LRO Financial ConsultancySyndicatedFractional
Fractional Financial ControllerFractional CMO consultancy · fractional CMO consulting · fractional and interim CMOs
Fractional CMO Consultancy · CMO consulting, or a CMO in the seat
Fractional CMO consultancy covers two purchases: fractional CMO consulting — a senior marketer who diagnoses, writes the plan and hands it back — and a fractional CMO who holds the seat a few days a week and runs marketing against that plan. Fractional Quest is a recruitment agency, not a consulting firm: we do not employ consultants or run consulting projects. We find the interim, fractional or permanent leader for your brief, and they contract with you directly.
Reviewed by Fractional Quest · updated 23 October 2026 · 6 sources linked below
- 3–5our shortlist
Fractional seats our founder has held
Climatise
One Up Productions
CK Delta
In the press
- Financial TimesThe executives going ‘fractional’, not freelance
- International FinanceRenting the C-suite, and why the fractional executive era has arrived
The agency
What fractional CMO consultancy covers
This page sets out which one your problem needs, what to ask before you buy either, and what the market publishes on CMO rates. The board below shows current marketing leadership roles.
CMO consulting is a defined engagement: an audit of positioning, channels and spend, a strategy and a plan, delivered over weeks and handed to your team. It is the right buy when you have someone to run the plan and need senior input on what it should be.
A fractional CMO owns the plan after it is written: they attend the leadership meeting, hold the budget, direct the agencies and the team, and answer for pipeline quarter after quarter. It is the right buy when nobody senior owns marketing.
Fractional Quest is a recruitment agency, not a consulting firm: we do not employ consultants or run consulting projects. We find the interim, fractional or permanent leader for your brief, and they contract with you directly.
The discipline as a whole: marketing consultancy. The people: marketing consultants. The seat itself: fractional CMO; recruited by the day: fractional CMO agency.
On the board · last 90 days
Current marketing leadership roles on the board
From our jobs feed. Where a posting states no rate, “est” is our estimate from the seat’s published band; ◆ marks days a week the posting states.
9 of 9 roles
Function
Engagement
- Confidential clientOur mandate · available nowFractionalFractional SDR
- Unity AdvisorySyndicatedFractionalReward Lead (Fractional- 12 month FTC)
- Reg Advantage LtdSyndicatedFractionalProduction Lead and Fractional CTO
- Confidential clientOur mandate · available nowFractionalFractional Executive Assistant
- PHIXSyndicatedFractionalPart time / Fractional Finance Director
- CivSec GroupSyndicatedFractionalAcquisition CFO / Finance Director (Fractional)
- Algorithmiq OySyndicatedFractionalFractional Chief Operating Officer (COO)
- Twenty-Nine Palms EntertainmentSyndicatedFractionalBusiness Affairs Executive (Fractional / Per-Project)
Every fractional role in the UK is on the fractional jobs board.
Three seats
What does a fractional seat look like in practice?
Three fractional seats our founder has held. Real companies, named with their permission; we state only what the seat covered.
Fractional seats our founder has held
ClimatiseFractional · go-to-marketA carbon-reporting software company that needed go-to-market leadership before a full-time hire.
- Seat
- Fractional go-to-market lead
- Days
- Two days a week
- Scope
- Go-to-market
One Up ProductionsFractional · go-to-marketA production company that needed both the go-to-market strategy and its execution.
- Seat
- Fractional go-to-market: strategy and execution
- Days
- Two days a week
- Scope
- Go-to-market
CK DeltaFractional · technologyTechnology work: tech stack implementation.
- Seat
- Fractional technology lead
These are seats our founder has held, not placements.
The scope
What a fractional CMO owns — and what consulting hands back
The CMO seat. Marketing strategy, positioning and brand; demand generation and pipeline contribution; the marketing budget and channel mix; building and leading the marketing team and agencies; customer insight and market research.
Not CMO work. Sales execution belongs to the sales leader and, at board level, the CRO. Product decisions belong to the product leader, informed by marketing.
Consulting versus the seat. Consulting ends with a deliverable; the seat ends when you no longer need it. If the last strategy is on a shelf because nobody owned it, buy the seat this time.
