Fractional Sales Director

Fractional Sales Director Recruitment

A fractional Sales Director gives a business access to senior commercial leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. For scale-ups building a sales function from scratch, SMEs whose revenue trajectory has outgrown the capability of the current team, and PE-backed businesses facing a specific commercial challenge, a fractional appointment can provide exactly the strategic and operational sales leadership the moment requires — at one, two or three days a week.

Exec Capital places fractional Sales Directors with UK businesses across every sector. Every search is run by our specialist team, with Adrian Lawrence FCA overseeing each mandate. We offer retained search for senior or complex fractional mandates and contingency search for smaller businesses and growth-stage firms. This page sets out what a fractional Sales Director does, when the model is the right choice, how engagements are structured and paid, and how we approach the search.

Fractional sales leadership is one of the most frequent briefs we receive. Recent mandates have included an ESG software scale-up moving beyond founder-led selling, a specialist equipment manufacturer and a technology consultancy formalising its business development, alongside turnaround situations where a full-time interim leader turned out to be the better answer. The common thread is a business that knows its revenue engine needs senior attention but does not yet need, or cannot yet justify, a full-time Sales Director.

What a Fractional Sales Director Does

The fractional Sales Director operates as a senior member of the leadership team for a defined number of days each week or month. Unlike a sales consultant who delivers a project and moves on, or an interim who provides temporary cover during a gap, the fractional Sales Director is an embedded leader — attending management meetings, owning revenue targets, and building the systems, processes and people that produce sustainable sales performance.

The scope of the role varies by business but typically covers some or all of the following: defining the sales strategy and go-to-market approach, building or restructuring the sales team, implementing sales methodologies and pipeline management disciplines, managing key accounts or strategic customer relationships, producing the revenue forecasting that the board and investors rely upon, and representing the commercial function in board-level discussions. At earlier-stage businesses, the fractional Sales Director may also be carrying individual targets alongside their leadership responsibilities — a hybrid role that requires both strategic clarity and genuine hands-on commercial capability.

The fractional model also allows businesses to test and develop their commercial leadership approach before committing to a permanent appointment. Some fractional Sales Director engagements convert to permanent arrangements once the business has grown to the point where full-time leadership is justified and the individual has demonstrated the cultural and commercial fit the role requires.

In practical terms, the work of a fractional Sales Director usually falls into five areas:

• Strategy and targeting. Deciding which customers, segments and channels the business should be selling to, what the offer and pricing story is for each, and what revenue target is realistic from the team and pipeline that exist today.
• Process and pipeline. Defining the stages of the sales process, what has to be true for a deal to move from one stage to the next, and how pipeline is reviewed each week so that the forecast becomes something the board can rely on.
• People. Writing the profiles for sales hires, interviewing, onboarding, setting individual targets, coaching, and dealing with underperformance when it arises.
• Tools and data. Getting the CRM set up and used properly, choosing the handful of metrics that matter, and building the reporting that tells the leadership team what is working and what is not.
• Selling. Leading or supporting the largest and most strategic opportunities, opening doors through their own network where that is appropriate, and showing the team what good looks like in front of a customer.

It is worth being clear about what the role is not. A fractional Sales Director is not a commission-only agent who sells your product alongside other ranges, not a lead-generation agency, and not a one-off sales trainer. They are a member of your leadership team who happens to work part of the week, and they should be accountable in the same way as any other director. For a fuller view of the responsibilities, our Sales Director job description sets out the full-time version of the role, much of which a fractional leader will cover in condensed form.

Is a fractional Sales Director right for you?

Most of the businesses that contact us about fractional sales leadership recognise themselves in at least one of the situations below. Use it as a quick checklist before you decide what kind of hire to make.

• The founder is still the main salesperson. Revenue depends on one or two people at the top, most deals close because the founder is in the room, and growth has stalled because they cannot be in every meeting while also running the business. A fractional Sales Director can document how the founder sells, turn it into a repeatable process and build a team that can follow it.
• You are making your first sales hires. You know you need salespeople but are not sure what profile to hire, how to structure their targets and pay, or how to manage them once they arrive. Getting the first two or three sales hires wrong is expensive and slow to unwind; a fractional leader who has built teams before reduces that risk considerably.
• There is no CRM discipline. Pipeline lives in spreadsheets, inboxes and people’s heads. Nobody can say with confidence what will close this quarter, win rates are unknown and the forecast is a guess. Putting basic pipeline discipline in place is one of the fastest, most visible wins a fractional Sales Director delivers.
• You are entering a new market or channel. A move into a new region, sector, customer size or route to market — partners, distributors, public sector frameworks, enterprise accounts — needs someone who has done it before, but not necessarily full-time and not necessarily forever.
• You are preparing to raise or sell. Investors and buyers will test the quality of the revenue: how predictable it is, how concentrated, how the pipeline converts and whether growth depends on the founder. A fractional Sales Director can build the evidence, tighten the forecast and stand behind the sales numbers in due diligence.

