Guide · Fractional sales leadership
A fractional head of sales is an external sales leader on a part-time retainer, accountable for pipeline, forecast and team. The term has nothing to do with fractional shares.
Founder and Managing DirectorUpdated September 2026
In short
A fractional head of sales runs a company's sales like an employed sales leader, but for a fixed number of hours a week and under a service contract rather than an employment contract. They own pipeline and forecast and prospect personally. At Glatt Digital, a weekly block of 7 hours costs CHF 2,990 a month, excl. VAT, with a three-month minimum, then month-to-month.
The role belongs to the family of fractional executives, alongside the fractional CFO and CMO. You will also hear fractional sales manager or, in German-speaking Switzerland, Vertriebsleiter in Teilzeit and externe Vertriebsleitung.
You agree a fixed number of hours a week: 7 to 10 at Glatt Digital, more on request. What counts is the monthly average, so a week full of customer meetings runs longer and a quiet one shorter. Work is remote by default, on site for the start, key meetings and customer visits.
Once a week, every open opportunity is reviewed with the team: next step, decision-maker, date. The meeting takes an hour at most and sits inside the weekly block. An opportunity without a dated next step does not count as one.
Management gets a forecast someone stands behind: which deals will realistically close this quarter and which will not. Plus a short report on what moved, what is stuck and where a decision is needed. How to build a forecast from the CRM without a spreadsheet on the side is covered under Revenue Operations.
Outreach on buying signals starts where there is a trigger: a leadership change, open roles, a public tender, a new site. Your fractional head of sales makes first contact personally, under your domain and on their own hardware. No anonymous cold lists, no tele-sales.
In key customer meetings, your fractional head of sales sits at the table and debriefs your team afterwards on what moved the decision. They prepare proposals, pricing and contracts. Sign-off stays with your management, unless you grant written authority with clear limits.
Work usually starts within two weeks of signing. The four-phase timeline: onboarding in the first two weeks, first opportunities from weeks 3–4, scaling in months 2–3, a joint review from month 4. Playbooks and templates for the team are built along the way, so an in-house successor can take over.
Five ways to fill the sales leadership seat or outsource part of your sales. They differ in hours, start, duration, cost, who owns the forecast, who prospects, how you exit and what remains.
Full-time and open-ended. Between search, selection and the candidate's own notice period, expect 3–6 months before they start. Cost covers salary, bonus, social contributions, recruitment and workplace; the role owns forecast and prospecting. Unless agreed otherwise, Swiss law sets one month's notice in the first year after probation and two months in years two to nine (Art. 335c CO).
Usually full-time and fixed-term, to cover a vacancy, a crisis or a restructuring. The interim manager owns forecast and team for the assignment, then you need a successor. Swiss Interim quotes day rates of CHF 1,000–2,500 and typical assignments of 6–12 months, with full-time mandates usual from CHF 50 million in annual revenue and part-time from around CHF 20 million.
Part-time from 7 hours a week, usually live within two weeks, at a fixed monthly retainer. The fractional head of sales owns the forecast and prospects personally, including first contact. Month-to-month after three months. What remains: a process, a well-kept pipeline and a prepared handover to your in-house successor.
A project or a workshop, usually billed by the day. Consultants recommend, your team implements, and the forecast stays with management. You are left with a concept, a final report or trained staff. What is missing is someone running the pipeline every week afterwards.
Delivers contacts or meetings, often billed by volume. The agency prospects but does not lead: qualification, forecast and closing stay with you. When the contract ends, you keep the contacts delivered, but no process and no leadership. Outsourcing sales this way buys volume, not leadership.
Glatt Digital's prices as a worked example, published openly. Whoever you talk to, compare hours per week, minimum term and what is included.
A weekly block of 7 hours costs CHF 2,990 a month, excl. VAT. With the volume discount, 8 hours cost CHF 3,330, 9 hours CHF 3,660 and 10 hours CHF 3,990; larger commitments on request. The retainer stays the same whether a week brings many meetings or few. Full terms are on our page for fractional sales leadership in Switzerland.
Three months minimum, then month-to-month. The first three months are invoiced in advance, then one month at a time, also in advance. Twelve months at 7 hours a week come to CHF 35,880, before any performance fee. There is no hourly rate.
The weekly sales meeting, forecast and reporting, outreach including first contact, and our own hardware. Plus HeySali Pro for one user, worth CHF 249 a month, for as long as the mandate runs.
Travel to on-site meetings, billed at cost and agreed in advance. Licences for your CRM, mailbox and other systems, as with any employee. A performance fee only if agreed: usually on net revenue your customers have paid, including deals started during the mandate and closed within six months of its end.
