Lead Gen: How to Get Your First Fractional Clients

I’m Taylor, founder of Fractional Jobs - the largest talent network for fractional leaders. I’m also a former Fractional Head of Product.

Before writing this Playbook, I interviewed 7 successful fractional leaders to better understand how they got their first clients, and what lead gen strategies generally work for them. Thanks to Simon Mills (Fractional Head of Growth), Carly Guthrie (Fractional People Leader), Brian Kaplowitz (Fractional COO), Emily Hollender (Fractional Marketing Leader), Pranav Mutatkar (Fractional Head of Growth), Rusty Stapp (Fractional VP Sales), and Jason Faber (Fractional SEO Expert) for your help.

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This Playbook is designed to be the guide that helps you land your first few fractional clients.

It’s not designed for the already super successful fractional leaders. It’s for fractionals trying to break in, transitioning from full-time jobs. It’s for those looking for their first, or seventh client. The strategies are completely different when finding your 25th client. (Though there are useful tactics in here for anyone).

We’ll first cover the overarching strategy and why your network is so important to being successful. Then, we’ll spend most of this Playbook focused on a varied list of tactics to generate leads for your fractional business.

By the end, you’ll have what you need to find your first few clients. Or, you’ll find that, for any number of reasons, fractional work might not be right for you at this time.

The Strategy, in a Nutshell

Hint: it’s (mostly) about your network.

84% of fractional leaders find their first client from their network, according to Fractional Jobs survey data. The top takeaway from this Playbook is that your network will make or break your ability to do fractional work successfully. Why? Because it’s the easiest way to get a client. It’s someone that can directly vouch for the work you can do.

Conversely, if you can’t generate qualified leads from your network, it’s a sign that fractional work will be more challenging for you.

Therefore, the correct strategy relies heavily on engaging your network so that they can help. Your network needs to be 1) aware that you’re doing fractional work, 2) reminded that you’re doing fractional work, and 3) think of you when they or someone they know has a need for the kind of work you do.

Getting your first clients can be simplified into a single step-by-step that all flows together:

1. Engage your network privately first. You might pick up a client this way, but at a minimum you’ll get pitch practice in.
2. Then, engage your network publicly by announcing your fractional work.
3. You’ll next want to find ways to regularly remind your network of the kind of work you do, because a one-time announcement isn’t enough. This is most easily done through social posting, as well as periodic check-ins with important contacts.
4. Once that’s going, you can start to expand your network through communities, networking events, etc. You can even start to engage different parts of your network in different ways (e.g. fractional friends vs. VC firms).
5. We’ll also share a few non-network-dependent tactics too.

That’s it! That’s how you build a fractional business.

Let’s dive in.

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Engage Your Network (Privately)

This is the place to start. We need to make your network aware that you’re doing fractional work. But we don’t need to shout from the rooftops, yet.

Plus, if you’re not ready to be public about your fractional work (e.g. you still have a full-time job), then you of course need to be private.

But even if you are ready to be public (the next section), still START here. Engaging your network privately will help refine your pitch amongst the people you trust the most, before going to a wider market.

You may also get your first client this way. If you do, you’re in an even better position to go out to a wider market with already 1+ clients under your belt.

So how can you engage your network privately?

Export All Your Contacts from LinkedIn

This is the easiest way to browse your entire professional network.

Export your LinkedIn contacts using this tutorial. Then, dump it into a spreadsheet of your own.

Scan the spreadsheet and mark each contact that you’d feel comfortable reaching out to in some capacity.

Prioritize contacts who:

• Can directly vouch for your work (former bosses, colleagues, mentors)
• Are very well-connected
• Whose feedback you trust
• Are already doing fractional work (they’ll likely be eager to help)

Reach Out to Catch Up

For each contact identified, determine the rough outreach priority. Then, decide if a 1:1 conversation or email makes more sense.

A 1:1 conversation is a coffee or video chat. Reserve these for those you’re closest to, those that you have high trust in, and those likely to give you 30+ min of their time.

For everyone else, there’s the 1:1 email. You can’t have 1:1 conversations with everyone, and nor will everyone have that time for you either. So the 1:1 email is your bite-sized way of touching base with that contact.

Please do not attempt to mass-email your contacts. With rare exceptions, this is not a way to build relationships. Plus, if you have 100+ people you’re trying to do outreach to, you’re probably not being very private anyway.