If two or more of these apply, a fractional Sales Director is usually worth serious consideration. If none of them do, the model may still work, but it is worth asking whether the real need is something else. A fractional appointment is probably not the right answer in a few situations:

• You have a large sales team that needs daily, on-the-floor management. One or two days a week will not be enough; a permanent or full-time interim leader is the better fit.
• Your current Sales Director has just left and the team needs someone in the chair from Monday. That is a classic interim Sales Director brief.
• What you really need is someone to close deals rather than lead a function. A senior salesperson or account director may be the better and cheaper hire.
• The product has not yet found a repeatable market. Sales leadership can help test the market, but it cannot substitute for a proposition customers want to buy.

When Businesses Hire a Fractional Sales Director

The circumstances that lead a business to a fractional Sales Director appointment are usually one of five:

Building a sales function from scratch. At early-stage and growth-stage businesses, there is often no senior commercial leadership in place. The founders have been selling personally, the product team has been involved in customer conversations, and the business has reached the point where a systematic approach to revenue generation is essential for the next phase. A fractional Sales Director can architect the function — defining the hiring profile, building the process infrastructure, and establishing the commercial culture — before stepping back once a permanent leader is appointed.

Turnaround of an underperforming sales team. When revenue is below target, conversion rates are declining, or the sales team lacks direction, the problem is usually both structural and cultural. A fractional Sales Director with turnaround experience can diagnose the issue quickly, make the personnel and process changes required, and rebuild the team’s performance — often faster than a permanent hire who needs a longer runway to establish themselves and make changes.

Entry into a new market or channel. Expanding into a new geography, vertical, or sales channel requires commercial expertise that the existing team may not have. A fractional Sales Director with specific experience of the target market — whether that is enterprise sales, channel partnerships, government procurement, or international expansion — can lead the market entry without the business committing to a permanent headcount addition that may not be needed once the expansion is established.

Bridge before a permanent appointment. When a Sales Director leaves unexpectedly, or when the business has identified the need for permanent commercial leadership but the recruitment process is running at pace, a fractional arrangement provides continuity. The best fractional Sales Directors in bridge situations bring enough credibility to stabilise the team, enough authority to make necessary decisions, and enough self-awareness to hand over cleanly to a permanent successor.

PE and investor-backed businesses with a specific commercial mandate. Private equity firms and growth investors frequently identify commercial capability as a value creation lever in their portfolio companies. A fractional Sales Director can be deployed against a specific objective — building the enterprise sales motion, improving net revenue retention, preparing the business for a strategic sale — with a defined deliverable and exit point built into the engagement from the outset.

Where the sales problem sits inside a wider business problem — cash pressure, lender involvement or a loss-making division — the brief often changes shape. In those cases we will talk you through whether a fractional Sales Director, a full-time interim or a broader turnaround executive is the right appointment before any search starts.

What a fractional Sales Director does in month 1, 3 and 6

Every engagement is different, but the shape of a good one is consistent. The milestones below are the pattern we see when a fractional Sales Director is well matched to the business and given clear authority. They are a guide for agreeing objectives at the outset, not a promise of results; the right targets for your business are agreed at briefing and again in the first weeks of the engagement.

Month 1: diagnose and set the baseline

The first month is mostly listening and measuring. A good fractional Sales Director will spend time with the founder or CEO, each member of the sales team, the people who deliver for customers, and a sample of customers themselves. By the end of the month you should expect:

• An honest assessment of the current position: where revenue comes from, how concentrated it is, what the real win rate and sales cycle look like, and where deals are being lost.
• A view of the team: who is strong, who needs support, which gaps need hiring for, and whether the current targets and incentives make sense.
• A clean, agreed pipeline in the CRM, even if the CRM itself still needs work, so that everyone is looking at the same numbers.
• A short written plan for the first 90 days, with three to five priorities and the measures that will show whether they are working.

