Fractional CRO
One revenue engine. One number. One leader who owns it. I'm Zach Strauss, a fractional CRO and go-to-market architect who aligns sales, marketing, and success around the only metric that matters: revenue you can forecast.
One leader, accountable for the whole number.
A fractional CRO owns your entire revenue function part time. Sales, marketing, and customer success stop running as separate kingdoms and start running as one engine, pointed at one forecast.
A CMO owns marketing. A VP of Sales owns the team. A CRO owns the outcome. When growth depends on the full funnel working together, you do not need another department head. You need someone accountable for where it all lands.
That is the seat I take. I set the revenue strategy, align the teams, fix the forecast, and build the operating system underneath it. I carried a quota for years, so I lead from the number backward, not the org chart down.
Revenue is not three teams hoping to agree. It's one engine with one owner.
Signs you need a fractional CRO
Sales and marketing run on different numbers and blame each other.
The founder is still the best and only closer in the company.
The forecast is a guess, and the board has started to notice.
You keep adding reps, but revenue is not scaling with headcount.
You have a sales leader and a marketer, but no one owns the funnel.
You are preparing to raise or sell and need a credible revenue story.
What you get
One operator across the whole revenue engine. The scope flexes to wherever the leverage is.
Revenue strategy and model
A clear plan for how the business grows, with the segments, motions, and math that hold up to a board.
Sales leadership and process
A repeatable sales motion, a real pipeline discipline, and reps who follow a system instead of instinct.
Pipeline and forecasting
A forecast you can take to the board with confidence, built on stages and signals you can trust.
Go-to-market alignment
Sales, marketing, and success working off one funnel, one definition of a lead, and one shared number.
Revenue operations
The CRM, data, and reporting that turn your revenue engine from a black box into a control panel.
Team and comp design
The right roles, the right hires, and compensation that pays for the behavior you actually want.
An operator who has carried the number.
I started in Fortune 500 enterprise sales, carrying a quota and learning that revenue is built on human decisions, not dashboards. Then I built, scaled, and exited companies of my own. Three exits, one to private equity and two strategic, and four Inc. 5000 honors.
I have sat in the seat I am stepping into for you. I know what a board expects, how to read a pipeline, and what it takes to make a forecast real. I lead from revenue, not from a function.
The size of the company matters less than the readiness for a real revenue leader. If you need a CRO, I am your guy.
A clear path from diagnostic to forecast.
Diagnose
We start with a free diagnostic of your revenue engine. You leave with clarity on what is breaking, whether we work together or not.
Design
I design the revenue strategy and a prioritized ninety-day plan focused on the moves that change the forecast fastest.
Deploy
I step in as your fractional CRO and deploy the plan, leading sales, marketing, and success as one team.
Drive
I drive the engine toward predictable pipeline and revenue, and build a system that holds after the engagement.
Columbus based, working everywhere
I am based in Columbus and work onsite with companies across Central Ohio, from downtown to the suburbs. Revenue leadership also travels well, so I work remotely with B2B teams across the country who need a senior operator in the engine without a full-time hire.
Fractional CRO FAQ
What is a fractional CRO?+
A fractional CRO is a senior revenue leader who owns your entire revenue function part time. Sales, marketing, and customer success report into one strategy and one number, led by an executive on a monthly retainer instead of a full-time hire.
What does a fractional CRO cost?+
Most fractional CRO engagements run between eight thousand and twenty thousand dollars per month, depending on scope and time commitment. A full-time CRO typically costs three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand dollars or more in total compensation once you add base, variable, and equity.
How is this different from a fractional CMO?+
A fractional CMO owns marketing. A fractional CRO owns the whole revenue engine, which means sales, marketing, and customer success aligned under one number, plus forecasting and revenue operations. If your problem spans the full funnel, you need a CRO.
How is a fractional CRO different from a VP of Sales?+
A VP of Sales runs the sales team. A CRO sets the revenue strategy across sales, marketing, and success, aligns them, and is accountable for the forecast. A fractional CRO can also build the function and hire the VP of Sales you need next.
When does a company need a fractional CRO?+
When revenue has become too important and too complex to run without a senior leader, but a full-time CRO is premature or hard to attract. Common triggers are an unreliable forecast, sales and marketing misalignment, a founder who is still the only closer, or an upcoming raise or sale.
How much time does a fractional CRO commit?+
Most engagements run one to three days per week. The goal is leverage. I build the revenue system and lead your team so the engine keeps moving between our working sessions.
Do you work remotely?+
Yes. I am based in Columbus and work onsite with Central Ohio companies, and remotely with B2B teams across the country.
See where your revenue engine is leaking.
Start with a free diagnostic of your revenue function. You leave with a clear read on what to fix first, whether we work together or not.
Get your free diagnostic →