21 min
Should your agency sell itself as a fractional CxO to clients? Agency Leadership Podcast
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- Marketing
Chip and Gini discuss the intricacies of fractional leadership roles within clients.
They share their experiences and provide advice on managing relationships, setting clear boundaries, handling administrative tasks, and positioning yourself accurately in these roles.
Key takeaways
* Chip Griffin: “Fractional roles tend to work best when there’s a fractional amount of work to be done.”
* Gini Dietrich: “If there’s more than one decision maker, you have to ensure that all decision makers are on board with whatever you’ve negotiated in your contract.”
* Chip Griffin: “You get some of the best aspects of being an employee without all of the baggage that comes with it.”
* Gini Dietrich: “It’s a weird position to be in, to create a role and mentor and coach and train a team and then interview to find your replacement.”
Related
* When your agency is an extension of the client’s team
View Transcript
The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.
Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.
Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich.
Chip Griffin: And Gini, I think we’re only going to have part of me today. Just a fraction. Oh boy. I guess if you’re, if you’re in listener land and not watching this video, that didn’t, that didn’t, but I, I went partially off camera while still trying to stay in relative proximity to the microphone.
So you could still hear me.
Gini Dietrich: So yeah, and I rolled my eyes, so there you go.
Chip Griffin: But no, I thought that, that there was a good conversation in the Spin Sucks community talking about, going in as a, a fractional leader, within an agent or within a client rather. And so I thought that’s something that would be worthwhile discussing, particularly because it’s something that you’ve done yourself in the not too distant past.
And so can speak to your personal experience on it. And, and I’ve done similar things as well. So, perhaps we can share some unique experiences along those lines.
Gini Dietrich: Yeah. The, the gist of the conversation in the community was, I’ve been working with a company. And I use my team to help support the PR needs.
Now the company is, is thinking about hiring an employee and would like me to direct that employee, based on, or, you know, manage them essentially. and it was, it was an interesting conversation for sure. Also, to your point, I do have that experience where I’ve, in many cases have become either the marketing director or chief marketing officer or chief communications officer for a client and directing their teams You know hiring, firing, all that kind of stuff there are some things to Consider and we again we are not attorneys or accountants. But there are things to consider from that perspective because if you are audited and you have somebody a fractional person you know, leading your team and hiring and firing and making those, those types of decisions.
And that’s what they also do for their own business. There is some, you could get into some trouble from that perspective, but we’ve had really good luck with it. You know,
Chip and Gini discuss the intricacies of fractional leadership roles within clients.
They share their experiences and provide advice on managing relationships, setting clear boundaries, handling administrative tasks, and positioning yourself accurately in these roles.
Key takeaways
* Chip Griffin: “Fractional roles tend to work best when there’s a fractional amount of work to be done.”
* Gini Dietrich: “If there’s more than one decision maker, you have to ensure that all decision makers are on board with whatever you’ve negotiated in your contract.”
* Chip Griffin: “You get some of the best aspects of being an employee without all of the baggage that comes with it.”
* Gini Dietrich: “It’s a weird position to be in, to create a role and mentor and coach and train a team and then interview to find your replacement.”
Related
* When your agency is an extension of the client’s team
View Transcript
The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy.
Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin.
Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich.
Chip Griffin: And Gini, I think we’re only going to have part of me today. Just a fraction. Oh boy. I guess if you’re, if you’re in listener land and not watching this video, that didn’t, that didn’t, but I, I went partially off camera while still trying to stay in relative proximity to the microphone.
So you could still hear me.
Gini Dietrich: So yeah, and I rolled my eyes, so there you go.
Chip Griffin: But no, I thought that, that there was a good conversation in the Spin Sucks community talking about, going in as a, a fractional leader, within an agent or within a client rather. And so I thought that’s something that would be worthwhile discussing, particularly because it’s something that you’ve done yourself in the not too distant past.
And so can speak to your personal experience on it. And, and I’ve done similar things as well. So, perhaps we can share some unique experiences along those lines.
Gini Dietrich: Yeah. The, the gist of the conversation in the community was, I’ve been working with a company. And I use my team to help support the PR needs.
Now the company is, is thinking about hiring an employee and would like me to direct that employee, based on, or, you know, manage them essentially. and it was, it was an interesting conversation for sure. Also, to your point, I do have that experience where I’ve, in many cases have become either the marketing director or chief marketing officer or chief communications officer for a client and directing their teams You know hiring, firing, all that kind of stuff there are some things to Consider and we again we are not attorneys or accountants. But there are things to consider from that perspective because if you are audited and you have somebody a fractional person you know, leading your team and hiring and firing and making those, those types of decisions.
And that’s what they also do for their own business. There is some, you could get into some trouble from that perspective, but we’ve had really good luck with it. You know,
21 min