Quick Hit 🎯

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff predicts today’s CEOs will be the last generation to manage all-human workforces, with 41% of global employers planning workforce reductions by 2030 as AI agents and fractional talent become standard collaborators, per a World Economic Forum survey cited at Davos 2025.

I for one, welcome our new Fractional Overlords…..

Real Talk About Pricing 💵

It's Not Just Monthly Retainers (And Other Things I Wish I'd Known)

I originally stumbled into the Monthly Retainer model of working as I was just starting out on my fractional journey. I didn't know anyone else working as a fractional at that time and had done some consulting work. But the reality is it wasn't a very good fit for the types of companies that I was working with. These companies need something different. They needed expertise, sure, but they also needed flexibility, digging in to understand what was going on and adapting as required. If you're in an early stage or high growth company, what's a critical issue might be very different one week to the next, let alone one month to the next.

Coming from a SAAS background, I thought why not just pay me the same amount every month, and we will identify a framework to build on, but then we can adapt that going forward. I didn’t know that I had completely reinvented the fractional retainer model, and if I had known anyone else who was working as a fractional at the time it would save me a lot of effort and time (where was the FEC when I needed it?? ).

In the Community there have been some very interesting conversations around using different approaches to pricing models, particularly at the start of an engagement to build trust to show that you're adding value. Then, ultimately, if it’s a good fit, ramping up to a full retainer model, so let's break down some of those models and how you potentially use them.

The Full Retainer: The Classic Model This is the model most people think of when they hear "fractional executive." Usually 1-2 days per week, $5-15K per month, with a 6-9 month commitment. It's not about hours though - it's about impact. You're essentially a part-time executive, deeply integrated into the business but with the flexibility to focus where needed most.

The Workshop Model: Your Foot in the Door One of the most effective ways to start a relationship is with a focused workshop or discovery session. Typically ranging from $2-5K, these sessions serve multiple purposes. They help qualify if you're a good fit for each other, demonstrate your expertise, and often lead to longer engagements. Plus, they're low-risk for the client - they get immediate value and clarity without a long-term commitment.

The Project Play: Testing the Waters Sometimes a client needs help with a specific challenge. Maybe it's building a sales process, creating a product roadmap, or setting up their operations. These fixed-scope projects, usually $10-30K over 4-12 weeks, are perfect for showing what you can do. The key here is being crystal clear about deliverables while still maintaining enough flexibility to actually solve the problem. This is very similar to a traditional consulting model.

The Advisory Route: Regular Guidance Some clients just need ongoing access to your brain. Regular coaching or advisory sessions (typically $1-3K monthly) can be a great way to provide value without the deeper commitment of a fractional role. This works especially well if you're working with leaders who need guidance rather than hands-on execution.

Building Trust Through Tiers

Here's a mistake that I have absolutely made in my fractional life 🚩🚩🚩: It's often easier to land a big retainer after starting smaller. Looking back I have definitely missed out on some killer opportunities by being too rigid about jumping straight to a retainer. A more effective and nuanced path could look like this:

1. Run a workshop

2. Move to a small consulting project

3. Graduate to ongoing fractional role

4. Move to Advisory once the heavy lifting has been completed

Why? Because everyone gets to test the fit with less risk. If you can focus on really bringing value in those first few engagements, converting to a full fractional retainer becomes much easier.

The Non-Negotiables Two things I've learned are critical regardless of the model:

1. Proper discovery/workshop upfront

2. Regular review sessions - ideally weekly, fortnightly at most

These ensure everyone's aligned on expectations, progress, and value delivery. They're not optional extras - they're core to making any model work.

The Reality Check Your rates should reflect your expertise. Context switching is a real thing - you're better off having 2 clients at $10K than 4 at $5K. And sometimes, you need to be ready to walk away if the numbers don't work.

Remember: You're not selling your time, you're selling impact. Although in many ways you are selling time - but not yours, the founders/CEOs. They can always figure things out themselves (that's what founders do), but bringing in a seasoned executive can make it so much faster to reach that goal, not to mention the actual operating bandwidth you add.

