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Fractional CMOs

How many clients can you carry before something slips?

A 10-question scorecard for fractional CMOs. Ten minutes. You get one number and your first fix.

Ben Finklea, Fractional CMO

Get my score

Why I made this

I lost a renewal over a dashboard.

I promised a client a dashboard by next week.

It wasn't done in time. What I showed looked half complete.

The client was... nonplussed. Shrug. A wasted call. Wasted time.

That client didn't renew.

I was running five clients at once. I wasn't short on hours. I was short on memory.

Here's what I believe now: capacity isn't hours. It's how much you can keep in your head.

When you go over, strategy dies first. The early warning sign: the client starts setting the agenda.

The scorecard

Answer YES or NO. Be honest. Nobody's watching.

Score 1 point for every YES.

  1. Question 1. Every promise from every client call goes into one written list the same day.

  2. Question 2. Notes from every client call are filed under that client the same day.

  3. Question 3. In your last call with each client, YOU set the agenda from your plan, not their requests.

  4. Question 4. Every client's plan was reviewed or updated in the last 30 days.

  5. Question 5. All your clients are in one narrow niche.

  6. Question 6. Right now, without opening a file, you can name each client's top 3 priorities.

  7. Question 7. You start client calls ready, not spending the first 15 minutes catching up.

  8. Question 8. In the last 90 days, no client has had to remind you of something you promised.

  9. Question 9. In the last 90 days, you haven't mixed up one client's idea, number, or voice with another's.

  10. Question 10. Back from a week off, you'd know what every client is waiting on within 10 minutes.