When companies look for fractional CMO consultancy: Growth that depends on founder networks, agencies with no strategy above them, a rebrand or launch with a date, or marketing spend nobody can tie to pipeline.
The process
How does a brief become a shortlist?
Six steps, one accountable person at each. We don’t promise a shortlist by a date; the weeks below are what a well-scoped brief usually takes.
- Day 001The 15-minute callThe seat, the engagement shape, the days or hours, the start date and the budget. No account needed; a call or a written brief.You and us
- Week 102Scope agreed in writingThe outcome the seat exists for, which days, and how the engagement will run for IR35. A brief that describes a person rather than a job, we rewrite with you.Us
- Weeks 1–203Search and approachWe approach people who aren’t looking and verify prior tenure in the seat at your scale and stage.Us
- Weeks 2–304References, taken by usFrom recent clients and boards: what they delivered, not what they titled it.Us
- Week 305Shortlist of three to fiveEach with day rate or salary, availability and IR35 position set out. You interview and decide.You
- Week 406Kick-offScope, first-month outcomes and the contract agreed before day one.You, them and us
What it costs
CMO rates what the published benchmarks say
Every figure is the named source’s own published band. Fractional Quest publishes no fees: each candidate on a shortlist states their own rate.
| Benchmark | Published figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional CMO day rate | £750–£1,400 | Connectd 2026 |
| Interim CMO day rate | £700–£2,000 | Exec Capital 2026 |
| Permanent CMO salary (25th–75th percentile) | £110,250–£183,750 | Robert Half 2026 |
Your figures
What does part of a CMO’s week cost?
Rate × days × weeks, against a loaded full-time package. Move the sliders; the numbers redraw.
- CMO band £750–£1,400 (Connectd 2026)
Year-one cost, fractional
£101,200
Fractional costs less in year one by£67,100
Our arithmetic. £147,000 Robert Half 2026 median salary + employer NI at 15% above £5,000 (HMRC) = £168,300. Excludes pension, bonus and any search fee.
Against the alternatives
Fractional CMO consulting or a fractional CMO
Four ways to buy senior marketing. The difference is who owns the plan once it is written.
| CMO consulting engagement | Fractional CMO (placed by us) | Marketing agency | Permanent CMO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A diagnosis and a plan | A CMO in the seat, days a week | Execution: campaigns, creative, media | A full-time CMO |
| Owns the plan afterwards | No — handed back | Yes — they stay | No — they deliver it | Yes |
| Best when | Someone inside will run the plan | Nobody senior owns marketing | The plan is set and needs producing | Marketing is full-time leadership work |
| Usual contract | Statement of work | Contract for services, often via the CMO’s company | Retainer or project fee | Employment contract |
The decision
When fractional CMO consultancy is the right call
Three situations, and the shape that fits each.
- No senior ownerAgencies without a strategy above themA fractional CMO sets direction two or three days a week and holds the agencies to it.
- A strong teamA head of marketing who needs a planShort CMO consulting can set the strategy for a capable marketing lead to run.
- A dateA launch or rebrandA product launch, market entry or rebrand needs full-time senior leadership until it lands.
Vetting
How do we vet a fractional CMO?
Five stages before anyone reaches a shortlist of three to five.
- Pedigree screenTenureWe verify prior tenure in the seat, at the scale and stage you need. No consultant presenting as an executive.
- Mandate fitFitFit to your stage, sector and the problem the seat exists to solve, not a CV keyword.
- Reference deep-diveVerifyWe take references ourselves, from recent clients and boards: what they delivered, not what they titled it.
- ShortlistShortlistThree to five candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
- Kick-offStartScope, first-month outcomes and the contract agreed before day one.
The full process is on how we vet.
questions to ask
Four questions before you buy fractional CMO consulting or a fractional CMO
Who runs the plan on Monday? If the answer is nobody, a plan alone will not land. Buy the seat.
Who does the work? Ask for the named marketer, and whether the person who pitches is the person who delivers.
What is measured? Pipeline contribution, not activity. Ask for strategies they owned and what happened to pipeline afterwards.
Standing. The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the professional body for marketers, with recognised qualifications and chartered status.
how we work
If the answer is a leader, not a fractional CMO consultancy brief to shortlist
Brief. A scoping call on the problem, the shape (fractional days, an interim mandate or a permanent seat), the start date and what success looks like in the first ninety days.
