Most fractional CMO engagements fail because they lack structure. Companies spend $60,000 to $180,000 annually and receive a Slack channel, a monthly call, and a deck that sits in Google Drive. The cause is the absence of a documented delivery architecture.
World Consulting Group built its fractional CMO model around operational transparency before contract signature. Every deliverable, timeline, and success metric is documented upfront. The client knows what they are buying, when they will receive it, and how we measure success.
The market for fractional CMO services grew 34% between 2023 and 2025, yet buyer satisfaction scores remain flat. Most fractional CMO companies sell access to expertise. WCG sells a system. Expertise without delivery infrastructure is a bottleneck with a retainer.
Why WCG Documents Every Deliverable Before Engagement Begins
The first question a founder asks when evaluating a fractional CMO company is: What exactly am I buying? Most firms answer with capability statements. WCG answers with a delivery map.
Before any engagement begins, the client receives a scope document that specifies: hours allocated per week, deliverables tied to calendar milestones, decision points where scope may be adjusted, and the internal team structure supporting the engagement. This is a service-level agreement. The document exists because growth-stage companies cannot afford ambiguity at $10,000 per month.
In my work with mid-market CEOs, the pattern repeats: execution stalls because the engagement lacks defined outputs. A strategy deck is not a deliverable. A documented go-to-market playbook with assigned owners and success metrics is a deliverable. WCG distinguishes between the two before we sign the contract.
The framework here is simple: operational transparency reduces decision friction. When a founder knows what they will receive in Week 4, Week 8, and Week 12, the engagement becomes measurable. When the engagement is measurable, it becomes improvable.
How WCG Structures Engagement Tiers: Scope, Pricing, and Delivery Architecture
WCG offers three engagement tiers: $5,000, $10,000, and $15,000 per month. Each tier corresponds to a defined scope.
The $5,000 tier includes 10 hours per week: strategic oversight, monthly executive dashboards, and quarterly board-ready reporting. This tier is for companies with a functional marketing team but lacking strategic direction.
The $10,000 tier includes 20 hours per week: everything in the $5,000 tier plus execution oversight, campaign design, and vendor management. This tier fits companies where the marketing function exists but lacks cohesion.
The $15,000 tier includes 30 hours per week: everything in the $10,000 tier plus hands-on content development, sales enablement, and cross-functional integration with fractional COO or business consulting engagements. This tier fits companies scaling rapidly, where marketing must integrate tightly with operations and sales.
We determine scope during a two-week assessment phase. The assessment includes interviews, a marketing audit, and a gap analysis against the company’s revenue model. The output is a recommendation: which tier fits, what the expected ROI looks like, and what organizational readiness gaps must be closed before the engagement can succeed.
The internal process architecture is identical across all tiers: weekly sprints, bi-weekly strategy calls, monthly executive dashboards, and quarterly business reviews. The difference is execution depth.
The First 90 Days: Onboarding, Foundation, and System Implementation
The first 90 days follow a structured progression. Weeks 1-2 are diagnostic. The fractional CMO conducts interviews, audits existing marketing assets, and maps the customer journey. The output is a findings deck that identifies the three highest-impact opportunities and the three most critical constraints.
Weeks 3-6 are strategy development and quick wins. The CMO builds the go-to-market playbook, defines success metrics, and identifies low-hanging fruit. Quick wins are proof-of-concept tests that validate the strategic direction. A quick win might be a content calendar that generates 15 qualified leads in 30 days, or a sales enablement deck that shortens the sales cycle by 12 days.
Execution without systems is expensive repetition. Request a diagnostic.
Weeks 7-12 are system implementation and team enablement. The CMO documents processes, trains the internal team, and establishes the reporting cadence that will govern the engagement moving forward. By the end of Week 12, the foundation is complete. The client has documented playbooks, trained personnel, and a measurement framework.
Each phase includes decision points. At Week 6, the client and CMO review progress and determine whether the scope remains appropriate. If the company is scaling faster than anticipated, the engagement may move from the $5,000 tier to the $10,000 tier.
The output at Day 90 is binary: foundation complete or foundation incomplete. If incomplete, the engagement extends until the foundation is solid. WCG does not move to scaling execution until the system can support it.
Communication Cadence, Reporting Standards, and Success Metrics
The communication framework is non-negotiable across all engagement tiers. Weekly touchpoints occur via Slack or email for status updates, blockers, and quick decisions. Bi-weekly strategy calls occur via video. 60-minute sessions focused on progress review, strategic pivots, and upcoming priorities.