Aim for 5 - 25 catchups, maybe 50 if you’re exceptionally well-networked.

Describe Your Fractional Work

In your conversations and email exchanges, your goal is to make each contact aware of the work you’re doing or want to be doing. Your approach to do this should be tailored to each individual, I won’t pretend that there’s a one-size-fits-all set of talking points for this.

However, I can offer a couple of basic strategies to make these conversations productive:

1. In the VC fundraising world, we’re taught that when you want money, ask for feedback. And when you want feedback, ask for money. The translation here is, instead of asking “Hey, do you know any companies that could use my services?”, ask “Hey, what do you think about my positioning here? Do you think it’d resonate with XYZ companies? How can I make it better?”
2. Figure out how to help your contact, then actually deliver help. Give help, then get. They’ll be 10x more likely to help you find clients if you’ve helped them in some way too.

Listen to Feedback

If you’re having the right conversations, expect to receive valuable feedback from the people in your network you trust most. This feedback should help you shape your positioning, pitch, and “go-to-market.”

It’s the same reason new products do a private beta, market testing, etc.

This is why you should start privately with your network. You may learn a lot, which can help make more public lead generation activities much more successful.

Did You Get a Client?

It would not be crazy if one of your coffee chats or email exchanges led to your first client. The leads most likely to close will always come from those closest to you who can vouch for your work.

If the opportunity arises, seize it. Even if it’s a small or non-ideal engagement. It’s a chance to get some reps in, and oh boy does it make getting future clients easier.

If you don’t get any clients this way, fear not. We’ll cover other tactics below, plus it’s absolutely possible one of those coffee chats pays off in 6 months.

Worst case scenario, you’re walking away from this whole exercise with a dozen or more repetitions describing your fractional work. It will pay off immensely down the line.

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Engage Your Network (Publicly)

Next is your coming out party! And it may be the tactic that is most likely to lead to your first client, because it both leverages your network AND has sufficient scale via the sheer number of connections you have.

Are you even ready to come out publicly about your fractional work? Here’s a quick checklist:

• ✅ You know your positioning - What kind of fractional are you? What is your niche and target company? If you don’t have this figured out, you need it. This can be the topic of its own Playbook so it won’t be covered in depth here.
• ✅ You’re ready for more client work - The primary purpose of announcing your fractional work is to generate leads. If you’re booked up from engaging your network privately, it may be better to wait until you do want more leads. Announcing your fractional work can only be done once.
• ✅ You’re reasonably committed to the fractional path - Self-explanatory. If you’re feeling particularly anxious about coming out, ask yourself if it’s because you’re not sure this is what you want to be doing. If it’s not, you may want to get more clarity on this first.

How To Announce Yourself

For starters, this should be done on LinkedIn. If you have a following on any other platform, you should consider doing it there too.

An announcement is typically made via a post. It’s likely you’ll want to change your job title and update your work experiences too.

What you decide to write is up to you. The only winning formula is authenticity.

If you have writer’s block, here are some questions you may want to answer in your post(s):

1. What kind of fractional are you? What’s your niche / target?
2. What types of clients are you a GREAT fit for? Think company size, industry, etc.
3. What’s your strategy expertise? Within your functional area (Marketing, Engineering, etc.), what are you best at?
4. What’s a recent example of a client engagement? Make your work real for us.
5. What unique experiences from your career as a full-time employee make you exceptionally qualified as a fractional?
6. Tell us about a problem you struggled with, either with a fractional client or a prior full-time job, and how you can help solve it for other companies.
7. If people want to learn more, what can they do?

Tag Us and We’ll Amplify

If you announce your fractional work on LinkedIn or Twitter, tag Fractional Jobs (LinkedIn, Twitter) and we’ll amplify your post to our almost 10,000 followers. We’d love to support you, so don’t hesitate to include us!

After Your Announcement

Are new leads pouring in? If they are, great work! You’re off to the races.

But the more likely scenario is that they are NOT pouring in. If you generated even one qualified lead from your initial announcement, that should be considered a success.

So now what? It’s often the case that you’ll need multiple touch points and reminders to 1) reach enough of your network, and 2) alert them of your needs. If you thought your LinkedIn posting would be a one-and-done effort, think again. And keep reading!

