Fractional BD
Fractional BD vs. Agency: What's Going to Help the Growth of my Business?
Jan 31, 2025
Fractional Business Development vs. Agency
Traditional agencies have been an historical way companies added skills without [full time] headcount.
But agencies have several enduring problems:
Like a distributor, they are very price-sensitive. They are motivated to use lower-cost talent to support the overhead cost of multiple services offered. The more they want to grow, the more services or work they need to take on. Junior team members or freelancers are often assigned to client accounts after senior agency leaders secure the business.
Agency team members often do not have industry expertise, even if their owners do. Engineering companies can tell this difference immediately.
Given this cost challenge, agencies experience frequent turnover of the working team. Fractional partners are the resource, and they’ll always be there for you.
Identifying Growth Opportunities
One of the primary roles of a fractional business development consultant is to help engineering firms identify and capitalize on growth opportunities. This involves conducting market research, analyzing industry trends, and assessing the company’s strengths and weaknesses.
By gaining a deep understanding of the firm’s unique value proposition and target market, the consultant can develop targeted strategies to drive business expansion.
Is a market in need of a significant problem to be solved, but unsatisfied with the existing options? THIS is how Fractional BD can help you find that hidden gold and build a strategy around it to build a pipeline for sustainable revenue.
Developing Strategic Partnerships
Fractional business development consultants can also help engineering firms forge strategic partnerships and alliances. By leveraging their extensive network and industry knowledge, consultants can identify potential partners that align with the company’s goals and values. These partnerships can open up new markets, provide access to complementary resources, and enhance the firm’s competitive advantage.
These partnerships can often defray development or CapEx costs by aligning efforts between partners with common goals.
Positioning and Value Proposition Refinement
Effective sales and marketing are critical for the success of any engineering firm. A fractional business development consultant can help optimize these efforts by developing targeted marketing campaigns, refining sales processes, and identifying new channels for lead generation.
By implementing data-driven strategies and best practices, the consultant can help the firm attract more qualified leads, close more deals, and increase revenue.
New market entrants joint the fray all the time. But it shocks me when I continue to hear companies touting “best technology” or “best people” as the “UVP.” These features, even if true, aren’t differentiating enough anymore (if they ever were). Every company should feel they’ve got the best team.
Fractional BDs can help you find and exploit the gaps to mine and polish what truly gives you an advantage.
New Product Development (NPD)
This is perhaps the biggest benefit of FBD, though most companies haven’t realized it yet.
The current state of NPD is usually one SME or leader (providing voice of the technical customer) and a room full of executives or directors. The “NPD roadmap” they develop is often a regression to the mean of that discussion. The group (with good intention) hears the feedback from the SME, and agrees on a path forward.
The problem with that approach is that it incorporates nowhere near enough feedback from the market. A comment I heard in a meeting like this once was “we’ll let them know what they need.” This is the result of an insular culture NOT a customer-led NPD effort. You can guess how it went.
Data Collection & Analysis
Obtaining qualitative discovery research is a critical element enabled by Fractional BD; from there, quantifying it to direct NPD efforts is a next-level benefit.
Using their market knowledge and expertise, expert fractional BDs can secure and lead customer discovery interviews.
These discussions uncover pain points and perspectives from customer interviews (often to the customers’ delight). From there, the FBD partner quantifies a forced comparison against market alternatives (and each other if needed) and can create a polished strategy.
Whether it’s identifying new opportunities, creating strategic partnerships, guiding NPD and content efforts, or optimizing sales and marketing, fractional business development services can create sustainable growth for engineering firms years after their engagement ends.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Is “fractional” just a fancier word for freelance?
A: No, but some use it that way. “Fractional” conveys a seasoned professional, providing executive direction and consulting expertise for only a fraction of a full-time hire. Freelance is more of a transactional relationship, where the engagement focuses on tasks done or time spend vs. impactful business results.
Q: How do I know if fractional business development is right for my engineering firm?
A: Once you reach the point your business is generating revenue from multiple clients with a product the market has accepted, FBD is a great option. It can begin developing sustainable growth economically, and your FBD partner can educate your team and develop processes for when you are ready to add full time BD reps.
Q: What should I look for in a fractional business development consultant?
A: The two most important factors to consider are vision and experience, in that order. Vision is innate; an FBD leader either has it or they don’t. Experience doing what you want them to do is also critical. Some more expert on the outbound/customer engagement side, some on the strategy and marketing direction, and some in NPD. It’s up to you to determine which skills are most important, next-most, and so on.
Q: How long does a typical fractional business development engagement last?
A: FBD is an investment in the long-term growth of your company. For effective FBD, a 1-year program will let them entrench in your business, measure and optimize approaches throughout the time. 6-month engagement is the minimum if budgets are constrained, but the relationship and having the FBD come up to speed is essential and can’t reasonably be done in less time than that to deliver transformational results that last 3- or more years after the engagement.
Q: How can I measure the success of a fractional business development engagement?
A: The KPI section above provides guidance for what to measure; in general BD delivers pipeline. Ensuring you measure the from-to state of the pipeline—including number of customers, qualified leads (purchasing competitive products or who are new in market), and segment expansion—in addition to bulk dollars identified is a table stake success factor.
Contact Information
To learn more about how fractional business development can benefit your engineering firm, contact Adam Kimmel at akimmel@askconsultingsolutions.com or visit askconsultingsolutions.com.
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