Fractional head of sales · Fractional sales leadership · Part of the week
Fractional head of sales · what one does and what one costs
A fractional head of sales leads your sales team for part of the week, often one to three days, on an ongoing basis.
They own the pipeline, the sales process and the forecast, and coach the sellers who close the deals.
It suits a business whose founder still sells, or whose small team needs a leader but not a full-time one.
Below: what one does, what one costs, commission-based terms and when to hire a fractional head of sales.
To see the roles on the board or start a brief, go to hire a fractional head of sales.
We recruit fractional, interim, part-time, temporary and permanent sales leaders.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
In the press
Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Leaders set out when a part-week executive makes sense and when a seat needs a full-time owner. It is the same question a founder asks before bringing in a part-week sales leader.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire a fractional head of sales
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with head of sales candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Fractional head of sales jobs on the board
No Fractional head of sales roles on the board in the last three months. Showing fractional executive roles instead.
- FractionalSyndicatedFractional Finance Director
Signature Associates · England
est £750/dayEngland - FractionalSyndicatedFractional CFO
KeelCFO · England
Rate not statedEngland - FractionalSyndicatedFractional CFO
fin-house · London
£700–£1,000/dayLondon - FractionalSyndicatedFractional General Counsel
Ffern · London
est £1,000/day1 d/wk - FractionalSyndicatedPerformance & Development Lead (Fractional)
Unity Advisory · London
Rate not stated3 d/wk - FractionalSyndicatedFractional COO / Operations Director
genesis labels & packaging · Leeds
est £750/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicatedFractional CFO
Amitours · United Kingdom
Rate not statedUnited Kingdom - FractionalSyndicatedFractional CISO (Contract / Project Based)
Cambridge Spark · United Kingdom
est £1,500/day2 d/wk - FractionalSyndicatedHead of Medical Compliance, Governance & Diligence (Fractional)
CNX Therapeutics Ltd · Greater London
est £1,000/dayGreater London
Current head of sales and sales leadership roles
How fractional recruitment agencies compare is set out in one place, including how we work: a head of sales brief and a shortlist of three to five.
01/ the role
What is a fractional head of sales?
A fractional head of sales holds the head of sales seat for agreed days a week.
They lead the sellers, run the pipeline review and own the forecast the founder or board reads.
“Fractional” describes the days, not the seniority.
They join the team and answer for the number, unlike a trainer who runs a workshop and leaves.
Head of sales, sales director or CRO
A head of sales is usually the hands-on leader of a sales team, often the first senior sales hire in a growing business.
The title is used loosely, so read the scope, not the label.
A fractional sales director tends to own the commercial strategy at board level.
A fractional CRO owns sales, marketing and customer success against one number.
What stays with the team
A fractional head of sales leads the sellers; they are not the sellers.
If the plan depends on one person closing most of the deals, hire sellers first, or alongside.
02/ scope
Fractional head of sales: what one does, week to week
The first month
Most engagements open with a read of the sales function: the pipeline, conversion by stage, deal size, cycle length, each seller’s results, the comp plan and the CRM.
The output is a short plan with targets, a process and the changes the team needs.
A typical week
On their days, a fractional head of sales runs the pipeline review and the forecast call, holds one-to-ones with the sellers and joins the deals that matter.
Off their days, the team sells to the process and cadence they set.
What the seat owns
The sales process and the CRM, the targets, the forecast, the hiring profile for new sellers and discount discipline within the limits the business sets.
Where outbound activity is weak, the seat may also decide when to hire an SDR to build pipeline.
Commission, contact and competition
Comp plans are contract terms: Acas says an employee’s entitlement to commission should be in their written statement of employment particulars.
Outbound selling to business contacts must follow the ICO’s business-to-business marketing rules, which apply PECR and the UK GDPR.
The CMA’s guide to complying with competition law names employees in sales and marketing roles among those to assess as higher risk.
A good head of sales makes sure the team knows what it must never discuss with competitors, such as prices or which customers each will pursue.
03/ economics
What a fractional head of sales costs
A fractional head of sales costs their day rate times the days they work.
We have no sourced day rate for the head of sales title itself, so we quote the nearest one: the fractional sales director.
Exec Capital puts fractional sales directors at £500 to £1,000 a day, commonly four to twelve days a month, with a minimum engagement of three to six months.
Exec Capital recruits sales directors, so these are provider figures, not a survey.
For a full-time comparison, IT Jobs Watch puts the median advertised head of sales salary at £75,000, and £90,000 in London, from permanent IT-sector job ads in the six months to 4 October 2026.
