing.
An outside partner should offer insights into market trends, and they should know how your customers want to receive marketing and get involved with sales. This helps both teams target their efforts. Your external sales and marketing partner should organize joint meetings and workshops. This builds trust and communication. Finally, they should provide training for both teams.
An external partner brings fresh ideas and specialized skills, and they should create strategies that unite your sales and marketing teams for you.
What Fractional Sales & Marketing Roles Should My Partner Have?
Marketing roles are shifting from generalists to specialists. Once upon a time, businesses commonly searched for, and rarely found, a marketing unicorn who was as skilled at paid media management as they were a convincing copywriter. From strategy to execution and reporting, generalists are hard to find and easy to burn out. Instead, marketing is now shifting to specialists for email marketing, social media, marketing strategy, sales operations, and everything in between.
It can be prohibitively expensive for a small business to hire for all of these roles, and it can be difficult to justify to boot. After all, you’re unlikely to have enough work for a 32- or 40-hour email marketer every week.
That’s where fractional roles come in. Fractional sales and marketing roles let businesses get expert help without committing to full-time positions. Each role can assist your company in different ways with different strategies and campaigns. They bring the skills, experience, and knowledge to help you grow right when you need them.
So what roles should a great sales and marketing agency have available to you? These are the essentials:
Fractional Sales & Marketing Director or Fractional CMO
A fractional director creates sales strategies and marketing plans. They analyze the market and target customers. For example, they may help a small business improve its online advertising and guide the team on how to reach more people.
A fractional CMO can provide even higher level strategy and c-suite support that extends to other business operations and helps you align your internal team’s marketing efforts with your strategic growth goals. Even if your business doesn’t need a full-time CMO, you could still benefit from the support and leadership of a fractional expert.
Either of these experts will reinforce your team’s skills without the long-term commitment of a full-time hire and unlock access to an experienced strategy that’s been proven in the market. They provide strategic guidance at a fraction of the cost, helping businesses achieve their goals and grow faster.
Fractional Copywriting & Design Team
These teams consist of experts in writing and design. They create marketing materials, websites, sales emails, sales enablement materials like presentation decks and proposals, and mass marketing like ads and social media posts.
Businesses benefit from this setup in several ways. First, they get high-quality work at a fraction of the cost. Hiring full-time copywriters and designers can be expensive. The right sales and marketing partner will help you control these costs by tapping in these experts only when necessary, limiting the number of revisions and options created for review, and managing a strategic approach to asset creation. This allows businesses to access national-level talent without breaking the bank.
Second, these fractional creative teams bring fresh ideas. They work with different clients and industries. This means they’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. They can share useful insights that help businesses stand out.
Finally, businesses can be flexible with fractional creative teams. If needs change, they can easily adjust the team size. For example, a company might need more design work during a product launch. With fractional help, they can scale up without commitment.
Fractional Web Development & Design
A fractional web development and web design team helps businesses create and improve their websites. Instead of hiring full-time staff or trying to find and vet the right freelance developer, your company can work with these experts for specific projects or tasks. This approach saves money and time.
Your agency partner will already have vetted, trained, and given expectations to their design and development team. You’ll benefit from a dedicated, fully-developed process that reduces the burden of planning on your side.
Fractional Paid Media Marketing Specialist
A fractional paid media marketing specialist helps businesses with their advertising needs. They focus on online ads across platforms like Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook, among others.
Before spending big money, a fractional paid media specialist can analyze whether paid advertising fits your business’s goals. They look at factors like target customers, competition in the market, and expected returns based on your available budget, saving companies from overspending on ads that might not work.
Your fractional paid media specialist will help you research the competition. They’ll find out what ads similar businesses are running and how well those ads perform. This information helps your company craft better strategies and choose the right channels for your ads based on your budget and audience.
Fractional Email Marketer
A fractional email marketer helps businesses create and manage email marketing campaigns. They focus on planning, designing, and sending emails that engage customers. They also track how these campaigns perform over time and should help pass along buyer intent signals to your sales team.