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Continue to Post Regularly

Yes, we’re talking about content. Posting “content” is not everyone’s cup of tea. But it’s undeniably helpful for your fractional business, and I bet that you can find a version of it that you don’t hate.

Why Post Content?

This is the best way to remind your network of the kind of work you do. It’s not enough to announce it just once. Do you remember every post everyone in your network has ever made? Of course not.

Posting content keeps you top of mind. And being top of mind drives leads because it inspires thoughts like “Oh yea! I should connect them with my friend who needs their fractional help.”

Your Audience

To get your first few clients, the content you’re posting should be geared towards your network, people who already know you.

There is another, more advanced, version of content creation that is designed to reach audiences outside of your network. This can be a great strategy for getting your 20th client, but is completely overkill for your first few.

Thankfully, posting content for 1st degree connections is much easier anyway. It’s easier to be authentic, relatable, and interesting to people that already know you.

Some Different Content Strategies

Choose the one(s) that feel most authentic to you. Or make up your own!

• The Thought Leader - Try to establish yourself as an expert in a given niche. If you have deep and unique expertise in a particular area relevant to your fractional work, this strategy will make that crystal clear to your audience.
• Pull Stories from Full-Time Work - This is especially helpful when you don’t have much client work to post about. Instead, you can share stories of work you’ve done from the full-time world, that feel particularly relevant to the fractional work you want. The all-nighter, the risky bet, the tough conversation, etc.
• Tell Them What You Did - Simple! Share a recap, or a story, of something you did recently for a client. Something that shows others the kind of work you’re already doing and can potentially do for them, too.
• Be a Teacher - Share a how-to or step-by-step guide on how you approach a problem common to your functional expertise.
• Behind-the-Scenes - Share meta-information about how you approach your fractional work. The business of fractional, the tools you use, things you’re actively learning, or other aspects of your professional day-to-day (this gets you out of talking about individual client work)
• Generate Scarcity - Let your network know that you’ll soon have JUST ONE upcoming availability for your fractional work. Grab it before it’s gone!
• Celebrate Milestones - Share your wins as they happen. You gained a new client, you finished a successful engagement. Or even better, you helped your client achieve a new milestone.

Remember though that ALL of this is intended to serve as a reminder that you’re open for fractional work. Don’t forget that!

The Right Posting Cadence

The fractional leaders who see great success generating leads from content tend to post more often. However, this does not mean posting more is what generates more leads. It means those getting leads from content have figured out how to make it work for them and are therefore choosing to post more. Do you see the difference?

Especially if you’re new to posting content, you’ll be thrilled to hear that you should not be posting daily or anywhere close. It could actually backfire, particularly if you’re still learning how to create interesting content.

Instead, consider setting a goal to post once a month. Easy enough, right? If you’re seeing any indication of good results, you can start to ramp it up from there. An exception to the once-a-month rule is shortly after you first announce your fractional work, you can post more frequently to really drive the point home to your network and make sure EVERYONE knows.

Alternatively, if you just enjoy posting content but lead gen ROI is questionable, post anyway! If you enjoy it you’re probably quite good at it, and so there’s really no downside.

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Join Online Communities

We’ve made our network aware of our work and have some strategies in place to continue to remind them of the work we do. Next, we can start to expand our network.

Online communities are a great way to do that. They can be a treasure trove for fractional work opportunities.

Communities include Slack groups, discussion forums, and other public/private networks.

Some types of communities to join:

• Industry-specific, e.g. Climate
• Function-specific, e.g. Engineering
• Ex-employee groups, e.g. ex-Google or ex-Uber.
• Private, paid communities, e.g. C-suite executives
• Alumni organizations, e.g. Bookface for YC Alumni
• Fractional-specific, e.g. check out our “Tools & Communities” page

It’s incredibly common for people to post in these communities that they’re looking for help with XYZ problem. Sometimes, the poster knows they need a fractional expert! Sometimes they don’t, but it’s an opportunity for you to share why you might be able to help them in a fractional capacity.**

Do some research. Find the communities relevant to you and become an active participant.

** NOTE: Make sure you’re abiding by the community guidelines. Nobody likes a shill, and the best communities will kick you out if you do it. So keep any outreach relevant and self-aware.

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Set Up Referrals

Other fractional leaders are also a great source of leads. Their networks index highly on those doing fractional work and hiring fractional.

