How Do I Position Myself to Attract Fractional Work?

Tell companies what you’re an expert at. Make it easy for them to connect the dots between what types of problems you can solve, and the problems their company is currently facing. Make them think “Wow, that’s exactly what I need!”

You can think about fractional hiring similar to buying a product: the buyer has a problem, and they’re shopping for products that might solve it. This article is about how to design your product label, a.k.a. your positioning.

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How to Define Your Expertise

Unsurprisingly, you’re the only person capable of defining your expertise. You know your career, accomplishments, and skillset best.

What are you an expert at?

What have you spent your career focused on?

What kinds of problems have you solved for companies most frequently?

What do people come to you for advice on?

Common ways fractional leaders choose to define their expertise include by industry, by company stage, and by strategic specialty. We’ll explore these more in a bit.

But these are just some examples. You can also define your expertise by the outcomes you deliver, by business model, by regulatory environment, and more.

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Niching Down

Niching down is very common advice in the fractional and consulting world. It essentially means to get even more specific with your positioning than you originally thought necessary.

Why?

Imagine you operate a restaurant, and your gorgeous wood tables constantly get dirty with food. You need a quick cleaning solution, so you go to the store. Do you reach for the “all-purpose cleaner”, or the “wood cleaner” solution? See the point?

Most new fractional leaders make a mistake by trying to appeal to any possible client that might encounter them. But clients turning to fractional hiring have very specific problems to solve. 9 out of 10 times they are going to choose the person positioned as an expert at those specific problems. Not the one who claims to solve all possible problems.

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Bad Examples

1. “I’m a Fractional CMO” - yes, you, and literally 10,000 others. Get more specific.
2. “I’m a Fractional CMO, CRO, COO for healthcare companies” - Great that you’re focused on healthcare, but it’s highly unlikely that you’re an exceptional CRO if you’re also an exceptional COO.
3. “I’m a Fractional CFO for startups, scaleups, SMBs, and enterprises” - you’ve included all the buzzwords. But the role of a Fractional CFO is very different depending on company size and stage, and anyone hiring one will know it.

All three of these examples are from fractional execs that are trying to appeal to too many clients at once, and therefore appeal to nobody strongly enough to stand out.

On the other hand, good examples of fractional positioning clearly define their exact expertise. They act like a product label that solves certain problems really well.

Here are three, real-world examples of folks in the Fractional Jobs network, screenshotted directly from Linkedin.

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Good Example: Stage-specific Positioning

They are a Fractional Product Leader focused on early-stage tech companies specifically. If you’re an early-stage tech company that needs Product leadership help, this might resonate. This person, if they were struggling to attract clients, might even choose to niche down further by defining some types of Product work they’re best at, e.g. MVP scoping.

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Good Example: Industry-specific Positioning

They’re a Fractional CMO focused on mental health and women’s health startups around the Series A - C range. Imagine if you’re a Series B mental health startup in need of marketing leadership. How are you NOT contacting this person!?

Notice how they’re not just for any health-tech company. They’re focused on mental health and women’s health.

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Good Example: Strategy-specific Positioning

They’re a Fractional Marketing Director with specific Brand expertise, covering auditing, positioning, and messaging. Not pictured here, but elsewhere on their Linkedin profile it’s clear that they work exclusively within the F&B industry.

Bonus points for going for “Marketing Director” and not “CMO”, too. Not everyone needs a CMO.

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Alternative Approaches

Some fractional leaders tend to lean more on the traditional consulting playbook, which advises to drop titles altogether and just describe what value you create.

Fractional Head of Sales —> “I help B2B SaaS founders transition out of a founder-led sales motion.”

Fractional CFO —> “I get your SMB ready for PE and M&A”

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Test Your Positioning

As any Fractional CMO will tell you, your positioning should be tested, even informally.

Consider sending your positioning to:

• Close professional friends
• Mentors
• Past colleagues and bosses
• Your target ICP (i.e. the people who’d be hiring you)

The first three know your work best. They can give you feedback on how well it articulates your value. The fourth, your ICP, will give you the most important feedback - how well your positioning resonates with their needs.

This article is not a rulebook for fractional positioning. In fact, like any kind of marketing, sometimes breaking the rules is what gets you ahead.

Your goal is to find positioning that works, measured simply by # of clients acquired.

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