For founders and CEOs of B2B software and SaaS companies with a complex enterprise sale, who are still the only one selling it.
Fractional VP of Sales for founder-led B2B software and SaaS companies
Your product is ready. Who’s selling it?
I’m Ed Smith. As fractional VP of Sales or advisor, I run the sale now, a day or more a week, and build the motion your first sales hire walks into — so you run the company again.
Not for you if you want lead generation, a strategy deck, or a full-time VP starting Monday. My work is complex deal craft, inside live deals.
Companies I’ve sold for
30+ years. $1M+ deals at nearly every company I’ve sold for. IBM’s then-largest ecommerce/OMS deal. Toshiba’s Kroger book: $100M+ in annual bookings. Built the GTM at Standard AI through a product pivot. Deepest in retail, commerce, order management, supply chain, and computer vision. The gate is the complex sale, not the vertical.
Not sure which title you need? Compare the roles
Fractional Sales Experts is me, Ed Smith — one senior operator, not a bench of junior consultants.
You made the shortlist. You still lost.
Your product got you the meeting. Your sales motion is costing you the deal. The committee liked the demo. Then the incumbent, procurement, InfoSec and a VP who never took a meeting each got a last look, and the deal went to the safer choice. Down-select is a milestone, not a close. The close is the two weeks after, and that is the stretch I run with you.
The first meeting goes well and leads nowhere
Discovery wasn’t mapped. Nobody owned the next step. The deal had no sales resource behind it, so it drifted.
Ghosted after a good demo
You sold the people who liked the product, not the people who can spend — or kill — the deal.
Stuck below the power base
An enthusiastic contact is not late stage if the economic buyer has never heard your name. That’s hope, not a forecast.
You’re on every call
Discovery, demos, status, price. The buyer has learned to wait for the founder. You need to be used on the calls that matter.
I help you run the motion. You run the company.
Default is fractional VP of Sales. Some founders want a counterpart on the deals and the forecast, and still close themselves — that’s advisory. Some have one pursuit, one partner, or a hire to land — that’s a special project. We pick the shape on the first call.
What I help you run
- Qualification, pipeline, and a forecast a board will believe.
- Cadence: reviews, next steps, discovery, demo prep, close.
- Position, price, and whether the offer is complete.
- Where you show up — and where you don’t.
Where the founder belongs
You and I work as partners. I put you in the moments that move the deal. I keep you out of status theater.
Need you
- The first real conversation with the economic buyer.
- Late-stage alignment, when residual risk is still sitting with the committee.
- The last commercial conversation on non-standard terms.
Only feel like they need you
- Early discovery with mid-level managers.
- Every demo and status meeting.
- Price as a rescue because they asked for the founder.
What changes in 90 days.
I don’t take the company away from you. We run the motion together. You get time back to be CEO.
Standard AI — why this practice exists
Limited concurrent clients
Complex enterprise deals are not built for founder-led teams.
The stall is rarely the demo. It is the motion: no follow-up owner, a pilot that never becomes a rollout, a champion with no budget, InfoSec late, procurement after “yes,” a partner who owns the door.
What that sale actually requires
- Map the buying process before the demo — business, technical and economic buyers, IT, security, finance, procurement.
- Selling the rollout, not the pilot.
- Keep the founder out of status theater and in the three moments that move power.
- Price and offer completeness before the RFP writes you into a corner.
I won’t take the work if
- You only want lead generation.
- You need a full-time VP tomorrow, with no handoff.
- You want a deck-and-done consultant.
Frequently asked questions
What does a fractional VP of Sales do?
A fractional VP of Sales is a senior sales leader who works part-time inside your company and runs the sales motion with you. It’s the same job a full-time VP of Sales does, sized to the stage you’re actually at.
In practice, that covers five areas:
- ICP and qualification. Who you sell to, who you walk away from, and a qualification standard the team applies the same way you would.
- Pipeline and deal strategy. A committee map on every real deal: the economic buyer, the technical reviewers, InfoSec, finance, procurement, and whoever can kill it. Every deal gets dated, owned next steps.
- The forecast. A forecast built on evidence that a board will believe, so you find out a deal is slipping before the quarter ends.
- The people who sell. Coaching you and your first sellers inside live deals. Job specs, the interview loop, comp plans, and the order you hire in.
- Position, price, and the offer. Competitive position, pricing, and whether the offer is complete before an RFP writes you into a corner.
It is not lead generation, an outsourced SDR team, or a strategy deck delivered from outside. I work inside live deals, week to week, and stay accountable for commercial outcomes.
The founder stays the founder. I bring you into the moments that move the close and keep you out of early discovery, demos, and status meetings. Decision rights and the relationships that matter stay yours.
Who do you work with?
Founders and CEOs of B2B software and SaaS companies with a complex enterprise sale. Deepest in retail, commerce, order management, supply chain, and computer vision. Typically 8 to 80 employees, startup through Series B. Usually the founder is still head of sales and there is no VP of Sales yet. The gate is the buyer: a champion, a technical review, InfoSec, finance, and procurement all have to say yes. If your buyer can swipe a card and go, I’m not the right partner. See who I work with. If you sell software into retailers, I wrote that sale down: fractional VP of Sales for retail technology companies.
When should a founder hire a fractional VP of Sales?
When the deals have outgrown one calendar. The signs are in the pipeline, not the revenue line: several people now have to say yes, cycles are stretching, buyers have learned to wait for the founder, and the forecast is a guess. Founders usually hit that between $1M and $5M ARR; founders selling seven-figure committee deals hit it earlier. I wrote the long answer: when do you need a VP of Sales. Once you know it is time, getting out of founder-led sales without losing the deals is the sequence.
Fractional VP, advisor, or a special project — which one am I hiring?
Usually the fractional VP of Sales. That is the shape where I help you run the motion and you show up only where a founder is the difference. If you still want to close every deal yourself and need the system built beside you, that is advisory. If the work is one pursuit, one partnership, or one hire and handoff, that is a special project. What each one covers.
Where are you based, and do you work remotely?
I live and work in Scottsdale, Arizona, and meet Greater Phoenix founders in person. I also work remotely with founders across the US. When a deal needs me in the room, I travel, with travel and expenses at cost and pre-approved.
How long do engagements run, and how is investment set?
Three months to start, then month to month on thirty days’ notice. Most run longer because the work compounds, and the ending is named on day one: a motion that runs without me, a full-time VP I help you hire, or continued advisory. Investment is scoped on the first call, on days per week and whether I am in your deals or beside them.
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