We deliver monthly executive dashboards by the fifth business day of each month. The dashboard includes: pipeline contribution from marketing, customer acquisition cost trends, content ROI, and brand lift indicators. If CAC is rising, the dashboard includes a hypothesis for why and a proposed intervention.
Quarterly business reviews are 90-minute sessions with the executive team. These reviews assess whether the marketing function is contributing to the company’s strategic objectives, whether the engagement scope remains appropriate, and whether new opportunities or constraints have emerged.
We customize success metrics to each client’s growth stage and revenue model. A Series A SaaS company measures pipeline contribution and cost-per-lead. A services business measures inbound inquiry volume and conversion rate. A product company measures brand awareness lift and retail placement velocity.
WCG uses a modified Balanced Scorecard framework to structure success metrics. The scorecard includes four perspectives: financial, customer, internal process, and learning. This maps to Porter’s Value Chain analysis. We evaluate marketing activities based on how they contribute to margin creation and competitive positioning, not vanity metrics.
The reporting cadence exists because accountability requires visibility. If the fractional CMO cannot articulate what we delivered this week, what we will deliver next week, and how we measure progress, the engagement is already failing.
Evaluating Fit: ROI Analysis and Decision Framework
Not every company should hire WCG. The model fits a specific profile: companies with $2 million to $50 million in revenue, product-market fit, and an existing sales function that needs marketing support. If the company lacks product-market fit, the problem is product strategy, not marketing execution.
The expected ROI in Year 1 is 3x to 5x, driven by pipeline efficiency and CAC reduction. A $ 10,000-per-month engagement costs $120,000 annually. If the engagement reduces CAC by 20% and increases pipeline contribution by 30%, the financial return is measurable within six months.
The self-assessment framework includes five indicators. First, the revenue stage. If the company has revenue below $2 million, a fractional CMO is premature. Second, organizational readiness. If the company has no documented sales process, no CRM discipline, and no existing marketing assets, the engagement will spend six months building infrastructure before it can generate ROI. Third, founder commitment. If the founder is not willing to participate in bi-weekly strategy calls and quarterly reviews, the engagement will fail. Fourth, budget realism. If the company expects a $ 5,000-per-month engagement to deliver the same output as a $ 15,000-per-month engagement, its expectations are unrealistic. Fifth, timeline expectations. If the company expects results in 30 days, the engagement is not a fit.
Clear disqualifiers include: companies seeking brand awareness without a sales function to convert it; companies with less than $2 million in revenue; companies that have not achieved product-market fit; and companies that view marketing as a cost center rather than a growth driver.
Most marketing problems are systems problems. If your team is executing hard but results are flat, the bottleneck is upstream. Book a no-obligation operational diagnostic and find out where the real constraint sits.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the main reason fractional CMO engagements typically fail?Â
- Most fractional CMO engagements fail due to a lack of structure and documented delivery architecture, leaving clients with vague deliverables like Slack channels and decks that sit unused. WCG addresses this by documenting every deliverable, timeline, and success metric before the contract is signed, ensuring clients know exactly what the engagement includes and when they will receive each deliverable.
- How much does a fractional CMO cost, and what do different price tiers include?
- WCG’s fractional CMO services range from $5,000 to $15,000 per month, with the $5,000 tier offering 10 hours weekly of strategic oversight, the $10,000 tier adding 20 hours with execution oversight and campaign design, and the $15,000 tier providing 30 hours, including hands-on content development and cross-functional integration. Each tier is determined through a two-week assessment phase that evaluates your marketing function and revenue model.
- What happens during the first 90 days of a fractional CMO engagement?Â
- The first 90 days follow a structured progression starting with weeks 1-2 of diagnostics, including interviews, marketing audits, and customer journey mapping to identify the three highest-impact opportunities. This foundation phase ensures the engagement is built on data-driven insights rather than assumptions, setting up measurable outcomes for the remainder of the engagement.
- How does WCG’s fractional CMO model differ from other fractional CMO companies?
- WCG sells a documented system with a defined delivery architecture rather than just access to expertise, which prevents the bottleneck that occurs when expertise lacks execution infrastructure. Every engagement includes a service-level agreement that specifies hours allocated, calendar-based deliverables, decision points, and the internal team structure, making the engagement measurable and improvable from day one.
Most marketing problems are not talent problems. They are system problems. If your team is executing hard but results are flat, the bottleneck is upstream.
Book a no-obligation operational diagnostic and find out where the real constraint sits.
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