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A Smarter Path to Building a Credible, Profitable Fractional GTM Business
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This week’s research note includes:
GTM Research: How to Build a Fractional CMO Business
Spotlight: How You Can Build A Fractional Business on the GTM Operating System
Events: Where We’ll Be in the Next Few Months
Research: How to Build a Fractional CMO Business
Fractional leadership is having a moment—and for good reason.
If you've led marketing, product, or GTM at the executive level, chances are you're being asked to “consult,” “advise,” or “jump in part-time.”
But here's the truth: most fractional businesses start with a whisper and stall without structure and systems.
Today’s GTMonday research note is a playbook for experienced CMOs and GTM leaders who are ready to go beyond freelance gigs and build a real business—one with credibility, repeatability, and leverage.
You need a system. And a starting point that doesn’t involve blank slides, generic frameworks, or another cold DM.
Why This Moment is Ripe for Fractional Work
The market is shifting. Again.
Companies want outcomes, not headcount.
CMOs are harder to hire—and keep.
Founders want speed and clarity, not another agency.
Boards want proof of ROI, not hope.
The fractional model is leaner, smarter, and faster.
And the companies that win?
They won’t be the ones who wait a year to hire a VP.
They’ll be the ones who bring in someone like you—fast. And they know it.
THE PROBLEM: Too Many Fractional Businesses Are Built on Hope
Starting a fractional business can feel like a giant reset:
What do I offer?
Who should I target?
How do I stand out?
Where do I find clients?
Without structure, even the most experienced operator can end up doing too much work for too little money, relying on referrals, and burning time trying to recreate assets they've built at companies for years.
The market is changing, and the guesswork isn’t cutting it anymore.
THE SHIFT: From “Just a Consultant” to GTM Leader for Hire
You’re not here to freelance forever. You’re here to:
Run workshops and guide strategy
Step in as interim or fractional executive leadership
Lead strategic GTM transformations
Bring frameworks, not just feedback
To do that, you need more than experience—you need a credible offering. A way to deliver consistent value across different companies, without starting over every time.
That starts with three things:
A clear system
A focused funnel
A way to show your value before you even get on a call
What Your Fractional Business Really Needs
Here's what seasoned GTM consultants are building into their solo practices:
A Differentiated Offering: Not “I’ll help with marketing,” but “I help companies align GTM teams and improve NRR using structured workshops and playbooks.”
An Efficient Funnel: Lead magnets, assessments, and LinkedIn content that bring people to you.
A Repeatable Framework: A way to diagnose and solve problems, consistently.
Credibility: Research, books, frameworks, or third-party proof that you know your stuff.
Revenue Leverage: You’re not billing hourly. You’re selling outcomes—workshops, retainers, roadmaps.
Time Protection: A way to serve clients without selling your soul (or your Saturdays).
Most importantly, you need a system that lets you deliver value fast—not just run discovery calls forever.
THE STRUCTURE: What a Strong Fractional Offering Looks Like
A solid GTM-aligned fractional offering helps clients:
Define and prioritize their ICP
Align product strategy to revenue goals
Build a GTM motion playbook
Accelerate time-to-value
Improve net revenue retention (NRR)
Diagnose go-to-market gaps (with frameworks, not guesswork)
Align executive teams through shared metrics and dashboards
Align GTM teams with clarity on which bets to make, together
Every CMO doesn’t need all these things. You need one or two that work—and a process for applying them consistently.
If You Want to Start Fast, You Can’t Start From Scratch
You don’t need to spend two years writing a book, launching a Substack, or hiring a designer to create your framework.
We did that with GTM Parnters - it took us to write a WSJ best-selling book MOVE, then 4 years of building a subscriber base of 175,000+ readers (like you and thank you), and a perfected GTM Operating System that is now 100s of companies are running on.
You can build your business on the back of proven systems.
There are licensing models out there (like the GTM OS, EOS, StoryBrand, and more) that let you plug into:
A brand people already trust
Funnels that already convert
Tools you don’t have to invent
Frameworks that already get results
They’re not for everyone.
But they are for experienced leaders who want to start fast, stay focused, and build something bigger than just another gig.
THE TAKEAWAY: Don’t Just Sell Time. Build a Business.
You’ve spent a career helping companies scale.
Now it’s your turn to scale your own business.
Whether you license a framework or build your own, don’t fall into the trap of becoming just another freelancer with fancy titles.