Shortlist. We search for your brief and come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate or salary, availability and IR35 position set out, assessed through our five-stage vetting.
Contract. You choose; the leader contracts with you directly, usually through their own company for fractional and interim work. Agree how the engagement will run in practice, because that decides its IR35 status — HMRC’s guidance for clients sets out who makes the determination.
Standing. Check professional standing before you sign: the Chartered Institute of Marketing — the professional body for marketers, with recognised qualifications and chartered status.
The right route
Agency, recruiter, interim or permanent?
Three taps. Say how much senior work there is, for how long, and whether it is one leader or a run of hires; the tool names the route.
The route · Fractional recruiter
An embedded fractional recruiter.
A hiring plan to work through below the leadership team is a talent-acquisition job: a recruiter inside your business for part of the week, paid for their time. We don’t supply them; the page below explains the role.
The route · Non-executive director
A non-executive director.
Independent oversight and constructive challenge, not executive direction. We recruit NEDs through the same brief process.
The route · Advisor
An advisor, not yet a seat.
Less than a day a week of senior input is advisory. Buy it as a scoped engagement; when it grows into a day or more, brief us for a fractional executive.
The route · Interim
An interim executive.
Four or five days for a fixed period is interim: cover for a departure, a turnaround or a transaction. The IIM puts the UK average at £907 a day and ten months.
The route · Permanent
A permanent search.
Four or five days of work, ongoing, is a full-time seat. We recruit permanent executives through the same brief process.
The route · Fractional executive
Brief a fractional recruitment agency.
Senior judgement for part of the week: a fractional CFO, CTO, CMO or COO on one to three days. We come back with a shortlist of three to five, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
We recruit executives. We don’t supply embedded fractional recruiters; where that is the right route, the tool says so.
Clients
What do companies say about our fractional work?
From a company where our founder has held a fractional seat. Name and logo given with the client’s permission.
“Excellent fractional support for building both our go-to-market strategy and our execution.”
Charlie AndersonDirector, One Up ProductionsWhere we are
Where is Fractional Quest?
Where we are
71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ
Fractional Quest Ltd, registered in England and Wales, no. 17322105. This is our registered office; meetings are by appointment, and most briefs start on a 15-minute call.
Questions
Fractional CMO Consultancy questions, answered
A defined engagement in which a senior marketer audits positioning, channels and spend and writes a strategy and plan for your team to run. It differs from a fractional CMO, who stays and runs marketing against the plan.
Not quite. A consultancy sells the advice or the plan; a fractional CMO agency like ours recruits the CMO who holds the seat. Ask which one you are being offered.
An agency produces the work; a fractional CMO decides what work to produce and holds the agency to it. Many businesses need both, with the CMO directing the agency.
Fractional Quest is a recruitment agency, not a consulting firm: we do not employ consultants or run consulting projects. We find the interim, fractional or permanent leader for your brief, and they contract with you directly.
A consultancy firm prices its own way; we cannot speak for it. For the leader in the seat, the market publishes bands: Fractional CMO day rate £750–£1,400 (Connectd 2026); Interim CMO day rate £700–£2,000 (Exec Capital 2026); Permanent CMO salary (25th–75th percentile) £110,250–£183,750 (Robert Half 2026). Fractional Quest publishes no fees; each candidate on a shortlist states their own rate, so the cost is the rate times the days you agree.
It depends on how the engagement runs in practice — control, substitution and whether the fractional CMO is part and parcel of your organisation — not on the label "consultant" or "consultancy". For medium and large private-sector clients the client makes the status determination. Every candidate on our shortlist states their IR35 position.
Sources
Where does every figure on this page come from?
The primary publisher for each number, linked. Where a figure is our own arithmetic, the page says so where it appears.
- Connectd
- Exec Capital
- HMRC
- legislation.gov.uk
- 1
- 2Salary guides UK 2026 Exec Capital
- 3Understanding off-payroll working (IR35) HMRCStatus depends on how the engagement runs; medium and large clients make the determination.
- 4Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 HMRCEmployer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year.
- 5
- 6Employment Agencies Act 1973 legislation.gov.ukThe law a recruitment agency works under; no fee to a work-seeker.