Hiring a full-time email marketer could cost your business an average of $60,000/year, so fractional access to this role can help your business prioritize your budget on more than just email.
Fractional Social Media Specialist
A fractional social media specialist helps businesses manage their online presence. They focus on creating content and engaging with followers. They work part-time, so companies don’t need to hire someone full-time. This can save money.
Businesses benefit a lot from having a fractional specialist. First, they get expert help without spending a lot. Hiring a full-time expert can cost over $50,000 a year. With a fractional specialist, companies pay only for the hours they need.
Fractional Sales Process Expert
A fractional sales operations expert helps businesses improve their sales processes. They analyze how a company sells its products or services and look for ways to speed sales cycles and improve prospect experiences.
Your sales and marketing partner should have a sales process expert available to you and your team. They may suggest using new technology to track sales, new activity metrics to hit, or new sales enablement strategies to help your sales team connect with potential buyers in new ways.
Having this expert in your corner can increase revenue and cut sales cycles by 20-30%. It allows businesses to focus on what they do best while the expert fine-tunes the sales process.
Should I Hire a Fractional CMO or a Fractional Sales & Marketing Agency?
When considering whether to hire a fractional CMO or a fractional sales and marketing agency, it’s important to know the difference. A fractional CMO acts as a part-time Chief Marketing Officer. They provide leadership and strategy. This option is best if your business has an execution team that needs guidance. For example, if your team creates content but needs help with planning, a fractional CMO can help.
On the other hand, a fractional sales and marketing agency offers a full team. They handle everything from strategy to execution. If your business lacks both a marketing leader and an execution team, an agency is the better choice. They provide a complete solution to your marketing needs.
Ultimately, the right partner will give you access to both options. They will help you determine whether you need strategic leadership or a full-service team. With the right support, your marketing efforts can thrive, leading to growth and success. Choose wisely for your business’s future.
When Should I Hire a Fractional Sales & Marketing Team?
Every smaller business wants to grow. Sometimes, this growth can be tough. A business might not have enough resources or time, and they might not be ready to onboard additional full-time employees. That’s when hiring a fractional sales and marketing partner can help.
So when’s the right time to hire one? First, notice if your sales are slowing down. If you can’t reach your sales goals, a partner might be able to help you see where your process needs improvement or if gaps in your lead nurturing strategy need to be filled.
Next, look at your team’s workload. If everyone feels overwhelmed, it’s a sign you need help. A fractional partner can take some tasks off their plates. This way, your team can focus on what they do best.
Finally, think about your growth plans. If you want to enter new markets but lack the skills, a fractional team can guide you. They have the experience to help you succeed.
Does the Location of My Sales & Marketing Partner Matter?
When choosing a sales and marketing partner, location really matters.
It’s easiest to work with someone in at least the same country and, preferably, who’s available in the same timezone as your business. This makes communication smoother. You can chat or meet without worrying about large time differences.
For example, if your business is on the East Coast and your partner is in the Midwest, you’re only an hour apart, and collaboration should be smooth and easy. On the other hand, if your partner is in Europe, they’re five hours ahead of you, and that cuts the average collaboration window down from 8 working hours a day to just 3. This can lead to delays in communication and just make it harder to work together overall.
An external but local partner knows your market and how local conditions, from the economy to the weather, may impact you. They can tap into their networks and make connections for your business that matter.
Having a partner who speaks the same language—literally and culturally—helps too. According to a survey, businesses that work with local partners grow 20% faster than those who don’t.
Grow Your Business With Help From a Not-so-Traditional Agency
The right sales and marketing agency works as an extension of your team, much like having your own fully staffed marketing department, but at a savings of up to 80%.If you need to expand your sales and marketing team to include expertise in every channel—and the results that follow— in order to scale your business. Peer can help. See how the leadership at Sloan Medical used the fractional sales and marketing support model to get 500% more leads and cut their sales cycle by 20%.
