When you hear “fractional”, what comes to your mind first?
For many start-up and scale-up leaders, it’s a vague mix of consultants, contractors, and chaos. A short-term fix. A stopgap. A risk.
But the reality? Fractional GTM leaders are one of the most capital-efficient, high-impact ways to unlock growth, without disrupting your team or overcommitting too early.
At ScaleWise, we’ve worked with dozens of scale-ups to embed hands-on, diagnostic-led fractional leaders across Sales, Marketing, and RevOps. And in doing so, we’ve heard every misconception in the book.
So, let’s separate fact from fiction, and show you why fractional talent might be the most capital-efficient way to unlock your next stage of growth.
Myth #1: “Fractionals are just consultants.”
It’s a very common misconception that fractionals are nothing more than consultants. They don’t actually do any of the doing, but just tell you what you need to change, leave you with a strategy doc, and vanish before anything gets implemented.
The reality? Fractionals are deeply embedded in your team. They own deliverables. They drive execution. And they stay accountable to outcomes, not just ideas. You don’t just get strategic input, but also hands-on delivery to drive your business forward.
Myth #2: “Fractionals are too expensive for what we need.”
While fractional day rates can look high on paper, it’s always important to think about the full-time equivalent to this role. Most senior GTM salaries start at £200k+, and include lengthy notice periods, employer NI, recruitment fees and company benefits.
Not to forget, the cost of mis-hiring and starting the whole process over again.
With fractional leaders, you get senior-level output without the full-time commitment. Even more importantly, fractional support can scale up and down, depending on where you are in your growth journey.
Myth #3: “They can’t have an impact in just 2 days per week.”
If you’re used to the traditional full-time arrangement, it can be hard to understand how someone can have an impact in only a fraction of that time per week.
But fractional work is focused work. These hires aren’t bogged down by internal politics or back-to-back “update” meetings. Their time is structured, scoped, and designed to drive high-leverage activity.
Myth #4: “Fractionals are just people in between jobs.”
This one couldn’t be further from the truth. Many of our ScaleWise fractional leaders choose to work this way because they’ve spent 10+ years scaling companies and now want to bring that expertise to multiple teams, while gaining more flexibility in their lives.
They’re not filling time while job hunting. They’re seasoned, sought-after operators who work fractionally by design, not by default.
Myth #5: “They can’t be committed if they’re not full-time.”
It’s understandable to think there might be misalignment, but fractional does not mean disconnected.
Fractional leaders embed into your team from day one. That means joining team rituals, running weekly stand-ups, and sharing progress like any other team member.
Our fractional leaders often stay through multiple growth stages, sometimes even turn into permanent team members (such as this example <link to case study>) and don’t just join your team to take care of quick fixes, and then leave.
Myth #6: “Fractionals will be too disruptive for my team.”
Done badly, yes. But when fractionals are introduced properly, with a clear scope, defined goals, and the right internal buy-in, they often enhance team performance, not undermine it.
Our fractionals act as a seamless extension of your team, offering support, structure and mentorship. They’re not there to displace anyone; they’re there to help your team focus, execute, and scale with clarity.
Myth #7: “They’ll never understand our business fast enough to add value, before they leave.”
If you’ve had bad contractor experiences in the past, this concern makes sense. But experienced fractional leaders know how to ramp quickly. They ask the right questions. They spot patterns. And they bring a fresh, external perspective that often unlocks clarity faster than internal hires.
At ScaleWise, our diagnostic-led onboarding process is built to surface these insights early, so you get value from day one.
Myth #8: “We’ll need to make a full-time hire eventually, so shouldn’t we just do that now?”
In some cases, full-time hires are the best way forward straight away. But too many scale-ups rush into hiring before they truly know what they need. That’s where mis-hires happen.
Bringing in a fractional lets you validate what good looks like, build the right foundations, and hire full-time from a position of clarity, not desperation. It’s a lower-risk, higher-impact approach to team building, which will also help stretch your budget further.
Fractional leaders aren’t a short-term fix or second-best option; they’re a strategic, scalable way to unlock growth with less risk and more precision.
With ScaleWise, you get tightly scoped, high-impact support from experienced GTM leaders who embed into your team and deliver commercial impact from day one.
To find out more about interim and fractional leadership, check out our Definitive Guide to Interim and Fractional Leadership