Build a business that reflects your experience, delivers results, and gives you the freedom to do your best work.
Because as James Clear said in his book Atomic habits:
You don’t rise to the level of your goals.
You fall to the level of your systems.
Spotlight: How You Can Build A Fractional Business on the GTM Operating System, Faster.
If you're thinking, “This all sounds great, but I don't have time to build frameworks, funnels, and credibility from scratch,” you’re not alone.
That’s where GTM Partners can accelerate your path.
GTM Partners has done what most independent consultants dream of doing: we've built a research-backed, widely adopted go-to-market system that connects strategy to execution.
Instead of spending years creating your own methodology, you can license ours—and start delivering value on Day One.
As a certified partner, you’re not just borrowing a logo. You’re gaining access to:
Proven diagnostic tools like the 15 GTM problems and one-page GTM strategy framework
Listed on the GTMarketplace so PE/VC/CEOs can hire you based on your expertise as a GTM OS Certified Partner
A branded funnel with a lead magnet that attracts leads and converts them with authority
A library of facilitated workshops, templates, and executive-ready slides
Co-branded assets to showcase your expertise on LinkedIn and in meetings
Research, books, and original content to fuel your thought leadership—without having to write it all yourself
It’s like stepping into a business that’s already working, with the flexibility to make it your own.
You bring your experience. We bring the infrastructure.
If your goal is to spend more time solving GTM challenges and less time building a solo consultancy from scratch, we can offer a fast, focused, and credible way to get started.
Sangram recently spoke with two fractional GTM leaders who are GTM O.S. Certified Partners.
Tim Hillison is a fractional CMO, founder at entry point 1, and a GTM Certified Partner. He specializes in Marketing-as-a-Service for engineering-led startups and mid-market scaleups. He had this to say:
“I decided to become a GTM OS Certified Partner because it’s evidence over opinion. GTM Partners has talked to thousands of startups, scale-ups, and enterprises. There’s cohesion between what they’re saying and what I’m delivering, and that gives me a huge advantage.”
And this gem on how it improves communication and alignment:
“If someone’s speaking French and I’m speaking Spanish, nothing lands. The GTM OS frameworks give us a common language to align teams and build momentum. They level set the conversation so we can move faster.”
Sarah Allen-Short is a fractional CMO and “work doula” with SAS Advisory Group. she specializes in GTM strategy and fractional CMO work for visionary founding teams at early-stage startups under $10M in revenue.
She shared with Sangram that while she has deep expertise in marketing and sales,
“Being a GTM OS Certified Partner gives me credibility in areas outside my deepest expertise—like customer success or rev ops—so I can speak to go-to-market holistically, not just from a marketing lens. It’s an automatic credibility builder.”
And this one about how GTM OS streamlines her business operations:
“Without the frameworks, you're building the plane while you fly it. What I’m doing now is tweaking the plane while I fly it. I already have what I need—I just adapt it for each client. It's a huge shortcut.”
So if you want to become a fractional CMO or thinking of becoming one:
Sign up for the GTM University Course on building your fractional CMO practice. For 14 days from your first login, you can access the course at no cost (use promo code: fractional100) for readers of GTMonday.
The 60 min course includes the following:
Our lessons learned on how to build a fractional business (there are 3 ways to do it)
How you might want to build your business on the GTM OS and
How, most importantly, Tim and Sarah successfully transitioned from being a CMO to running a fractional CMO business.
use promo code: fractional100 to get it a 14-day access at no cost
Events: Where We’ll Be Speaking in 2025
Sangram keynotes at about 15 events per year, so we wanted to share some of his upcoming appearances.
The New GTM Playbook (hosted by iCustomer), April 30 Webinar
B2SMBI Leaders’ Forum (for selling AI-infused products to SMBs at scale), May 14-15 in Sonoma
SOUTHBOUND: The Growth Summit for Revenue Leaders (hosted by Rev Partners), May 21 in Atlanta
INBOUND (hosted by Hubspot), September 3-5 in San Francisco (stay tuned for a discount code)
DRIVE 2025 B2B Marketing Event (hosted by Exit Five). September 10-11, Burlington, VT
We love getting to work with so many of you amazing GTM leaders everyday, and we’re so grateful for you!
Love,
Sangram and Bryan
p.s. If you are an organization looking for GTM Certified Partners (Agencies and Fractionals) to help execute on you top GTM challenges, check out the GTMarketplace for curated list of partners.