Spend time networking with other fractional leaders to build rapport, and opportunities may present to share leads with each other. This is most often true when it’s another fractional leader in a complementary function area but with a similar target market.

The informal referral strategy is a friendly and implicit nod that you’re down to help each other out by referring leads to each other.

A slightly more advanced strategy, but still very easy and common, is to set up a referral agreement. The mutual agreement says that if a lead turns into a deal, you’ll offer them some % of the revenue earned from that client. Common agreements are for either 5% or 10% revenue share, and for either 6 months or 1 year. Depending on your trust level with that person, you can paper this in a contract, or just handshake it.

For a close friend of yours, you may not need the extra motivation of money to refer a lead. But for looser professional connections in the fractional world, it can be a very helpful wheel greaser to stay top of mind.

In the professional services world of marketing agencies, accounting firms, dev shops, etc. this is extremely common practice.

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Look For Channel Partners

A channel partner is a partnership where the partner actually helps to sell your services to others.

In the fractional world, we can consider VCs, PE firms, startup accelerators, agencies, and even super-connectors to be channel partners.

VCs and startup accelerators are often in the business of helping their portfolio companies succeed by any means necessary. If your network includes relevant people at these types of organizations, they can be a gold mine for new leads. They’ll introduce you to portfolio companies, and since VCs / accelerators are often held in very high regard, their recommendations carry significant weight.

Some fractionals have built their entire business on channel partners like this.

Private Equity firms are interesting in that they may refer you to a portfolio company of theirs, or they may hire you directly as they take a proactive role in turning a company around. They’re often ruthless cost cutters, so fractional leadership tends to be an attractive model for them too.

Agencies can be a great channel partner if your skillset is complementary to theirs. They can pull you into their clients when your flavor of expertise is needed. They may subcontract to you and take a small %, or refer you direct. Both are normal and a matter of personal preference for both parties.

Super-connectors are those highly networked individuals that seem to know everyone. They may have influencer status, too. This type of partner is more likely to want some kind of referral agreement to warrant connecting you with their network. But, if their network is relevant to you, it’s an option you won’t want to pass up.

A great tip for generating leads through channel partners is to offer up free 1:1 sessions with that partner’s network. E.g. tell the VC fund you’re close with that you’re happy to give anyone in their portfolio a free “PR & Comms” session. This makes it incredibly easy for the VC to introduce you, and then you have a chance to convert any of those free sessions to real clients.

Bottom line - if anyone in your network feels like a potential channel partner, treat them with high importance.

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Talent Marketplaces

As the fractional world continues to mature, we’re starting to see fractional talent marketplaces help clients and fractionals meet.

Toptal is a popular talent marketplace for software engineers. Upwork is a well-known marketplace for offshore contractors of all shapes and sizes.

Fractional Jobs (the site you’re reading this on!) is the talent marketplace for fractional work. You can see our current live jobs on our website, and subscribe to our newsletter for new job alerts in your function area.

Being plugged into talent marketplaces like Fractional Jobs is an excellent way to supplement your lead gen efforts. However, it’s unlikely to be your one-stop-shop for all your leads. If it’s not completely obvious from the rest of this post, your network is still going to be where you get most of your leads from. But ignoring the marketplaces, especially as the fractional world grows, is simply just a missed opportunity.

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Even More Tactics

We’ll finish up this Playbook with several more tactics that are worth mentioning.

Client Referrals

As you work with more clients, the opportunity presents itself to get introductions from past clients to potential new clients.

The ways to facilitate this include:

1. Do great work. Duh!
2. At the end of a successful relationship or after a big milestone, ask for a testimonial.
3. Find ways to let your clients know that you’re always welcome to new introductions. Sometimes your clients just may not realize how valuable introductions are for fractional leaders, and subtle reminders may help.

Basic Cold Outreach

Cold outreach is, for the most part, an advanced strategy. And therefore not covered in this Playbook. Especially at scale, it takes a significant amount of knowledge and effort to get right.

However, if the following are true, you may find success here even for your first few clients:

1. You have a REALLY dialed-in target client.
2. You have a REALLY dialed-in value prop about how exactly you can help them.

Put together a list of your target clients and do manual outreach to the most likely decision maker, e.g. the CEO.

