A fractional CRO who owns your revenue number with you
You have a sales team. What you don't have is one person who owns the number: the plan to hit target, the pipeline, the forecast, and the job of coaching the team to deliver it. That is what a fractional chief revenue officer does, for a fraction of a full-time hire.
Most owner-led businesses reach the same wall. Revenue keeps coming in, but you are still the one closing the big deals, still the one the team leans on, still guessing at next month. A full-time CRO would fix it, except a full-time CRO is a six-figure commitment that takes months to find and might not work out.
A fractional CRO is the middle path. You get a senior revenue leader who owns the number alongside you, starting next month, without the salary or the risk of a permanent executive hire.
What a fractional CRO actually is
A chief revenue officer owns everything that produces revenue: the sales plan, the pipeline, the forecast, and the people who sell. A fractional CRO does the same job part-time. The word "fractional" is about your time and cost, not the depth of the work. The number is still owned.
At GoStartr that person is Bruce Steyn. Fifteen years building, running and training sales teams and owning the number. He does the work himself: sets the plan, runs the pipeline and forecast, joins the calls, coaches the people, and owns the result with you. He already runs a remote US sales team from South Africa, on US and Canada hours, so the time zones are not a problem.
One line sums up how he sells: people buy with their feelings, so let them tell you what the problem is, then solve it. That is what gets taught to your team.
What a fractional CRO owns
A coach gives advice. A manager keeps the team busy. A CRO owns the number. The difference matters, because advice without ownership is why most sales fixes fade by the second month. Here is what gets owned:
- The plan to hit target, and honest answers on what the number should be.
- Pipeline and forecast discipline, so hiring and cash stop being guesswork.
- A weekly report to you on the pipeline and the forecast.
- Weekly coaching for every salesperson, one on one.
- A weekly look at every open deal before it slips.
- Clear written sales steps and scripts, so the team sells one way, not five.
- Answers for the questions and push-back that keep killing deals.
- Help hiring and training new reps when you are ready to grow.
"Owning the number" means owning the plan, the pipeline and the accountability for them. It does not mean a guaranteed figure. Sales also depend on your product, price and market, and no honest operator promises a number they can't control.
Signs you need a fractional CRO
You don't need one the day you hire your first rep. You need one when the team exists but no one above it owns the result. The signals are specific:
- You still close every big deal. The team needs you on every important call, so you never get to run the business. You are the bottleneck.
- Nobody coaches your salespeople. They make the same mistakes every week and no one fixes them.
- You can't predict next month. There is no forecast you trust and no pipeline discipline, so every plan is a guess.
If two of those three are true, you have a revenue-ownership gap, not a motivation problem. More pep talks won't close it.
Fractional CRO vs a full-time CRO hire
The real comparison is not fractional versus nothing. It is fractional versus the full-time hire you have been putting off. Here is the honest math.
| Full-time CRO | Fractional CRO (Bruce + your team) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Roughly $300,000 to $450,000 a year once base, benefits and overhead are counted, before bonus or commission. | About $36,000 to $60,000 a year. |
| Time to start | Months to search, interview and onboard. | Starts next month. |
| Risk | If it doesn't work out, you start over and lose the year. | Three months first, then month to month. Stop when you want. |
| Track record | You are betting on a resume and a few interviews. | 15 years of results you can check before you start. |
Industry compensation data for 2026 puts a full-time chief revenue officer's loaded cost in that $300,000-plus range even at the smaller end, and total packages climb well past it once variable pay is added. For a business that needs the job done, not a permanent seat on the org chart, the fractional route owns the same number for a tenth of the commitment.
How it works, month by month
Revenue problems get fixed in an order. Skip the first step and every later fix is a guess. The arc is the same one Bruce has run on every team he has turned around.
Month 1: find where you lose revenue
Listen to the team's real calls, wins and losses. Go through every open deal and the pipeline. Meet each rep one on one. By the end of the month you can say plainly where the revenue is leaking and what the number should be. It is usually two or three things, not twenty.
Month 2: fix how the team sells
Start with the biggest leak. Clear steps for every sale, so everyone sells the same way. Better answers for the moments where deals die. Practise them on real examples until they come out naturally.
Month 3 and on: own the number with you
The fixes only hold if someone keeps running them. Weekly coaching for each rep, a weekly look at every deal, and a short pipeline-and-forecast report to you. This is where most teams slide back, because the owner gets busy and the rhythm stops. Owning the number means the rhythm doesn't stop.
Proof from real teams
Results are shown as past work, not a promise. Your results depend on your market, product, price and team.
- Evora Health, 13.8x in four months. Bruce built the sales and ordering system for a health-products distributor. Monthly sales went from R77,850 in May to R1.08 million in August 2026, without adding staff. 35 resellers order through it and 91% reorder.
- A US company with three remote reps. After an 8-week plan, all three reps hit target two months running.
- An electrical company, 7x over seven years. Grew sales from R14m to R100m a year as head of sales.
Three ways to bring in a fractional CRO
- Revenue Audit — $1,997, one-time, about two weeks. Bruce listens to the team's calls, meets each salesperson, checks every open deal and the pipeline, and delivers a 90-day plan to fix what is losing revenue. Included free inside both monthly plans.
- Revenue Coach — $2,997 a month. Audit included. Three months first, then month to month. About one day a week with the team: weekly coaching, calls reviewed with feedback, clear steps and scripts, and a monthly revenue review with you.
- Fractional CRO (recommended) — $4,997 a month. Audit included. Three months first, then month to month. About two days a week owning the number: weekly one-on-one coaching for every rep, a weekly look at every deal, a weekly pipeline-and-forecast report to you, plus help hiring and training new reps.
The fastest way to know if this fits is a short call. Book a 20-minute call and we will look at where your revenue is slipping and what owning the number would change.
Book a 20-minute callCommon questions
What is a fractional CRO?
A chief revenue officer who owns your revenue number part-time: the plan, pipeline, forecast and team coaching, without a full-time executive salary.
Is a fractional CRO the same as an outsourced chief revenue officer?
Yes. Different names for the same thing: a senior revenue leader who runs it with you instead of being a full-time hire.
Do we need new software?
No. Bruce uses the tools you already have.
Keep reading: your sales team has no manager, and it shows, the 90-day plan for a team that keeps missing target, why you can't predict next month's sales, should you hire a full-time sales leader yet?