Case Study: The Fractional Sales Leader that Hit Quota in 6 Weeks

Raven Health builds practice management software for BCBAs—behavioral health therapists who help autistic children with education and developmental programs. 

Chris DeNoia is a fractional sales leader who works with the world's fastest-growing companies and start-ups, including UberEats, DialPad, and Ownbackup (Acquired by Salesforce). He has trained over 1,000 sales professionals while his role teaching Lean Startup at UC Berkeley gives him a unique ability to bridge customer discovery with revenue execution. Chris specializes in building scalable sales processes, coaching high-performing teams, and implementing data-driven enablement systems that drive predictable growth. 

Chris served as the Fractional Head of Sales for Raven Health, driving new business acquisition from nominal growth to exceeding targets in just 6 weeks.

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The Problem

Raven Health had amazing product-market fit, but were still struggling to close new business.

The company had already tried investing in a traditional sales structure: a VP of Sales, account executives, and SDRs who were running demos, making calls, and following up. Despite this, they were still experiencing difficulty converting prospects that actually came into the funnel. 

Raven Health's CEO had already watched significant resources go toward building a full-time sales team and was concerned with repeating the same mistake.

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The Decision

Rather than repeat the cycle of hiring a full sales team, Raven Health's CEO made a choice to bring in fractional sales leadership instead. He got in touch with Fractional Jobs to help Raven Health find the right Fractional Head of Sales - someone with significant early-stage healthtech SaaS experience.

"As a startup, we're naturally constrained in what we can afford, but we're not constrained in our ambition. Going the fractional route allowed us to prioritize quality over quantity, accessing senior-level expertise and leadership without taking on the full financial and organizational burden of a full-time executive hire."

— Raven Health CEO

The engagement started at just 10 hours per week. Instead of leading a dedicated sales team, the fractional leader would coach two existing employees: a marketing person who primarily handled events and top-of-funnel awareness, and a product manager. Neither had sales backgrounds.

“We’ve learned that full-time hires are expensive—not just in salary, but in long-term commitment, ramp time, and opportunity cost. Full-time roles absolutely make sense at the right time, but only when they align with where the company is in its lifecycle. Our goal has always been to scale responsibly, and past experience reinforced that hiring decisions need to match both the company’s maturity and its immediate needs.”

— Raven Health CEO

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The Transformation

The focus was immediate and precise: change how the team approached prospects.

Chris noticed a pattern: sales reps were launching into technical product demonstrations without first understanding what problems prospects were actually trying to solve. They were selling features instead of outcomes.

Drawing on Lean Startup, the principle that sales is about solving the job the customer is trying to do, Chris helped to shift the approach from product demonstrations to customer discovery. The team learned to diagnose challenges first, then show how the product solved those specific problems.

One of the sales mantras the team started repeating: Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice.

Other changes included focusing on specific ideal customer profiles and implementing a few simple process changes that made an outsized impact.

The two team members, despite having no formal sales training, proved extraordinarily coachable. Their product knowledge, natural empathy, and work ethic combined with the new methodology to produce immediate results.

The fractional leader didn't come in and overhaul the tech stack or implement a complex new playbook, but still was able to deliver real results. 

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The Results

The turnaround began in less than four weeks, and the full ramp took six weeks.

Where previously there had been few actual deals closing, the CEO's monthly sales targets (goals he'd set hoping they might be achieved by year-end) were hit in October, November, and December. Three consecutive months of quota attainment with a strong pipeline behind it. The team now operated with an 18-day average sales cycle.

"How quickly everything clicked surprised me most. Almost immediately after bringing Chris on, we weren't just executing better—we were setting more aggressive sales goals as a company. The pace of improvement and clarity he brought exceeded what I thought was possible in such a short window."

— Raven Health CEO

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The Ongoing Impact

The engagement has expanded into 2026, now including hiring, training, growing sales leadership, top-of-funnel optimization, and customer success.

"Chris didn't just improve our sales outcomes—he fundamentally upgraded how we think about sales. He revamped our processes, sharpened our messaging, and trained our team along the way—including me. That knowledge transfer has acted as a force multiplier, making the entire organization stronger."

— Raven Health CEO

Raven Health is now planning to bring on additional fractional leaders for other key roles. The model has become core to how they build the company.

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Lessons Learned

1. Identify the real ICP and focus doggedly on that customer segment. With limited resources and limited time, you can't chase every opportunity. 
2. Be clear about which customers you can genuinely help, which problems you know you can solve, and pursue those with professional rigor.
3. The driving principle: the best compliment you can receive from a prospect after they sign is "thank you for making it easy."

"We're operating in an environment where top-tier talent is both increasingly expensive and absolutely critical to success. For small but ambitious companies, fractional leadership can be the difference between moving cautiously and moving decisively. I'd strongly encourage other founders to consider this model if they want to punch above their weight without overextending themselves."

— Raven Health CEO

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If you’re looking for a fractional leader, that’s where Fractional Jobs can help (the site you’re reading this on). Fractional Jobs helps startups, SMBs, and nonprofits hire fractional talent across about 10+ different function areas. You can book a call with Fractional Jobs founder Taylor Crane right here to learn more.

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