FractionalFRACTIONAL|ABU DHABI
Fractional Executive Search

Is the next contract waiting on a commercial leader?

Many commercial problems that look like market problems are leadership problems: nobody senior owns the whole revenue system. In a market where growth runs through institutional procurement and relationships with government-linked groups, that gap is costly. We search our collective for a commercial leader who has sold into those buyers and match them to your business.

A senior commercial executive at a glass wall above the business district
The situation

Signs the commercial leadership is missing

You may recognise some of these before you name the role:

01

Spend that never shows up as revenue

You spend on events, content and digital, but cannot trace any of it to a signed contract. When the buyer is a procurement team at a government-linked group or an ADGM asset manager, nothing connects the effort to the win.

02

A story buyers cannot repeat

The product is strong, but buyers cannot say why you are different. When the buyers who matter are sovereign-linked entities and their supply chains, a vague story keeps you off the shortlist.

03

Sales and marketing apart

Sales says the leads are wrong; marketing says sales does not follow up. Without one senior owner over both, revenue slips between them.

04

Too many sectors at once

Opportunities in industry, healthcare, AI infrastructure and financial services are all being chased, and none are being won. Without choosing where to compete, the budget spreads thin.

05

Tenders without a plan

Chasing ADNOC and government-linked supplier rosters or industrial supply chain tenders without a senior leader designing the approach is slow and expensive.

06

Relationships without a system

Abu Dhabi businesses are often built on the founder's personal relationships. That works until it needs to scale. Introductions still matter here, but they need a commercial system underneath them.

A fractional CMO we match to your business takes commercial accountability: they own revenue growth and are judged on outcomes, not activity.

Is it the right fit?

Who this is for, and who it is not

Best for

  • Revenue that has plateaued after the early channels ran their course
  • Marketing spend going out with little pipeline you can trust coming back
  • Sales and marketing pulling apart, with no one owning the number
  • A founder still carrying the commercial engine personally
  • A new segment or market that needs a proper go-to-market motion

Not for

  • A single campaign or asset an agency could deliver and hand back
  • A business with no product-market fit or revenue to build on yet
  • A tactical execution gap a specialist hire would fill
  • Teams unwilling to give one operator ownership of the number
A modern meeting room at dusk with a city view

A commercial engine, built and run by someone who has done it.

For Abu Dhabi revenue leaders

More than one commercial brain

Fractional executive search gives you a matched leader and a collective behind them.

1 monthNotice, either way
400+Curated and vetted executives
2–3 weeksBrief to deployment
30–60%Less than a full-time hire, on our engagements

CMO and COO together

A CMO and COO can work side by side: one builds demand, the other makes sure the business delivers to the standard institutional buyers expect, so growth is sustainable.

Second opinions

Your CMO can test ideas with peers in the collective: a COO on delivery, a CFO on unit economics, a CTO on which marketing tools are worth paying for.

Matched to how you sell

We search for a commercial leader whose experience matches your buyers, whether that is government-linked procurement, ADGM financial clients or industrial supply chains.

The pipeline keeps its owner

Should your CMO leave, the brief and pipeline notes we keep become the starting point for a new search, and we oversee the transition.

How it works

From diagnosis to revenue momentum

A structured engagement that moves from diagnosis to a working pipeline within months.

01

Commercial diagnostic (weeks 1–2)

Audit your current position, spend, attribution, pipeline, ICP definition, competitive positioning, team capability, and which commercial gap is the real constraint.

02

Strategy and sign-off (weeks 3–4)

A clear, actionable go-to-market strategy with prioritised channels, 90-day milestones, and commercial KPIs.

03

Execution begins (month 2–3)

Channel activation, team direction, agency management, content and campaign deployment.

04

Ongoing commercial review

Monthly pipeline tracking. Continuous optimisation. Your commercial leader stays accountable for revenue outcomes.

Which commercial leader

Do you need a fractional CMO, a CRO, or something else?

Revenue plateaus for different reasons. The right operator depends on where the commercial system is breaking.

If this is the problem
The right commercial leader
If this is the problemPositioning is unclear or the brand is not landing
The right commercial leaderFractional CMO
If this is the problemMarketing spend is not converting to pipeline
The right commercial leaderFractional CMO
If this is the problemSales and marketing are pulling apart
The right commercial leaderFractional CRO
If this is the problemPipeline forecasting is weak or untrusted
The right commercial leaderFractional CRO
If this is the problemThe founder is still the chief salesperson
The right commercial leaderFractional CRO
If this is the problemDelivery cannot handle the new demand
The right commercial leaderFractional COO
If this is the problemUnit economics are unclear
The right commercial leaderFractional CFO
Roles

Who drives revenue growth

A CMO usually leads, but revenue problems often have an operational or financial side.

Proven leadership

Revenue leaders from

Salesforce
HubSpot
Oracle
LinkedIn
Careem
Noon
Property Finder
Talabat
Common questions

The questions buyers ask first

Yes. Your team has capability; what it lacks is senior direction and accountability. The CMO provides both and lets the team do its best work.

Yes. Where the buyer is a government-linked group or an institution, selling is relationship- and reputation-led. Your CMO builds the positioning, qualification and pipeline discipline that turns founder-led selling into something the team can repeat.

Pipelines take time. Expect clarity on strategy first, then early pipeline signs, then revenue, on a timescale set by your sales cycle. Institutional sales cycles are long, so we agree measures that track progress before contracts close.

Yes. It suits businesses where delivering on growth is as much of a constraint as generating demand.

There is no recruitment fee and no full-time salary: the engagement is priced on the time and scope the work needs, usually half a day to three days a week. Our engagements typically run 30 to 60% less than a comparable full-time hire.

Related

Other moments we cover

Get started

Tell us where revenue has stalled.

We will diagnose the commercial gap (positioning, pipeline, forecasting or delivery) and match the right senior operator to own it, backed by our collective of 400+ vetted leaders.

Diagnose my revenue gap