Month 3: build the engine

By the end of the first 90 days, the plan should be turning into visible change. Typical outcomes by month three include:

• A documented sales process with clear stage definitions, qualification criteria and a weekly pipeline review that the team actually runs.
• A forecast the leadership team trusts, with a known level of accuracy and a clear distinction between committed and best-case revenue.
• Targeting and messaging refined for the segments that convert best, and effort moved away from those that do not.
• The first sales hires defined and, in many cases, recruited or in process, with onboarding and ramp expectations set.
• Personal involvement in the most important live opportunities, so that the team can see the new approach working in real deals.

Month 6: scale, hand over or extend

At six months, the engagement should be producing measurable commercial results and the business should be in a position to decide what comes next. That usually means one of three things:

• Scale. The function is working and growing, and the fractional Sales Director increases their days, takes on a wider remit or helps the business plan the move to a permanent leader.
• Hand over. A permanent Head of Sales or Sales Director is recruited, often with the fractional leader helping to define the role and interview, and the engagement steps down to a light-touch advisory arrangement or ends cleanly.
• Extend. The business is not yet ready for a full-time leader, and the fractional arrangement continues on the same or a reduced day commitment while the team matures.

The point of setting out milestones at the start is accountability on both sides. The fractional Sales Director knows what they are expected to deliver, and the business knows what support, access and decision-making authority it has committed to provide. Engagements that drift tend to be the ones where neither was written down.

The Fractional Sales Director Profile

The candidate pool for fractional Sales Director positions is more varied than it might appear. At one end are career fractionals — experienced commercial leaders who have chosen portfolio working as a deliberate model, managing three or four engagements simultaneously and bringing broad market exposure from across sectors. At the other end are executives between permanent roles who are willing to work fractionally for the right business while they consider their next full-time move. Between these sits a range of recently retired commercial leaders, consultants who have moved back into operational roles, and sector specialists who have built deep networks in a particular industry.

The right profile depends entirely on what the business needs. A scale-up that needs its first Sales Director built from nothing needs a different person from a £50m turnover business that needs its commercial function restructured. Exec Capital defines the candidate profile at the outset of the search based on the specific commercial challenge the business is facing, not on a generic template of what a Sales Director should look like.

We assess fractional Sales Director candidates on four dimensions: the depth and relevance of their commercial track record, their ability to operate credibly at board level, their experience of the fractional or portfolio model specifically, and their capacity to build genuine relationships with the sales team they will be leading. A fractional Sales Director who cannot earn the trust of the people they are managing will struggle to produce results regardless of their strategic capability.

When you interview fractional candidates yourself, a few questions tend to separate the strongest from the rest:

• “Walk me through a sales function you built, from the first hire.” Look for specifics: who they hired first and why, what went wrong, what the numbers looked like after a year.
• “How do you split your time across clients?” A credible fractional leader can explain how they protect your days, how quickly they respond between them, and how many engagements they run at once.
• “What would you need from us?” Good candidates will ask for access to data, authority over the team and a senior sponsor. Candidates who need nothing are often underestimating the job.
• “When would you tell us to hire someone full-time instead of you?” The best fractional leaders are comfortable planning their own replacement.

Our guide on how to hire a Sales Director covers interview structure, referencing and assessment in more depth, and most of it applies equally to fractional appointments.

Fractional vs Full-Time vs Interim: Choosing the Right Model

The decision between fractional, full-time and interim commercial leadership is one that Exec Capital regularly advises on before a search begins. The models are not interchangeable, and choosing the wrong one at the outset can be costly in both time and management bandwidth.

A full-time Sales Director is appropriate when the commercial function is large enough to justify continuous senior leadership, when the cultural and strategic challenges require deep immersion and relationship building, or when the business is at a stage where commercial ownership needs to be unambiguous and undivided. For many growth-stage businesses, the point at which a fractional arrangement no longer works is when the revenue function has scaled to the point where one or two days a week cannot provide adequate oversight of the team and pipeline.

An interim Sales Director is the right choice when the requirement is temporary coverage — a known gap, a parental leave, a transition period — rather than a structural solution. Interims typically work full-time for a defined period and are focused on continuity and stability rather than building for the long term. Where a business needs someone to hold the function together while a permanent search progresses, an interim is usually the better choice over a fractional arrangement.

