FRACTIONAL LEADERSHIP
Transforming Companies into Their Next Stage of Growth
Chris Taylor is a fractional CMO who specializes in companies going through transformation — auditing and recasting a GTM plan, rebranding, repositioning, entering new markets, building new revenue streams, or resetting strategy after a pivot. He brings an unusual combination: a background in sales and sales management before moving into product marketing then overall corporate marketing, which means he thinks like a revenue leader, not just a marketer.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Chris Taylor is a fractional CMO who specializes in companies going through transformation — rebranding, repositioning, entering new markets, building new revenue streams, or resetting strategy after a pivot. He brings an unusual combination: a background in sales and sales management before moving into product marketing then overall corporate marketing, which means he thinks like a revenue leader, not just a marketer. He's helped scale companies from startup to over a billion in annual revenue, and he moves fast. Works with: I work with founders and executives whose companies are in the middle of a meaningful change — not optimizing what's already working, but navigating some type of transformation. A rebrand. New market. New channel. New revenue model. A strategy reset. A transformation of the business in a small or large way.
WHY CLIENTS WORK WITH CHRIS
Being a former salesperson and manager, looking prospects in the face and trying to sell them my product.
Being a sales guy looking prospects in the face and trying to sell them my product. I've sold to consumers at retail, to companies, and to government agencies. I've also been on the vendor side selling to those retailers, distributors, again to those corporate and government prospects. Working with development teams to collaborate on creating products that the market needs. Presenting at board meetings and weekly executive review meetings, understanding runways for businesses to succeed. Driving marketing at a startup with no revenue and single digit number of employees through a wild journey over 4 1/2 years growing to over $1 billion in annual revenue and over 8,500 employees. Seeing our stock symbol first cross the ticker when we went IPO and wondering what I learned from the experience. The other side, leading marketing at a company that went through difficult times. Laying off colleagues was the toughest experience of my career. Working in a range of industries...from technology to biotech, ehealth to sports marketing, and more. Being able to bring experiences and learnings from one to another, often doing things that hadn't been done before. Those are some of the things that shaped me but there are so many more that won't fit here.
WHO THEY WORK WITH
I work with founders and executives whose companies are in the middle of a meaningful change — not optimizing what's already working, but navigating some type of transformation. A rebrand. New market. New channel. New revenue model. A strategy reset. A transformation of the business in a small or large way.
Business stage
- Growth-stage
- Early-stage
- Scaling
Business type
- Founder-led
- PE-backed
- SaaS / tech
- Professional services
- Other
COMMON BUSINESS SITUATIONS
What this often looks like inside a business.
- No clear positioning or messaging
- Low-quality or inconsistent lead flow
- Ineffective campaigns
- Poor brand differentiation
- Lack of content strategy
- Disconnect between marketing and sales
- Conversion gaps in funnel
- Sales not converting
- Revenue stalled
- Scaling challenges
- Other
HOW THEY HELP
A practical path from complexity to action.
- Three phases, in order. First, we build a positioning canvas together — your category, ideal customer, unique attributes, value to your target market(s), competitive alternatives and your unique differentiation, and the market trends working for or against you. That becomes the foundation everything else stands on. Second, we build a marketing plan tied directly to your business objectives, with strategies and tactics to hit those goals. We put that in a project schedule built to have unambiguous ownership, and dates for accountability and urgency. And ensure all stakeholders are bought in. Now is the time. Third, we execute — did I mention urgency? And we execute with clear and agreed upon datapoints to understand what's working and what's not. Rarely is Plan A exactly Plan A six months later. Measure, optimize, adjust, rinse and repeat. I've done this as employee #4 at a startup and inside billion-dollar divisions. The playbook scales.
- Framework: First, agreeing on your needs. What are you trying to achieve? Am I the right person? Every engagement is a little different so I'll give a typical engagement of a company needing to accelerate their growth. If we're a fit, we start with a marketing audit of your business. I look at every touchpoint with the world. Then a review of lead acquisition that flows into the sales pipeline and conversion to a customer. And the revenue. From that, we develop a plan specific to your objectives. It will vary depending on the scope of our engagement. The plan will have a measurement framework. It's built with and agreed to by your company's stakeholders. Then we execute. And measure, And learn and optimize.
- First, agreeing on your needs. What are you trying to achieve? Am I the right person? Every engagement is a little different so I'll give a typical engagement of a company needing to accelerate their growth. If we're a fit, we start with a marketing audit of your business. I look at every touchpoint with the world. Then a review of lead acquisition that flows into the sales pipeline and conversion to a customer. And the revenue. From that, we develop a plan specific to your objectives. It will vary depending on the scope of our engagement. The plan will have a measurement framework. It's built with and agreed to by your company's stakeholders. Then we execute. And measure, And learn and optimize.
- Whether you can clearly answer one question: who exactly do you serve, and why do you win? Before I look at your website, your campaigns, or your pipeline, I look at your positioning.
RELEVANT OUTCOMES
What working with Chris can lead to.
Being a sales guy looking prospects in the face and trying to sell them my product. I've sold to consumers at retail, to companies, and to government agencies.
I've also been on the vendor side selling to those retailers, distributors, again to those corporate and government prospects. Working with development teams to collaborate on creating products that the market needs.
Presenting at board meetings and weekly executive review meetings, understanding runways for businesses to succeed. Driving marketing at a startup with no revenue and single digit number of employees through a wild journey over 4 1/2 years growing to over $1 billion in annual revenue and over 8,500 employees.
Seeing our stock symbol first cross the ticker when we went IPO and wondering what I learned from the experience. The other side, leading marketing at a company that went through difficult times.
Laying off colleagues was the toughest experience of my career. Working in a range of industries...
from technology to biotech, ehealth to sports marketing, and more. Being able to bring experiences and learnings from one to another, often doing things that hadn't been done before.
Those are some of the things that shaped me but there are so many more that won't fit here.
WORKING WITH CHRIS
Get a clear view of your opportunities and the steps to accelerate your growth.