That is base salary, not on-target earnings.
Our head of sales salary page covers pay in full, and the rate calculator turns a day rate and days a week into a monthly figure.
We set out each candidate’s day rate or pay on the shortlist.
04/ timing
When to hire a fractional sales leader
A fractional sales leader fits when sales needs a leader every week but not every day. Three common triggers, and one where it does not fit.
Scenario 01
The founder still closes every deal
The founder has won the first customers and the business now needs a process, a hiring profile and a forecast.
A fractional sales leader builds them before you commit to a full-time package.
Scenario 02
A small team with no leader
Two or three sellers report to a busy founder, there is no pipeline review and the forecast is a guess.
A part-week leader sets the cadence and coaches the team.
Scenario 03
Before a permanent head of sales
If the process, the pipeline or the team is not ready for a permanent leader, a fractional one can build them and write the brief for the permanent hire.
Scenario 04
A large team has lost its leader
A big sales team mid-quarter needs a full-time leader in the room.
05/ vetting
How we vet fractional head of saless
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify head of sales tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
06/ what to look for
Choosing a fractional sales leader for a B2B service business or an agency
We do not rank fractional sales leaders, and no published data would let anyone name the best one for your business.
What decides it is fit: how you sell, who buys, how long deals take, and whether the leader has built a sales team in a business like yours.
For a B2B service business, such as a consultancy or an IT services firm, work is often won by partners or the founder through relationships.
Look for a leader who has added a pipeline, a proposal process and a forecast without taking those relationships away from the people who hold them.
For a marketing agency, revenue is usually project-based and new business often still runs through the owner.
Look for pricing discipline, a new-business process the owner can hand over, and experience of turning one-off projects into retained work.
For a founder-led B2B business, the first job is to take deals off the founder, write down how they are won and hire the first sellers against it.
Ask each candidate for a process they built, a forecast they reported against and a hire they got wrong and fixed.
The same tests apply in London as anywhere else: evidence of the work, references from the CEOs they reported to, and fit with your market.
Agree which days are on site, for the pipeline review and key meetings, before the start date.
Fractional sales leadership is a broad label that covers a head of sales, a sales director and a CRO.
Decide which seat you are filling first, so the shortlist compares like with like.
07/ commission and ir35
Commission-based fractional sales leadership what it means for the contract and IR35
Commission-based fractional sales leadership means some or all of the leader’s pay depends on results: commission on revenue, a payment on reaching a target, or a lower day rate with a bonus on top.
Commission-only means no pay for the days themselves.
Write down what counts as a sale, who gets credit when the founder or a seller also worked the deal, and when it is paid.
Agree too what happens to deals that close after the engagement ends.
Commission-heavy terms work best when the leader controls the levers, the sales cycle is short and attribution is clear.
On a long B2B cycle, a leader paid only on closed deals may be paid months after the work, so a day rate or a retainer usually fits better.
If the leader is a part-time employee on your payroll, Acas says commission entitlement belongs in the written statement of employment particulars.
Total pay, including commission, must still meet the National Minimum Wage each time they are paid.
For a leader working through their own limited company, the pay structure does not settle IR35 on its own.
HMRC’s Check Employment Status for Tax tool asks how the worker will be paid, alongside who decides what work is done and when, where and how.
GOV.UK describes a self-employed person as someone who runs their business for themselves and takes responsibility for its success or failure.
Taking risk on results is one factor among several, not a test on its own.
Status turns on how the engagement runs in practice.
Under the off-payroll working rules, a medium or large client makes the determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the worker’s own company decides.
Our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
We set out each candidate’s IR35 position on the shortlist and do not promise an outcome.
08/ hiring
Hiring one: the short version
Write the scope first: the number the seat owns, the team it leads, whether it carries deals itself and how many days a week that takes.
Then decide who it reports to and what it can change without sign-off.
Our page to hire a fractional head of sales sets out the full process and the roles on our board.
For head of sales roles of every kind, see head of sales jobs; for a board-level seat, fractional sales director jobs.
Test the work, not the CV: give candidates your pipeline report and last quarter’s forecast and ask what they would change first.
Take references from the CEOs they reported to and the sellers they led.
The Institute of Sales Professionals is the membership body for the sales profession and awards sales qualifications; membership is a signal, not a requirement.
If the candidate works through a limited company, check it on the Companies House register.
On every brief we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate or pay, availability and IR35 position set out, after our five-stage vetting.
09/ questions
Fractional head of sales FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a fractional head of sales.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
