Fractional CRO
“Senior commercial leadership, embedded — not a project with an end date.”
The Problem This Solves
Some gaps aren't a missing artifact — they're a missing seat. No one is holding ongoing revenue-leadership responsibility: running the pipeline, owning the forecast, coaching the team, adjusting the motion as evidence comes in. That's not something a bounded project closes, because the work doesn't end on a fixed date.
Who It's For
Companies needing ongoing execution, not another rebuild
The architecture may already be sound — built by a prior GTM Full Sprint, Dual Sprint, or in-house — but there's no one running it day to day: pipeline, forecast, deal strategy, team rhythm.
Companies between revenue leaders
A gap in revenue leadership, whether from a departure, a stage transition, or a leadership seat that was never filled, needs senior coverage now, not a multi-month search.
Not the right engagement if:
The actual need is a one-time, bounded fix to a named workstream — that's a Quick Start, GTM Dual Sprint, or GTM Full Sprint.
There's no internal team or system to operate yet — building that first is the Sprint; running it afterward is this.
What Malcolm Does
Ownership is set per workstream at intake — GTM Strategy & Playbook, ICP & Market Segmentation, Messaging & Positioning, Sales Process & Tech Stack, Executive Pipeline Development, and Ongoing Strategy & Refinement — each marked Own (actively directed and operated), Maintain (periodic oversight only), or Not Covered. Executive Pipeline Development and Ongoing Strategy & Refinement are the two workstreams this tier is built to operate continuously.
The working cadence: a weekly standing sync plus a short async written update between syncs, a monthly accountability report and review against defined metrics, and a quarterly strategic review where the Retainer Agreement's own terms — commission attribution, workstream ownership levels — are revisited. Day-to-day syncs stay focused on execution; renegotiation happens only at the quarterly review.
Engagement Structure
Term: 3-month minimum, open-ended thereafter; exits after that window are for defined cause or 30 days' notice absent cause — pipeline results alone are never cause.
Fee: a monthly cash floor set at intake, plus an optional bounded commission gated to closed-won ARR this engagement sourced or advanced — never the primary compensation.
Time commitment: roughly 1 day/week at the floor to 2+ days/week at the ceiling, set at intake.
How It Connects
After a Revenue Architecture Diagnostic that identified systemic execution leadership, not a single workstream, as the constraint: Fractional CRO runs the fixes. After a GTM Full Sprint or Dual Sprint: the architecture is built, and this is what runs the motion it describes. Quick Start first, then Fractional CRO, is also common — a single-workstream trial proves the fit before the ongoing seat.