FRACTIONAL CMO SERVICES
Most growing B2B companies hit a wall where marketing is too complex for a generalist but not big enough to justify a $200K executive. A fractional CMO fills that gap.
THE SHORT ANSWER
You get strategic leadership: someone who sets direction, builds the team, owns the metrics, and drives revenue. Without the full-time salary, benefits, and overhead of a permanent hire. Typically 1-3 days per week, on a retainer or project basis.
The "fractional" part means you're sharing their time. The "CMO" part means you're not compromising on experience. You're hiring someone who has done this before, ideally multiple times, across multiple industries.
Tom Zandstra has spent over 10 years building marketing systems that close deals for B2B service companies, healthcare organizations, and consumer brands. He's also one of the only fractional CMOs in the country who teaches marketing strategy at the university level as adjunct professor at Calvin University. His clients have built pipelines from zero and closed seven-figure accounts with Fortune 500 companies.
HOW IT COMPARES
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
In week one, I'm mostly listening: auditing what's working, finding out where leads are actually coming from, and getting honest about what "success" means for your company. By week four, we have a strategy and we're fixing the biggest gap. Most clients tell me the first 30 days feel different because someone finally owns the marketing function instead of just executing tasks inside it.
A consultant delivers a recommendation and leaves. I stay. I'm in your leadership meetings, I'm accountable for whether the pipeline actually grows, and if something isn't working I'm the one who has to fix it, not write a new deck about it. The difference is skin in the game.
The call usually comes when the pipeline dried up and nobody knows why, or when marketing has been "someone's part-time responsibility" for too long. Other common triggers: you're scaling into a new market, you're preparing for a raise, or you've got a solid team that's executing tactically but has no strategic direction. If marketing feels like guesswork, that's the sign.
Most engagements run 6-18 months. The first 90 days are the most intensive: auditing, strategy, fixing the foundation. After that, the relationship often shifts to a lighter advisory model once your internal team has what they need to execute.
It depends on your starting point, but common outcomes include a more consistent lead pipeline, clearer positioning in your market, a marketing team aligned around revenue goals, and systems that don't require constant executive attention to run. Results that matter, not just activity metrics.
No. Some clients come in with a team that needs leadership. Others come in with zero marketing infrastructure and need to build from scratch. The engagement looks different in each case, but neither is a prerequisite.
Read how it's worked for other companies, or skip straight to a conversation if you already have a specific problem in mind.