How to hire a fractional CMO without getting burned

Hiring a fractional CMO is easy to romanticize. You want a grown-up. They want a retainer. Then six weeks later you still approve every creative.

This is the process guide. For timing, use when to hire a fractional CMO. For money, use cost and hourly rate.

Answer first

Hire without getting burned by:

1. Writing the scorecard before you take intros
2. Asking commercial questions with your real numbers on the table
3. Running a short paid diagnostic before a long retainer
4. Putting decision rights and non-goals in writing
5. Reviewing against the scorecard at day 30 and day 90

Chemistry is necessary. Chemistry is not diligence.

Step 1: write the seat (one page)

• Business stage (€ band, channels, team)
• The bottleneck in one sentence
• 90-day outcomes
• Days per week
• Authority band (budget, vendors)
• Non-goals

If you cannot write this, you are shopping for comfort, not a hire.

Step 2: sourcing filter

Look for operators who have owned outcomes in businesses like yours (DTC or ecommerce complexity), not only brand decks. Ask for:

• A story where they killed spend
• A story where LTV or repeat moved
• A story where they managed agencies hard

Approved proof style on this site is narrow. Candidates should have their own proof. Do not accept vague "we scaled brands."

Step 3: vetting questions (use verbatim)

1. How do you define CAC and LTV for decision making?
2. Walk me through how you would judge our paid tomorrow morning with access to ads and the P&L.
3. What did you stop doing in your last engagement that the founder loved?
4. Which parts of marketing will you not own here?
5. How do you run agencies without becoming their project manager forever?
6. What does a bad 90 days look like, and how would we exit?

Score answers 1 to 5 on: commercial fluency, honesty, systems thinking, ecommerce realism, chemistry.

Hiring scorecard

Criterion	Weight	Candidate A	Candidate B
Commercial fluency	5
Ecommerce or DTC realism	5
Agency and team leadership	4
Taste / brand judgment	3
Communication load on founder	4
References check out	5

Do not hire the best storyteller with the weakest numbers talk.

Step 4: paid trial design

Good trials:

• 2 to 4 weeks
• Paid
• Deliverable: written diagnosis, 90-day plan, measurement gaps, kill list
• Access: analytics, ads, email, finance contact

Bad trials:

• Free strategy calls forever
• "Shadowing" with no output
• Immediate full retainer with no diagnostic

Step 5: contract basics

• Scope and non-goals
• Hours or days band
• Decision rights
• Confidentiality
• Exit terms (30 days is common; match your risk)
• Who owns work product

Red flags

• Guaranteed ROAS
• No interest in contribution or cash
• Wants every login on day one with no plan
• Only channel anecdotes
• Title shopping without scope

After they start

Day 14: are priorities visible? Day 30: did something get killed on purpose? Day 90: did contribution, payback or repeat move in the direction you bet on?

If not, end it cleanly. Fractional only works when either of you can leave.

Hire like an operator. The market is full of retainers. You need a brain with standards.