Engagement cost
What Fractional Uplifts costs — and what you're actually buying
Most consultants make you sit through a discovery call before they'll tell you what they charge. That's not a sales process. That's a qualification filter dressed up as a conversation.
Here's the number before you ask.
Also see: Louisville fractional sales manager · Outsourced sales manager · Fractional VP of Sales
The engagement model
Two slots. One clear price.
Fractional Uplifts runs on a slot-based schedule. Each day has two four-hour slots — morning and afternoon. You buy one or both.
One slot
$3,500/month
Focused, recurring engagement
Two slots
$5,000/month
Deeper embedded engagement
No tiers. No add-ons. No scope creep baked into the structure. You know what you're buying before we talk.
What happens inside a slot
No two engagements run the same way
Some organizations need more execution — the reps need help, the pipeline is a mess, deals are stalling for reasons nobody has named. Others need more strategy — the structure is wrong, the market has shifted, the comp plan is rewarding the wrong behavior. Most need both, in different proportions, at different times.
Pipeline and forecasting
Funnel diagnostics. Conversion rate analysis. Forecasting model rebuild. CRM optimization. KPI redesign. You should always know which deals are real, which are wishful thinking, and what the next 90 days actually look like.
Rep coaching
Group sessions and one-on-ones. We look at what's breaking down — discovery, objection handling, deal progression, closing — and fix it at the rep level, not just the process level. Habits that compound over time, not a one-time training that fades in two weeks.
Sales process re-engineering
Full process mapping. Stage redesign. Qualification frameworks — MEDDICC, SPICED, BANT — applied to your actual motion, not a generic template. Playbook creation. Handoff optimization. Most companies are running on an informal process that made sense at $500K and stopped making sense at $3M.
Go-to-market strategy
Market segmentation. ICP definition. Value proposition refinement. Channel strategy. Pricing strategy. Whether you're entering a new vertical, launching a new product, or trying to figure out why the market you thought you owned is getting harder — this is the work.
Sales organization design
Territory mapping. Role design across AE, SDR, AM, and CSM functions. Compensation restructuring. Coverage model optimization. Sales capacity modeling. Companies outgrow their original sales structure faster than they realize.
Pricing and packaging
Competitive pricing analysis. Value-based pricing. Discounting policy. Packaging redesign. Pricing is one of the highest-ROI projects in any B2B business and one of the most consistently neglected.
Revenue operations
CRM rebuild. Automation design. Reporting dashboards. Data hygiene. Tech stack consolidation. If your reps spend more time updating records than selling, the system is working against you.
Market expansion
Geographic expansion. Vertical expansion. Competitive landscape analysis. Entry strategy. Particularly relevant for Louisville companies looking at Nashville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, or Chicago — markets that look similar and aren't.
Performance turnaround
Declining sales diagnostics. Root-cause analysis. Rapid-response action plans. 90-day turnaround programs. When the number is going the wrong direction and you need to know why before you can fix it.
M&A commercial due diligence
Market sizing. Competitive analysis. Customer interviews. Revenue quality assessment. Synergy modeling. For companies on either side of a transaction who need an honest read on the commercial picture.
The consultant comparison
The rate is competitive. The model is different.
When founders hear $3,500 a month, the instinct is to run the hourly math. Fair. Here it is.
| Firm type | Typical rate |
|---|---|
| McKinsey / Bain / BCG | $390–$549/hr |
| Big Four strategy (Deloitte S&O, EY-Parthenon, PwC Strategy&, KPMG Advisory) | $250–$400/hr |
| Boutique strategy firms | $175–$300/hr |
| Fractional Uplifts — one slot | $218.75/hr |
| Fractional Uplifts — two slots | $156.25/hr |
The rate is competitive. But the rate comparison misses the more important difference. A traditional consultant diagnoses, recommends, and leaves. You get a report. You get a presentation. You get a list of things to do that your team may or may not have the capacity or context to execute. Fractional Uplifts doesn't hand you a report. We're in the pipeline with you. We're on the calls. We're coaching the reps, rebuilding the process, and running the forecast review — not writing a document about how someone else should do it. The output isn't a deliverable. It's a result.
The hiring comparison
What it costs to solve the same problem another way
The more honest comparison isn't consultants. It's what you'd spend trying to solve the same problem by hiring.
Hire a VP of Sales
Base salary $150K–$200K. OTE with bonus $220K–$280K. Benefits, equity, payroll tax: add 25–30%. Time to hire: 3–5 months. Time to ramp: another 3–6 months. And if it doesn't work out, you've lost 12 months and a significant piece of your runway.
$300,000+ first year
Hire a sales manager
Add benefits, taxes, etc. — another $20,000–$30,000 on top of base. Same ramp timeline. Same risk. And you still don't have the strategic layer — someone who can build the system, not just manage inside it.
$80,000–$120,000 base
Plus benefits and taxes
Fractional Uplifts — one slot
Embedded sales leadership from day one. No hiring risk. No ramp time. No long-term commitment.
$3,500/month
If the engagement surfaces the reason your close rate is 12% instead of 25% — and fixes it — what's the revenue value of that delta over the next 12 months? For most Louisville B2B companies running $2M–$15M in revenue, the answer is multiples of the engagement cost.
Need FSM-specific numbers?
See a full cost breakdown for fractional sales manager engagements in Louisville — including a line-by-line full-time comparison and FAQ.
Project work
Not every problem needs a monthly engagement
Some problems are discrete — a broken process, a missing playbook, a decision that needs outside perspective. Project work is scoped upfront with a fixed price. You know what you're getting before we start.
Projects can run standalone or alongside a monthly slot. Many clients start with a project — a playbook build or a process audit — and move to a slot once they see how the work lands.
Why the slot model
Clarity on both sides
The slot model exists because it creates clarity on both sides. You know exactly what you're committing to. There's no open-ended retainer that quietly becomes a line item nobody questions. No 'we'll figure out the scope as we go.' You buy a slot, we show up fully prepared, and we do the work. It also keeps the engagement honest. If one slot isn't moving the needle, we'll tell you. If you need more coverage, we'll tell you that too. The model doesn't incentivize scope expansion — it incentivizes making every slot count.
Who this is for
The slot model works best for Louisville B2B companies that:
$3,500/month is a real number. It's also a number that makes sense the moment you compare it to the alternative.
People also ask
Fractional sales leadership pricing — common questions
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
The first conversation is free
See what a slot looks like in practice
We'll talk through where your revenue is stuck, what's causing it, and whether fractional coverage makes sense for your situation. No pitch. No proposal until you ask for one.
Also see: Outsourced sales manager · Fractional VP of Sales · Louisville fractional sales leadership
Ready to build a sales org that scales?
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For Founders & Early-Stage Startups
Pre-Series B? The math looks different for startups.
No equity, no 90-day ramp, operational in under a week. See how fractional sales leadership is structured for early-stage companies.