When do you need a VP of Sales?

Aspiring founders and CEOs of emerging tech companies keep asking me some version of the same question: "When do I need a VP of Sales?"

The honest answer is usually "not full-time yet, but sooner than you think."

That gap is exactly where a fractional VP of Sales fits.

The founder is the sales team — and then that stops working

Early on, the founder is the sales team. That's right, and it works for a while. Then the deals get bigger, more people have to say yes, cycles stretch out, and every serious conversation still runs through one calendar.

Hiring a full-time VP of Sales at that point is a big bet. You're asking someone to scale a sales motion that doesn't exist yet.

What a fractional sales executive does instead

A fractional sales executive does something different:

• Builds the motion with you: who you sell to, how discovery works, and how a deal moves through a buying committee
• Coaches you and your first sellers inside live deals
• Puts a simple operating rhythm and honest pipeline definitions in place
• Helps you decide when to hire full-time, and who, so that hire doesn't fail on arrival

You get senior sales leadership sized to the stage you're actually at, without handing the keys to a full-time hire before the company is ready.

If you are weighing the titles rather than the work, I wrote out the differences: fractional CRO vs fractional VP of Sales — what each one owns, and which fits which stage.

Why I do this work

I've spent 30+ years in sales leadership. This is the work I do now with founder/CEO-led companies selling complex B2B deals, many of them right here in Greater Phoenix.

If you're building an emerging tech company and still carrying the number yourself, I'm happy to compare notes.

Thirty minutes. Bring the sales problem. Leave knowing how I'd tackle it with you.

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