The most successful fractionals I know aren't wedded to a single model. They use different approaches depending on the situation, the client's needs, and the relationship stage. The key is being clear about what you offer, flexible in how you deliver it, and confident in the value you bring.

OK but what the hell should I charge "How much should I charge?" is probably the question I get asked most (right after "how do I get clients?" which we covered last month).

Short answer: It depends. Longer answer: It depends on what the market will pay 😁.

I charge $7,000 a month for one day per week. I landed on this through good old-fashioned market experimentation - started at $5K, gradually increased until I hit $7K where I started feeling some pushback.

But here's the thing - rates vary wildly depending on your services, seniority, experience, personal brand, and the types of companies you work with. Monthly rates can range anywhere from $4,000 to $15,000 a month. Ultimately, it's whatever the market will allow you to charge.

Don't just take my word for it though. There are some excellent resources out there to help you benchmark. Check out the FRAK State of the Union report and the comprehensive Fractional Rate Survey from the legendary Matt McFarlane here.

Community News 🗞️: 🚨Workshop Alert 🚨AI for Fractionals - Real Tools, Real Results 🛠️ with Gisela Montello

Join Gisela and Zac as they lift the hood on how they're actually using AI in their fractional practices. No corporate fluff, just practical tools and workflows that are working right now.

What we'll cover:

• Our favorite AI tools and how we're using them

• Real demos of meeting prep, content creation, and business automation

• Specific use cases you can steal and implement today

• Live Q&A to tackle your burning AI questions

This isn't theory - we'll show you exactly what's working (and what isn't) in our own fractional practices. Bring your questions and challenges, we'll workshop them together.

When: Last week of February (date TBC) Where: Virtual Recording will be available in the FEC platform

Limited spots available. Register below to save your spot!"

The tone is direct and actionable while maintaining an informal, engaging style. It emphasizes practical value and real-world application, which should resonate with your target audience of experienced professionals. Let me know if you'd like me to adjust anything!

This one is for members only folks, better join up quick!

Upcoming Fractional Masterclass

Kicking off 2024 with three practical workshops for fractional success:

• Structuring Your Fractional Business - choosing between sole trader, trust or Pty Ltd

• Tax Strategies for Fractionals - maximizing your tax effectiveness as a fractional

• Lead Generation Masterclass - building and automating your pipeline

Dates dropping soon. Only available to FEC members.

Join FEC 2.0 now and get:

• Founding member rates

• Access to masterclasses

• AI-powered member matching

• The complete Fractional Playbook

Not ready to join yet? Follow us on LinkedIn to stay in the loop.

Member Spotlight 👋 Phuong Trinh

"Tell us about your pivot to fractional work - what sparked the change?": They often say business ideas come from finding a solution for a niggling problems you’ve experienced yourself and this is mine.
I frequently faced challenges accessing flexible and experienced talent to just help get stuff done when I was leading teams and working in growing and fast paced global businesses. I also wanted to leverage my APAC expertise after moving back home to Australia.

"What's your superpower as a fractional leader?": Fractional General Counsel - commercial, strategic and value-driven legal & compliance expertise to help clients build and sustain their business.

"Describe your ideal client in one sentence": Growing businesses with ambitious plans to operate and grow across the APAC region

"What's your #1 tip for new fractional executives?" Embrace the uncertainty and feeling uncomfortable. It takes time to adjust but having a great network of fractionals has also been really helpful for me.

"What should founders know before hiring their first fractional?"It should be the same as any hire a founder makes whether it is a fractional or permanent hire - cultural fit and aligned values is absolutely key to make it work.

"Where can people connect with you?" Please come and say hi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trinhp/ and check out my site https://www.parsepartners.com/

🛠️ Tactical Gold: The "Reverse Pipeline" Strategy

What it is: Instead of waiting for leads to turn into fractional retainers, start with short diagnostic workshops and let the long-term work grow organically.

Why it works: Most fractionals try to sell retainers from the start. But founders hate commitment more than they hate spending money.