A fractional Sales Director is the right choice when the business genuinely does not need or cannot yet afford full-time commercial leadership, when the commercial challenge has a defined scope that can be addressed at less than full capacity, or when the flexibility of the model is itself part of the value — allowing the engagement to scale up or down as the business’s needs evolve.

Fractional vs interim vs permanent Sales Director vs outsourced sales agency

Businesses weighing up sales leadership often have a fourth option on the table: outsourcing sales or lead generation to an agency or a commission-based sales agent. The table below sets the four side by side. Cost is described qualitatively because the right figures depend on the role, sector and market at the time; we advise on current rates at briefing.

An agency can be a useful addition once a sales function exists, particularly for appointment setting or testing a new segment. It is rarely a substitute for leadership: an agency does not hire and coach your people, own your forecast or sit on your leadership team. If you appoint a self-employed agent with continuing authority to negotiate sales of goods on your behalf, be aware that the Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 can give that agent rights to compensation or an indemnity when the agency ends, so take advice before you sign. A fractional Sales Director engaged to lead your function is a different arrangement, but the contract should still be clear about what happens to commission or bonus after the engagement finishes.

Other ways to hire a Sales Director. If a part-time engagement is not the right fit, we also run permanent Sales Director recruitment for businesses ready for a full-time leader, and full-time interim appointments through the interim Sales Director service above. Where the remit is wider than sales — pricing, margin, contracts and partnerships — our Commercial Director recruitment team handles permanent searches, and for businesses that want one executive owning sales, marketing and customer success together we recruit at Chief Revenue Officer level, including fractional CROs. Our overview of fractional C-suite appointments explains how a fractional Sales Director fits alongside other part-time leaders.

Fractional Commercial Director

Many of the businesses that ask us about a fractional Sales Director are, on closer inspection, looking for a fractional Commercial Director — and the reverse is also true. The titles are used loosely, so it helps to be precise about the difference before a search starts.

A Sales Director is focused on the revenue team: winning new customers, growing existing accounts, building the pipeline and leading the people who sell. A Commercial Director usually has a wider brief that covers how the business makes money as well as how much it sells. That often includes pricing and discount policy, gross margin by customer and product, contract terms, key supplier and partner relationships, tenders and frameworks, and the alignment of sales, marketing and customer service. In some businesses the Commercial Director also owns procurement or account management.

A fractional Commercial Director tends to be the better appointment when:

• Revenue is growing but margin is not, and the problem lies in pricing, discounting or the mix of customers and products rather than in sales activity.
• The business sells through contracts, tenders or frameworks where commercial terms, risk allocation and bid strategy matter as much as the relationship.
• There are several routes to market — direct, distributors, partners, online — that need a single commercial owner to set pricing and channel rules.
• The leadership team needs one person to own the whole commercial picture, including marketing and customer retention, but cannot yet justify a full-time hire at that level.

We recruit both roles under our fractional practice, and the search process, engagement terms and IR35 considerations are the same as those described on this page. If you are still deciding between a part-time and a full-time commercial leader, our guide fractional vs full-time Commercial Director: which is right for you? sets out the trade-offs. For a set weekly commitment over a longer period we also handle part-time Commercial Director recruitment, and for full-time cover during a gap or turnaround we place interim Commercial Directors.

Retained and Contingency Search for Fractional Sales Roles

Exec Capital offers both retained and contingency search for fractional Sales Director appointments, and we advise on which model is appropriate based on the seniority of the role, the urgency of the requirement, and the complexity of the candidate profile.

Retained search is appropriate for senior fractional Sales Director mandates — typically where the individual will be operating at board level, carrying significant revenue responsibility, or filling a role that requires a precise profile from a limited candidate pool. Retained search gives us the exclusivity to approach the right candidates discreetly, to invest the necessary time in reference conversations and detailed briefings, and to present a properly curated shortlist rather than a volume of broadly qualified candidates.

Contingency search is offered for smaller businesses, earlier-stage companies, and mandates where the candidate profile is broader and the search process can be run at pace. We apply the same standard of candidate assessment regardless of the commercial model — the shortlist presented on a contingency basis meets the same quality threshold as a retained assignment.

Whichever model you choose, the service includes the same core elements: a briefing session to define the role and the candidate profile, advice on days, day rate and engagement structure, a search across our network and the wider market, our own interviews and assessment of each shortlisted candidate, support through your interviews, referencing, and help agreeing terms and a start date. Our guide to retained vs contingent executive search explains the differences between the two approaches in more detail.

