What does a fractional CRO do in the first 90 days?

In the first 90 days, a good fractional CRO does three things in order. They find out what's happening in your pipeline and team, fix the two or three problems costing you the most revenue, and then build the rhythm and reporting that keeps those problems fixed when they're not in the room.

That's the short version. This is how I run it, week by week.

Weeks 1 to 3: diagnose before touching anything

The temptation is to change things on day one. A new leader wants to look useful, and the founder wants to see movement. I'd rather spend three weeks finding out what's going on, because the first problem you're told about is rarely the expensive one.

What I look at:

• Every deal you won and lost in the last 12 months. Who bought, how long it took, who was involved, what the discount was, and why the losses went the other way. Your CRM will say one thing. The people who worked the deals will usually say another.
• Live calls. I sit in on discovery calls and demos. Twenty minutes of listening tells you more about a sales process than any slide.
• The pipeline as it stands. How many deals are real, how many have been "closing next month" since spring, and whether the stages mean the same thing to everyone.
• How the forecast gets made. If the answer is a spreadsheet the founder updates on Sunday night, that's useful information.
• Customers. A handful of conversations with recent buyers about why they chose you. Their words usually make better positioning than anything written in a workshop.

By the end of week three you should have a written diagnosis: what's working, what isn't, and the two or three things worth fixing first. If you don't get that in writing, ask for it.

Weeks 4 to 9: fix the expensive things first

Most early-stage revenue problems fall into a short list. The pipeline is full of deals that were never going to close. Discovery is a product tour. Nobody agrees on who the ideal customer is, so the team chases everyone. Pricing gets made up deal by deal.

The fixes aren't glamorous. Tighter stage definitions so a deal only moves forward when the buyer has done something. A sharper ideal customer profile so the team stops spending weeks on accounts that don't fit. A discovery structure that gets the buyer talking about their problem before anyone mentions a feature. Clear rules on discounting.

When I took over revenue at SuiteFiles, opportunity-to-close sat at 18%. It's 41% now.

This is also when I start on hiring, if hiring is needed. Writing the role properly, building a scorecard, and running interviews with the founder so the next sales hire is the right one.

Where AI fits in the first 90 days

AI belongs in the first 90 days, just not first. Buying tools before the process is clear means automating a mess faster.

Once the stages and the ideal customer are pinned down, a few things are almost always worth doing early:

• Call notes and CRM updates done automatically, so the data behind your forecast is complete without nagging anyone.
• Account research before outreach, so reps walk into a first call knowing the business instead of reading its homepage aloud.
• Pipeline summaries for the weekly review, so the meeting is about decisions rather than status updates.

I build these tools myself, which is a slightly nerdy way of saying I know where they help and where they make your outreach sound like everyone else's. The rule I use: AI takes the busywork so your people can spend more time being human with buyers. It's the same rule behind our AI for revenue teams work.

Weeks 10 to 13: make it stick

The last month is about making sure the improvements survive without me in every meeting. That means a weekly forecast call with a set agenda, a pipeline review the team can run themselves, a one-page revenue view for the board, and the playbook written down in plain English, not in my head.

It's also when we decide what happens next. Usually it's one of three things: keep going on a retainer while the team grows, scale the engagement down to a lighter touch, or start hiring a full-time leader to take over.

What you should see by day 90

You won't have doubled revenue in 90 days, and anyone who promises that is selling something. You should have:

• A written diagnosis and a plan with outcomes you can measure.
• A pipeline you trust, which often means fewer deals in it.
• A forecast you can explain line by line.
• Two or three fixes in place and showing up in the numbers.
• A clear view on the next six months, including whether you need a full-time hire.

What a fractional CRO won't do

A fractional CRO can't fix a product nobody wants, and they shouldn't replace the founder in every important deal. Early customers want to hear from you. (They put up with me, but you're the one they're buying from.) We also don't invest money. You pay for the leadership, and the growth comes from what gets built with your team.

And if the first 90 days show you need a full-time CRO sooner than you thought, that's a good outcome too. I'll help you hire them.