Pricing
A full-time VP of Sales costs $250,000–$400,000 all-in per year. A Fractional CRO costs $10,000–$20,000 per month. Same strategic leadership. roughly half the cost. Here are the real numbers.
By Louie Bernstein · Published · Updated
All-in annual cost: $250,000–$400,000
All-in annual cost: $120,000–$240,000
Fractional CRO costs roughly half as much as a full-time VP of Sales.
Same strategic leadership. Zero equity dilution. No 6-month ramp. Impact starting week one.
Every engagement includes the core deliverables your sales system needs to stand on its own:
Every hour you spend closing deals is an hour you're not spending on product, fundraising, or strategy. At $500/hr of opportunity cost, 20 hours/week = $520k/year.
Deals that fall through the cracks because no one owns follow-up. Deals that go cold because no one is running pipeline reviews. Every stalled deal is real revenue not recognized.
Hiring salespeople without a Sales Playbook or system is expensive. The average bad sales hire costs $200k–$400k all-in when you factor in salary, lost pipeline, and replacement costs.
At $1M–$10M ARR, "Fractional CRO" and "fractional VP of Sales" usually describe the same embedded role, and they're priced the same way. Four things move the number.
An engagement that runs 1:1s with three reps, manages the pipeline, and builds the playbook from scratch takes more time than an advisory engagement focused on one deliverable. More scope means a higher retainer.
Light-touch advisory work sits near the bottom of the range. Full sales leadership — managing people, running reviews, joining key deals, hiring — sits near the top. For reference, I charge $14,000 a month and work 20–35 hours a week per client.
A $2M ARR company with one rep needs less than a $10M ARR company with five reps and an SDR team. More people and more moving parts take more leadership time.
My engagements run 12 weeks, and clients can renew after that. The first 90 days are the highest-value phase — diagnosis, playbook build, rep coaching — and that's when the system gets built. Many clients renew to see it through. A 30-day trial won't show results; sales results take longer than that.
Scope and time. A $6k/month engagement typically involves 8–12 hours/week focused on a specific deliverable like building a Sales Playbook or auditing the pipeline. A $14k/month engagement involves more hours, active team management, hiring support, and full strategic oversight.
Each engagement is a 12-week term, and most clients renew for 6–12 months total, because that's what it takes to build a real system, not just hand you a document. That said, I don't lock clients into long-term contracts. You can stop at the end of any 12-week term.
A full-time VP of Sales costs $200k–$300k base, plus equity, benefits, and recruiting fees: $250k–$400k all-in per year. A Fractional CRO costs $120k–$240k per year with no equity, no benefits, and no recruiting fees. That's roughly half the cost.
The ROI comes from two places: revenue you capture faster, and time you get back. If a Fractional CRO helps one additional mid-market deal close per month, it pays for itself many times over.
30 minutes. We'll look at your sales situation and figure out what the right scope and investment looks like for your business.