Sectors We Recruit Fractional Sales Directors For

Exec Capital recruits fractional Sales Directors across a wide range of UK sectors. Our assignments have covered technology and SaaS businesses at Series A through to exit, where the commercial challenge is typically building the enterprise sales motion and moving from founder-led selling to a scalable team model. We work extensively with professional services firms — consulting, legal, recruitment, advisory — where the fractional Sales Director is often tasked with building a more systematic business development approach alongside culturally sensitive fee-earning professionals.

We place fractional Sales Directors at financial services and fintech businesses, where regulatory considerations and the complexity of the product set require commercial leadership with specific sector knowledge. Manufacturing and industrial businesses frequently engage fractional Sales Directors to lead major account management programmes, tender processes, or export market development. Retail and consumer businesses use the fractional model for channel strategy, wholesale development, and retail partnership programmes.

Healthcare, life sciences, and medtech are growth areas for fractional commercial leadership — particularly at businesses where the sales cycle is long, the buyer is a clinical or procurement professional rather than a commercial one, and the commercial leader needs to bridge the gap between technical product knowledge and sales execution. We maintain active relationships with fractional Sales Directors who have built careers in each of these sectors and can produce shortlists that reflect genuine sector depth.

Four sectors account for a large share of the fractional sales briefs we see, and each asks for a slightly different profile.

SaaS and technology

Software and technology businesses usually come to us at the point where founder-led selling has proved the product but cannot scale it. The fractional Sales Director’s job is to define the ideal customer, build a repeatable sales motion, separate new business from account management, and introduce the metrics investors expect to see, such as pipeline coverage, win rates, sales cycle length and net revenue retention. Experience of selling software on subscription, and of the hand-off between sales, onboarding and customer success, matters more here than sector knowledge alone. Our tech and SaaS executive hiring guide covers the wider leadership picture for these businesses.

Manufacturing and capital equipment

Manufacturers and capital equipment businesses typically sell high-value products with long buying cycles, technical specifications and a mix of direct sales, dealers and distributors. A fractional Sales Director in this setting will often be rebuilding key account management, professionalising quoting and tendering, rationalising the dealer network or opening export markets. Candidates who understand engineering-led customers, framework agreements and after-sales revenue such as parts and servicing tend to make the quickest impact. We recruit across the sector through our manufacturing executive recruitment practice.

Distribution and wholesale

Distributors live and die on margin, range and account retention. Fractional sales leadership in distribution is often about moving a team from order-taking to proactive account development, tightening pricing and discount discipline, segmenting customers so that effort goes where the margin is, and building a structure for trade counter, field and internal sales that works together. A background in distribution, logistics or wholesale is usually essential, because customers and suppliers expect a leader who understands how the supply chain actually works. Our logistics and transport executive hiring guide covers related leadership roles.

Professional services

Consultancies, technology services firms, engineering and specialist advisory businesses often have strong delivery teams and weak business development. Partners and senior consultants win work through relationships, but there is no pipeline, no account planning and no consistent way to turn one engagement into the next. A fractional Sales Director or Head of Business Development can introduce those disciplines without undermining the people who do the work. The cultural fit is critical: the right candidate respects fee-earners and builds a process they will actually use. Our professional services executive hiring guide sets out the wider context.

Day Rates and Engagement Models

Fractional Sales Director day rates in the UK vary with seniority, sector experience and the complexity of the mandate, and we advise on current market rates for your specific brief at the briefing stage rather than quoting a generic range. Most fractional Sales Directors work on a defined number of days per month — commonly between four and twelve days — with a minimum engagement period of three to six months. Shorter engagements are possible for specific project-based work but tend to be less effective for roles that require team relationship building and pipeline development. For context on full-time pay in the role, see our Sales Director salary guide.

Engagement structures vary. Some fractional Sales Directors work on a fixed monthly retainer based on an agreed day commitment. Others work on a day-rate basis with a minimum monthly floor. Equity participation is sometimes used at early-stage businesses that cannot fully fund a commercial leader at market rate, and where the fractional Sales Director’s contribution to value creation makes an equity component appropriate. Exec Capital advises on market-rate structures and helps businesses design engagement models that attract the right candidates.