For a head of sales at a Zurich-region SME on a CHF 150,000 base salary, our calculator puts year one at CHF 235,659, including bonus, social contributions, recruitment fee, workplace and tools. The mandate at 7 hours, with a 10% performance fee as a guide: CHF 39,468. Work out the full head of sales cost in Switzerland with your own figures.
Not every company needs part-time sales leadership. Three situations where it fits, and three where something else works better.
You already win customers elsewhere and want your first Swiss accounts before opening an office or hiring locally. A fractional head of sales based in Switzerland gives you a local presence, works in English, German and Swiss German, and builds the pipeline your first hire will inherit.
Most deals are closed by the managing director, between projects, staff and finance. When day-to-day work piles up, the pipeline stalls. A weekly block gives sales a rhythm that does not depend on the founder's calendar.
Two or three account managers work hard, each in their own style, and nobody sets priorities or delivers a forecast management can rely on. Or your head of sales has left, and a permanent hire is too slow or too expensive for now. The mandate keeps sales moving and builds what your next hire takes over.
If target market, pricing or product are still open, no head of sales will fix it. Talk to customers and settle those decisions first, then build sales.
A turnaround, or a larger team that needs leading on site every day, calls for a full-time person. That is what interim management is built for, or a permanent hire if the solution should last.
If you only need more leads, a lead generation project or HeySali on its own is the better choice. And when only the CRM is missing, a fixed-price CRM implementation is enough, with no mandate.
The questions worth settling before any mandate. The answers follow Glatt Digital's terms for mandates. General guidance, not legal advice.
The mandate is a contract for services under Art. 394 et seq. of the Swiss Code of Obligations. Glatt Digital sets its own hours, uses its own equipment and serves other clients. There is no employment relationship and no staff leasing.
A service contract owes diligent, competent work, not a set revenue or a fixed number of leads, meetings or deals. Be wary of guarantees: in the end, your customer decides.
Notice can be given for the end of any month, first for the end of the third full month; it must arrive by the 15th, and email is enough. If it is not working after six months, the mandate costs CHF 20,930 excl. VAT up to the end; a permanent head of sales hired through an agency, CHF 134,874 (calculator).
Contacts, deals, proposals and notes in your CRM belong to your company, as do emails sent under your domain. Leads from HeySali stay in HeySali and are deleted when the mandate ends. A contact goes into your CRM only after a genuine reply, one by one and by hand. HeySali runs on servers in Swiss data centres.
During the mandate, Glatt Digital takes on no mandate for a direct competitor of yours without your prior consent. Direct competitors offer the same thing to the same audience. Full exclusivity applies only if agreed.
Get in writing who owns the forecast, how many hours a week are committed and how long the contract binds you. Ask who prospects, who owns the data, how competitors are excluded and who prepares the succession.
A fractional head of sales runs the weekly sales meeting with a pipeline review of one hour at most, updates the forecast and reports to management. Add outreach on buying signals including first contact, coaching in key customer meetings, and proposals, pricing and closing. At Glatt Digital this fits into a weekly block from 7 hours, remote by default and on site for the start, key meetings and customer visits.
There is no single market rate. At Glatt Digital, a weekly block of 7 hours costs CHF 2,990 a month, excl. VAT; 8 hours cost CHF 3,330, 9 hours CHF 3,660 and 10 hours CHF 3,990. The minimum term is three months, then month-to-month. HeySali Pro for one user, worth CHF 249 a month, is included.
Interim management fits a vacancy, a crisis or a restructuring, usually full-time. Swiss Interim cites typical assignments of 6–12 months and day rates of CHF 1,000–2,500, on average CHF 1,400–1,800. A fractional head of sales fits when sales needs ongoing leadership but not a full-time role: part-time from 7 hours a week, for as long as needed or until your own head of sales takes over.
For leadership, yes; for volume, no. Seven hours cover the weekly pipeline review, the forecast, decisions on pricing and proposals, coaching in key meetings and targeted outreach with a reason. They do not replace the prospecting volume of a full-time role, nor tele-sales. If you need more, go up to 8–10 hours; at Glatt Digital, 10 hours cost CHF 3,990 a month, excl. VAT.
Once a team needs daily on-site leadership, or sales needs well over 10 hours of leadership a week for good, a permanent hire is usually the better choice. On the default values of Glatt Digital's calculator, a head of sales at an SME in the Zurich region costs CHF 235,659 in year one. A sensible route: build process and pipeline on a mandate first, then hire against a clear profile.
Everything created in your CRM belongs to you: contacts, deals, proposals and call notes, plus emails sent under your domain (Glatt Digital's terms, clauses 9.3 and 11.2). Leads and signals from HeySali stay in HeySali and are deleted with the workspace when the mandate ends. A contact enters your CRM only after a genuine reply, one by one and by hand.
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