This issue is our 12th. How time has flown!

Issue 1 launched with 91 recipients; we are now at 2,200+. Grateful for the fast progress and the learnings.

There’s been a lot of excitement around our new name and the clearer direction of the Collab. But, I realize there’s still more work to do in making things even clearer. Thank you for sticking with me.

This issue marks our first with a sponsor - Common Room.

They’re allowing me to continue to provide this for free to the readers.

Let’s dive into today’s issue…

This issue is brought to you by Common Room - the modern buyer journey platform I’m hyped to call a sponsor. Common Room supercharges your GTM motion by bringing all your buyer, community, and product signals together so you can convert customers faster and drive more revenue.

What you’ll see in Common Room:

• High-fit leads across 30+ sources, tailored to your ICP

• Deep context from product, community, social, and CRM data

• Intent signals on beast mode

• Super fast ways to turn prospect → pipe gen

Check out Common Room and give your GTM teams the gift of conversation, powered by cross-team collabs.

The Big Idea

How companies can grow with fractionals.

Fractional leaders are playing a larger role in the software and business world as the advantages to hiring fractional rather than full-time pileup. 

First and foremost, you need help.  Everyone does. If you hire a full-time leader to solve the problem you are having right now then you have taken on a large long-term expense for a short-term problem.  

How many times have you found yourself saying, “Our VP/CXO is great, but they haven’t ever done this before.” Where “this” is a sales team transformation, expanding into the enterprise space, finding product market fit, changing your pricing, etc. You know…the BIG problems.  

Some companies get drastic when that happens and swap out leaders, resulting in a long ramp-up time so that new leader can get their feet under them and start solving the problem. Others do nothing because they want to give their leader a shot at “something” new which increases the chances of failure and having to re-do the work or iterate for years to come. Neither are great options. 

But what if there is a world where you can pair that leader up with someone who has done it before and help ensure success?  Enter the fractional leader. 

Now you have your established leaders paired with someone who has solved similar problems before in another organization. They benefit by learning from the fractional leader and they deeply appreciate the help and expertise. Your leadership team doesn’t want to fail, and your business can’t afford to let them.  If you were setting out to build a piece of furniture for the first time and you have never held a hammer, your chance of success improves greatly by having an experienced carpenter in the room (or at least asking the person at Lowes to point you to the right aisle). 

By bringing on a fractional leader you have saved yourself the expense of a full-time leader, you have increased your chances of success, and you have (hopefully) an easier time sleeping at night knowing that someone is waking up tomorrow focused on solving your problem. 

More and more fractional leaders are coming onto the market every day. 

I know because I am one of them!  I love knowing that I am helping a company solve some of their biggest challenges and I love that I can work with multiple companies at the same time. The amount I have learned in a few years doing fractional and consulting work far outweighs the learnings I had when I was in the same company for years at a time. Applying experience helps me execute faster and more confidently.

Don’t get me wrong, I love working for a company long-term, celebrating the wins with the team after a hard-fought quarter, and planning out a bright future for the next year. That’s an amazing feeling. 

But so is knowing that you helped an organization get over a hurdle they were facing by being a catalyst to change. As full-time employees we often experience transformational change one to two times a year, but as a fractional consultant?  I AM the transformational change for several companies. 

So how do you find the right person?  Talk to us. We know each other and we are well-networked within the fractional world. I belong to no less than four communities where I talk with other fractional leaders every day. Having a problem?  Talk to me, I might know someone. If I don’t, I bet I know someone who does. So if you are sitting in your (virtual) office trying to figure out how to solve the BIG problems without a fractional leader on the table, you are missing an opportunity. 

Maybe you aren’t 100% sure what the problem is that you are having. How great would it feel to talk to someone who has seen the symptoms before?  We get pretty good at diagnosing problems after seeing the same challenges at multiple organizations. 

I have helped companies balance territories, complete annual planning, adjust compensation plans, implement Value Based Selling, build out playbooks, find their ICP, and so much more. All at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time it would have taken if they had hired a RevOps leader off the street. Welcome to the era of the fractional leader. It's a beautiful place to be.

Collaborators: Lisa Kelly (writer) and Mollie Bodensteiner (editor)

2 Resources

I. Annual Planning for Startups eBook

In an era where cost efficiency and sustainable growth are paramount, understanding key business metrics can be a game-changer. RevGenius is excited to share its latest eBook that sheds light on crucial metrics like Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), payback period, and the Lifetime Value (LTV) of a customer. (read here)

II. Snowflake Might Be Setting a New Standard in AI - Inside their Bold Plan to Boost Revenue with Generative AI Tools

Snowflake, a cloud data company, is increasing its research and development (R&D) investment to create tools for testing generative artificial intelligence (AI) in business applications. (read here)

3 Collaborators

I. Tenisha Griggs

Tenisha builds GTM programs for Mid-Market and Enterprise clients. She’s overseen a global team managing over $100M+ in media spend. Recognized as Advertiser of the Year by ‘Ad Week’, she’s an integrity-driven leader who champions diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She helped Terminus be named the ‘Category Leader in B2B Ad Platforms’ by Forrester. (follow her on LinkedIn)

II. Susan Whittemore

As an Operations Leader, Coach, and Advisor, Susan leverages her 15+ years of experience in sales and revenue operations to help businesses address their operational challenges and achieve their growth goals. She has a proven track record of orchestrating transformation in top-tier tech firms, such as Teampay, Starburst, Silk, Perfecto Mobile, and Rocket Software. (follow her on LinkedIn)

III. Scott N. Levy

Scott is an advisor to Brex and Airbnb while having founded Praction. Praction is your CRO-in-a-box, giving you comprehensive GTM performance indicators and prescriptive playbooks tailored to your company’s growth strategy. (follow him on LinkedIn)

In case you missed it

I. My quote in Bloomberg’s most recent article ‘Salesforce Signals the Golden Age of Cushy Tech Jobs is Over’

“The most important thing you can do in sales and life is to be a ‘homie.’” (read article)

Thanks for reading!

Have any awesome folks you’d like to refer?

Reply to this email and let us know what you’d like to see more. And a big thank you to all who made it to this point.

Until next week,

Jared

3 ways I can help you scale your business with Collaboration:

1. Join RevGenius (free).

2. Promote yourself in this newsletter + to my 40k personal following on LinkedIn (reply for rates).

3. Introduction to fractionals to help your business scale (reply for intros).