For businesses using a fractional Sales Director for the first time, we recommend a minimum six-month initial engagement. The first month of any fractional arrangement is primarily diagnostic — the individual is building their understanding of the business, the team, the pipeline, and the competitive environment. Meaningful commercial impact typically begins in months two and three and builds from there. Arrangements that end after three months frequently do so before the value has been realised.

Engagement basis: days, day rate, IR35 and commission

The practical terms of a fractional engagement matter as much as the choice of candidate. These are the points we work through with every client before an offer is made.

Days per week or per month

Most engagements are set either as fixed days each week — for example every Tuesday and Thursday — or as a number of days per month used flexibly. Fixed days suit businesses where the fractional Sales Director manages a team directly and needs a predictable presence for pipeline reviews and one-to-ones. A monthly allocation suits businesses where the work is more strategic, or where activity peaks around particular events such as trade shows, tenders or quarter-ends. Many engagements start with a heavier commitment in the first two or three months, while the diagnosis and build work is done, and then settle at a lower level. We recommend agreeing in advance how quickly days can be increased or reduced, and how much notice either side needs to give.

Day rate inclusive of our fee

For fractional and interim appointments we quote a single day rate that includes our fee. There is no separate charge added on top: you pay the agreed rate for the days worked, and the rate covers both the Sales Director and Exec Capital. That keeps budgeting simple, means you only pay for time actually delivered, and makes it easy to compare the cost of a fractional arrangement against a permanent salary package. We will tell you at briefing what rate the market is likely to require for the profile you need, and if your budget and the profile do not match we will say so before the search begins, so that you can adjust one or the other.

IR35 and employment status

Most fractional Sales Directors work through their own limited company, so the off-payroll working rules, often called IR35, need to be considered for every engagement. Under HMRC’s off-payroll working guidance, a medium or large client is generally responsible for deciding whether the rules apply and issuing a status determination, while for a small client outside the public sector the decision rests with the worker’s own company. The Companies Act size thresholds behind the small-company test were raised for financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025, but HMRC has said the change will have no practical effect for off-payroll working until 6 April 2027 at the earliest, because a company’s size is judged by reference to earlier years. Check HMRC’s current guidance for your own position. If you are not sure which side of the line you sit, check before the engagement starts.

Fractional sales leadership needs particular care. A part-time Sales Director who manages your team, attends leadership meetings and works to your processes can look, in some respects, like an employee. Factors such as their freedom to decide how the work is done, whether they could send a substitute, whether they work for several clients, and how the engagement is structured all count. HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax tool is a useful starting point, and the contract and the way the engagement runs in practice should match the answer you reach. Our guide to IR35 rules for senior executive engagements covers the issues in more depth, and we recommend specialist advice for any engagement where the status is borderline.

Commission, bonus and equity

Because a fractional Sales Director leads the team rather than simply selling, their pay is normally built around the day rate, with any variable element linked to the outcomes they are there to deliver. The main options are:

• Objective-based bonus. A payment linked to agreed milestones such as a working sales process, a reliable forecast, key hires made or a new channel launched. This keeps the focus on building the function rather than chasing short-term deals.
• Revenue-linked bonus. A share of growth above an agreed baseline, usually measured quarterly or annually. This aligns incentives with results but needs careful drafting so that the bonus rewards growth the fractional leader genuinely influenced, and so that it is clear what happens to deals that close after the engagement ends.
• Personal commission. Occasionally used where the fractional Sales Director is also carrying an individual target. It works best as a small part of the package; a leader paid mainly on personal sales has every reason to sell rather than build a team.
• Equity or options. Sometimes offered by early-stage businesses with limited cash. Tax-advantaged Enterprise Management Incentives options are generally only available to employees who meet a working-time requirement, so fractional leaders who invoice through their own company are usually offered unapproved options, growth shares or a cash alternative instead. Take tax and legal advice before agreeing any equity arrangement.

Whatever the structure, the variable element should be written into the engagement terms from the start, with clear definitions of the baseline, the measurement period and the treatment of any payments after the engagement ends. Variable pay can also be one of the factors relevant to employment status, so it is worth considering alongside IR35 rather than separately.

Term, notice and insurance

We usually recommend an initial term of around six months, with a notice period that gives both sides time to plan a handover, and a review point at three months. Confirm early who holds professional indemnity and other cover for the fractional leader’s work; our guide to insurance and liability for fractional leaders explains the main points to check.