Here's how it works:

1. Package a 2-hour diagnostic workshop ($2-3K)

• Deep dive into their specific challenge

• Clear deliverable (like a 90-day roadmap)

• No commitment beyond the workshop

2. During the workshop:

• Actually solve real problems (don't hold back)

• Document everything that needs fixing

• Let them see your expertise in action

• Take detailed notes about their broader challenges

3. After the workshop:

• Send detailed notes and action items

• Highlight 2-3 quick wins they can implement immediately

• Note bigger issues that will need ongoing attention

• Don't push for more work - let them ask

Pro Tips:

• Price the workshop high enough to be taken seriously

• Solve real problems in the session - don't just tease

• Document everything meticulously

• Smash out the value you provide

• Let them ask about ongoing work

Remember: Trust is built through demonstration, not declaration. A well-run workshop does more for your pipeline than a dozen sales calls.

 🤖 AI Tip of the Month: AI Powered Meeting Research

If your calendar is anything like mine, you'll have a bunch of random meetings from all different sources regarding different things. Keeping track of the context for these impossible. So I built a bot that gives me full research on the meeting attendees, including their background, bio, LinkedIn URL and a link to them in my CRM.

The Problem

My calendar is full of meetings from all over the shop - potential clients, people interested in fractionals, tech vendors, etc etc. I usually scramble to do a quick search in my email, linkedin, CRM to see the context for the meeting.

The Solution

A fully automated workflow that: 1) Checks for external meetings only 2) researches the attendees across web, linkedin, my CRM 3) provides this summary as a slack message 12 hours before the meeting starts.

The Setup

I tried multiple tools for this. I used Lindy.ai, Zapier Agents, Zapier, building my own with Replit and finally ended up using Relay.app.

Workflow Steps

1. Event Upcoming

Trigger: An upcoming event is scheduled. This could be a client meeting, networking event, or internal discussion requiring prep work.

2. Identify External Guests

Extract and compile a list of external guests attending the event. This may include clients, prospects, or industry leaders.

3. Iterator

Each guest is processed individually to ensure accurate data retrieval.

4. Search Google for LinkedIn Profile

Using a search query (e.g., "Guest Name + LinkedIn"), find the guest’s LinkedIn profile URL.

5. Extract the LinkedIn Profile

Once the correct LinkedIn profile is identified, extract the URL for further data enrichment.

6. Get LinkedIn Profile Data from URL

Use available tools (including Attio) to pull relevant profile details such as job title, company, location, and recent activity.

7. Search Attio for Guest Record

Look up the guest in Attio to find their existing record and any relevant historical data.

8. Generate Summary with ChatGPT

Use ChatGPT to create a concise summary incorporating information from Attio, LinkedIn, and any prior interactions.

9. Create Meeting Notification

Generate a meeting preparation notification summarizing the key insights from the ChatGPT-generated summary.

10. Send Notification to #meeting-prep

Push the prepared notification to the #meeting-prep Slack channel (or equivalent platform) to ensure all relevant stakeholders are informed and ready.

Tools You'll Need

• Relay

• Attio CRM

• ChatGPT (API) or your LLM of choice)

• Slack as the output channel (you can use email, whatsapp, discord, whatever)

Reality Check

This might seem trivial, but the fact that I tried five different setups should show you how important it is to me! It’s the first real life, hardcore use case that has pushed me over the edge of paying for an automation tool. (OK, OK, but I already pay for some like Zapier).

Want to nerd out about AI workflows? Hit reply - I love talking about this stuff.

Cool Stuff Worth Checking Out 👀 

Amazingly transparent post on lead sources - from the fractional 🐐 Neil Weitzman

Perplexity Drops Deep Research - available for free (!!!) and it’s absolute banger. You should be maxxing out your 5 free daily uses friends.

Fractional Leaders are The Key To Unlocking Growth - yes well, we have been telling you, but great to see it being recognized by Professional Planners.

58% of Salesforce Enterprise Customers are using Fractional AI Execs alongside full time teams, driving 35% faster implementation. Benioff knows where it’s at.