Don’t try to automate this. If your target list is more than like 50, then you’re either not dialed in enough for this to be effective, or already have landed your first several clients and are moving onto more advanced strategies.

Target Full-time Job Posters

Transparently, this tactic has mixed results. The idea here is to do outreach to hirers that are advertising for full-time roles and try to sell them on your fractional services.

The mistake people make here is targeting the wrong kinds of roles. If you’re a fractional CMO, and you see a job post from a company for a full-time CMO, this outreach will almost certainly be unsuccessful. The company clearly thinks they have the need for, and the budget for, a full-time hire. Fractional is likely not a good option for this company.

This tactic CAN work though if you target companies advertising for, e.g. a full-time Marketing Manager, AND they don’t have any marketing leadership at the company. (You can find this out by glancing at the current employees on Linkedin). This is an indication that the company only has the budget for a junior full-time employee, but also lacks leadership expertise. In some cases, fractional may actually be the perfect fit.

Become a Really Helpful Person™

This tactic is a version of playing the long game without immediate payoff. The idea here is to get your network to look at you as a Really Helpful Person™. Be incredibly helpful without asking for anything in return. Do some brainstorming work for free. Make that introduction. Be a thought partner that’s always available to chat. Reach out occasionally and say, “is there anything I can do to help?” and actually mean it.

By being a Really Helpful Person™, people will start to want to help you too.

Attend IRL Events

Those good ol’ fashioned networking events.

Go to relevant networking events and show up with a relatively tight pitch on the kind of work you do. You may be surprised that a quick conversation over hors d'oeuvres can lead to an introduction which leads to a follow-up call which leads to a new client.

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The Key Takeaways

The first takeaway from this Playbook should be that getting your first fractional client is VERY different from getting your 25th client.

This Playbook is for getting your first clients.

The second takeaway is that in order to get your first clients, you should start by crawling. Once you’re crawling, you can start to walk, run, etc. This is both the easiest path (crawling is a lot easier than running), and the most likely to produce successful results. If you can’t get clients from crawling and walking, it’s a sign that some things need to change before you start running anyway.

The third takeaway should be that there is one, and only one, secret ingredient to getting your first clients: your network.

If your network is strong enough, then running through even just one or two tactics in this Playbook will produce your first few clients.

1. Work your network privately to see what low-hanging fruit may exist and refine your value prop.
2. Then, go out to your broader network in a more public way. Establish the fractional work you do with your network and continuously remind them of it.
3. Then, broaden your network through communities, channel partners, and more.
4. Finally, supplement your lead gen efforts with talent marketplaces like Fractional Jobs, referral agreements, cold outreach, and more.

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This is how virtually every successful fractional leader got their first few clients. Good luck!

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Wait - Do you still have questions? See some frequent ones below, or email us at hello@fractionaljobs.io.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much time should I be spending on lead gen every week?

It of course depends on your pipeline and current client work. When you are NOT fully booked up, you should probably be using the remainder of your available work time on lead gen. This includes both direct lead gen (proposals to new clients) and indirect (market research to hone your positioning).

Most successful fractionals that are fully or mostly booked will still spend ~2 - 5 hrs/week on lead gen.

Spending 0 hrs/week is a mistake no matter how good at your work you are.

How long will it take me to find my first fractional client?

While those with truly exceptional networks can go from 0 to 1 client in less than a week, the norm for getting your first client is likely around 1 - 3 months. This, however, assumes that you’re a good fit for fractional work. See the next question.

I still don’t have any clients yet, this doesn’t seem to be working. What does this mean?

If you’ve followed the tactics in this Playbook for 3+ months and have not closed a client yet, it very likely means 1) something isn’t working about what you’re offering and it needs to change, or 2) your network just isn’t big enough to support a consistent pipeline of fractional leads right now.

I found a potential first client that wants to work with me, but it’s not the sweet spot for what I’m looking for. What should I do?

This may be because their budget is too low, the work is small in scope, they’re not the exact right industry/stage for your niche, or a host of other reasons.

The choice to take the client or not depends on your financial situation, pipeline, personal motivation, etc.

Generally speaking though, you should probably take it. In the early days, you should be optimizing for getting reps in with client work, especially if you’re new to it. It’s a different game than a full-time job. There’s a learning curve. Don’t wait for the “perfect” first client. They’ll come eventually.

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