How the Search Process Works

Exec Capital’s fractional Sales Director search process begins with a brief — typically a one-hour conversation with the CEO, founder, or chairman to understand the commercial challenge, the team structure, the revenue ambition, and the personality and culture of the business. We use this conversation to define the candidate profile with precision and to advise on any aspects of the brief that may need adjusting to attract the right calibre of candidate from the market.

We present a shortlist of three to five candidates, to a timetable we agree with you at briefing. Each candidate is supported by a detailed profile covering their commercial track record, their experience of fractional working, and our assessment of their fit with the specific challenge the role presents. We arrange and support the interview process, advise on reference conversations, and assist with the commercial terms of the engagement.

Every search is run by our specialist team, with Adrian Lawrence FCA overseeing each mandate. The same team and the same assessment standards apply to retained and contingency searches. The quality of the search process does not change based on the commercial model.

The process runs in six stages:

Working with Exec Capital

Exec Capital places fractional executives across the full C-suite — CMO, COO, CFO, CTO, and CPO alongside Sales Director — and we understand the specific dynamics of fractional working: the candidate’s portfolio commitments, the pace at which a new engagement needs to produce results, and the transition planning that makes a successful fractional arrangement convert cleanly to a permanent appointment when the time is right.

Sales leadership rarely works in isolation. Where the sales problem is tied to brand, positioning or demand generation, we often recommend pairing a fractional Sales Director with a fractional CMO so that marketing and sales are built together. When the time comes to move from fractional to full-time leadership, our guide to replacing fractional executives with full-time hires covers how to plan the transition.

If you have a commercial leadership challenge and are considering whether a fractional Sales Director is the right solution, we are happy to have a preliminary conversation before you commit to a search process. Call us on 0203 834 9616 or use the link below.

Fractional Sales Director jobs

If you are a sales leader looking for fractional Sales Director jobs, part-time Head of Sales positions or other fractional sales roles, we would like to hear from you. We are regularly asked to introduce experienced sales and commercial leaders to businesses that need one to three days a week. Please register with us as a candidate, telling us about the sectors you know, the sales functions you have built and how many days you have available, and keep an eye on our current opportunities for live fractional, interim and permanent roles.

Frequently asked questions

What is a fractional Sales Director?

A fractional Sales Director is an experienced sales leader who works part-time as a member of your leadership team, usually one to three days a week. They own the sales strategy, build and manage the team, and put process, pipeline and forecasting in place, without the cost of a full-time director.

How many days a week does a fractional Sales Director work?

Most work between one and three days a week, or an agreed number of days a month. Engagements often start with more days during the first few months and settle at a lower level once the function is running.

How much does a fractional Sales Director cost?

You pay a day rate for the days worked rather than a salary. The rate depends on seniority, sector and the complexity of the brief, and the rate we quote includes our fee. We advise on current market rates at briefing.

What is the difference between a fractional Sales Director and a fractional Commercial Director?

A fractional Sales Director focuses on the revenue team, pipeline and new business. A fractional Commercial Director usually has a wider remit covering pricing, margin, contracts, partners and channels as well as sales. We recruit both and will help you decide which fits your brief.

How is a fractional Sales Director different from a fractional CRO?

A Chief Revenue Officer typically owns sales, marketing and customer success together and sits at C-suite level. A fractional Sales Director is focused on the sales function itself. Smaller and earlier-stage businesses usually need the Sales Director first.

Is a fractional Sales Director inside IR35?

It depends on the facts of each engagement. A medium or large client must make a status determination; for a small client, the worker’s own company decides. Factors such as control, substitution and how many clients the individual works for all matter, so assess each engagement individually.

Can a fractional Sales Director be paid commission?

Yes, but it is usually a smaller part of the package than for a salesperson. Objective-based or revenue-linked bonuses tend to work better than personal commission, because they reward building the function rather than closing individual deals.

How long does a fractional Sales Director engagement last?

We recommend an initial term of around six months, because the first month is largely diagnostic. Many engagements run for a year or more, increasing or reducing days as the business changes.

Can a fractional Sales Director become permanent?

Yes. Some engagements convert to permanent once the business is ready for a full-time leader. Others end with the fractional leader helping to recruit and hand over to a permanent successor.

How quickly can you find a fractional Sales Director?

Fractional searches can often move faster than permanent ones because candidates have fewer notice-period constraints. Timescales depend on the profile and sector, so we agree the timetable with you at briefing.