Fractional Talent · Early stage B2B technology
Commercial decisions needed an owner beyond the founder.
Establish consistent commercial leadership and reduce the routine sales and marketing decisions returning to the founder.
Discuss a similar challenge01 / The challenge
Where the work began.
The founder was the company’s strongest salesperson and the default owner of commercial decisions. Campaigns waited for approval. Account executives needed help positioning the offer. Pipeline reviews depended on the founder remembering the history of individual deals.
The business needed someone to own those decisions within clear boundaries, while giving sales and marketing a consistent way to work together.
02 / The approach
What we did.
RFA placed a fractional GTM leader alongside the founder, with a revenue operations specialist supporting defined implementation work. The engagement began by agreeing on decision authority, commercial priorities and the boundaries of the role.
The team defined an operating plan covering customer segments, positioning, qualification, pipeline management and coordination between sales and marketing. It set out a weekly revenue review focused on stage movement, deal aging, stakeholder engagement and the evidence behind forecast categories. CRM fields and reporting supported that review structure.
The coaching approach centered on actual discovery calls and active opportunities. RFA also translated the responsibilities into a permanent hiring brief, separating decisions requiring senior judgment, work belonging in revenue operations and responsibilities the existing team retained.
03 / The scope
What the work covered.
- Commercial remit and focused operating plan
- Revenue review and supporting CRM structure
- Permanent hiring brief
04 / The outcome
What the work established
The engagement established a defined fractional leadership remit, a commercial operating plan, a revenue review framework and a brief for permanent hiring.
It also established criteria for evaluating decision turnaround, the operating rhythm, forecast accuracy against closed results and founder time spent on routine management. The framework required a documented baseline and appropriate attribution for evaluating any revenue outcome.
I had become the approval process for almost everything commercial. What I needed was someone who could make decisions, explain the tradeoffs, and keep the team moving without bringing every question back to me.