The questions, references, and red flags that separate a strategic operator from a consultant selling you a deck.
Fractional Head of Marketing has become a crowded title. Some are senior operators between full-time roles. Others are agency owners in a new wrapper. Both can be useful — but for very different problems.
Questions worth asking
- —Walk me through a positioning shift you led — what changed, what didn't, and why.
- —What does your week look like inside a client? Who do you meet with?
- —How do you handle the handoff to a full-time hire?
- —What's a recent engagement you wouldn't take again, and why?
Red flags
- —Pricing tied to deliverables instead of outcomes or time.
- —No clear plan for how the engagement ends.
- —References that are all from the last twelve months.
- —Reluctance to put their hands in your CRM, your data, or your sales calls.
“Hire the operator who's allergic to vanity metrics and comfortable in your pipeline review.”