Fractional VP of Sales or CSO for B2B tech startups

A fractional VP of Sales, or fractional CSO, is a part-time sales leader who builds and runs your sales function day to day: the process, the reps, the pipeline and the weekly forecast. Rock Growth Partners steps into that role for B2B software and tech companies with early traction, often where the founder is still closing most deals and needs a sales motion someone else can run. Daniel Rock leads every engagement himself.

Call it CSO or VP Sales, whichever fits your org chart. Under either title, we're building and running the sales function.

Fractional VP Sales or fractional CRO?

The difference is scope. A fractional CRO owns the whole revenue number across sales, marketing and customer success, along with the annual plan, pricing and board reporting. A fractional VP Sales builds and runs the sales function itself: the people, the process and the pipeline.

If marketing and customer success are in decent shape and the gap is a sales team that needs building and managing, start here. If those teams need one plan and one owner, or your board wants a senior revenue executive in the room, you want a fractional CRO.

What's included

• Sales process, stages and playbooks. Stages that mean the same thing to everyone, a discovery structure that gets buyers talking about their problem, and a written playbook, so the founder's way of selling becomes a motion other people can run (how to get founders and engineers selling).
• Hiring, onboarding and coaching reps. Writing the role, interviewing with you, bringing each new rep into a documented process, and coaching on live deals while they're fresh (coach in the moment).
• Quotas, territories and comp plans. Quotas built from what it takes to win a deal in your business, clear territories, and a comp plan that pays for the deals you want.
• Pipeline generation and deal reviews. A steady pipeline rhythm, outreach aimed at accounts that fit, and deal reviews that ask what the buyer has done. We'd rather your team had fewer, better-prepared conversations than a bigger send count (why more activity won't fix your pipeline).
• CRM setup and sales tooling. A CRM set up around your stages, and only the tools that save reps time. AI goes where it takes the busywork off reps, like call notes and CRM updates, and never into sending more spam.
• A weekly forecast and team rhythm. A forecast call, pipeline review and one-on-ones on a set cadence, and a forecast you'd stand behind in front of your board. Honest forecasts beat optimistic ones.

Who it's for, and when it's the wrong call

This fits B2B software and tech companies with early traction, typically seed to Series C, or founder-funded businesses of a similar size. Usually the founder is still closing most deals, or the team needs pipeline, process and a forecast you can trust while you hire.

It's the wrong call when:

• You haven't found traction yet. A sales team needs a motion to repeat. If you're still working out who buys and why, a fixed-scope revenue consulting project on your ideal customer, segments and positioning is a better first step.
• You're ready for a full-time sales leader, and can hire one. Then hire. We'll help you write the role and run the interviews.

A VP Sales also shouldn't take the founder out of early deals. We build the team and process around you, so your time goes to the deals that need you most.

How an engagement runs and what it costs

Every engagement follows the same path. An intro call to see whether we're the right fit, then a diagnosis of your pipeline, team, process and numbers, ending in a written plan with outcomes you can measure. From there we get stuck in alongside your team, leading, fixing, hiring and reporting, with regular check-ins against the plan.

We fix the fundamentals (ideal customer, stages, discovery and the forecast) before anyone buys a new tool, because a tool bought too early only automates the mess. When the sales function runs without us, or you're ready for a full-time VP Sales, we help you hire, write down what we built and step back. We plan that handover from the beginning.

The role runs on a monthly retainer scaled to what the business needs. We don't invest money: you pay us for leadership, and the growth comes from what we build with your team. You can add our other services alongside it, like AI for revenue teams when you want a bigger tooling build, or operational admin to take on CRM clean-up and sales pack preparation.

Who you'll work with

You'll work with Daniel directly, and you won't be handed to someone junior after the first meeting. He came to sales from IT and has spent 20+ years leading B2B tech sales and revenue teams in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US:

• SuiteFiles, Chief Revenue Officer (2022 to present). Doubled ARR at a PE-backed SaaS platform. Opportunity-to-close up from 18% to 41%, and average revenue per new customer up 124%.
• Nomos One, Chief Revenue Officer (2020 to 2022). Joined post-restructure with a team of 16. Revenue up 35% in year one.
• Tax Management NZ, Head of Sales (2017 to 2019). 127% of revenue budget and partner-sourced revenue up 37%, while leading the move from financial services to SaaS.
• Earlier roles in country management, sales and talent leadership across New Zealand and Australia.

He also builds his own AI sales tools, including an AI outbound engine written on LLM APIs and MCP, so advice on sales tooling comes from having built and run it. His approach, and the subject of his book Curiosity: How to Be Human When Selling in the Age of AI, is simple: get interested in people, be honest with them, and help them decide well.