You need someone who understands how federal and state legislation impacts your go-to-market strategy, who can connect regulatory changes to your messaging and positioning and who grasps the macro trends shaping healthcare delivery.
Look for someone who understands complex buying committees with 6-12 month cycles and gets the nuanced difference between selling to payers versus providers. A fractional CMO should give you access to macro-level strategic thinking at a price that’s right-sized for where you are.
Strategy + Execution (High-Leverage Only)
Most fractional CMOs focus solely on strategy. You need someone who can be a player-coach: developing the framework AND executing the high-leverage, big-picture initiatives alongside your team. Think ABM roadmaps, messaging and positioning matrices and enterprise campaign strategies. They shouldn’t be writing every blog post, but they should be developing the content framework and training your team to execute it.
Ask specific questions: “What would you personally execute in the first 30 days versus what would you delegate to my team?”
Full-Funnel Thinking and Cross-Functional Collaboration
Your fractional CMO should understand how marketing connects to every part of your business. They need data-informed creativity that balances innovative approaches with measurable results, plus the ability to work seamlessly with sales and product teams. Look for someone who understands how marketing activities impact customer success and retention, not just demand generation.
Healthcare sales cycles are long and complex. Your fractional CMO needs to think beyond top-of-funnel metrics and understand how to nurture prospects through a 6-12 month buying process while keeping multiple stakeholders engaged.
Knows How to Ask the Right Questions
Healthcare and health tech is incredibly broad. It may be difficult to find that unicorn who knows your very specific healthcare vertical AND can do strategy AND can execute AND is in your price range.
More important than deep vertical expertise is someone who knows how to ask the right questions that get to the heart of what health tech companies really need to grow. They should quickly understand your unique market position, competitive landscape and growth challenges through strategic inquiry.
Experience with Your GTM Motion
Whether you’re running sales-led growth (SLG), product-led growth (PLG) or a hybrid approach, your fractional CMO should have specific experience with your go-to-market motion. Each requires different marketing strategies, metrics and execution tactics.
SLG companies need someone who understands enterprise sales enablement and account-based marketing. PLG companies need expertise in product marketing and user activation. Hybrid models require someone who can balance both approaches.
Clear Operating System for Results
Look for someone who has a proven framework for driving marketing activities forward and getting results. They should be able to explain their process for diagnosing marketing challenges quickly, prioritizing initiatives based on impact, setting up reporting systems and creating accountability across teams.
Ask to see examples of their operating system in action with other clients. How do they structure their first 30 days? What does their weekly reporting look like? How do they ensure momentum doesn’t stall between strategy and execution?
Strategic AI Implementation
With AI projected to power 44% of marketing efforts within three years, you need someone who can build a strategic AI approach that drives efficiency and cost savings.
They should help you figure out the right mix of AI tools and AI-skilled employees that increase your team’s output. This means identifying which processes to automate, where human creativity still matters, and how to upskill your existing team to work alongside AI.
Cultural Fit
This person will be embedded in your team. They need to align with your values and work style. Do they communicate in a way that resonates with your team? Can they work within your company’s pace and decision-making style? Do they understand and respect your mission and vision? Will they enhance your company culture or create friction?
The wrong cultural fit can undermine even the most qualified candidate. Pay attention to how they interact with your team during the interview process.
Emotional Intelligence & Executive Maturity
Fractional leaders often get dropped into complex, high-pressure situations where they need to navigate existing team dynamics and earn credibility quickly. Look for someone who demonstrates:
- Confidence without ego – they can challenge your thinking without being confrontational
- Curiosity without indecision – they ask the right questions but can move forward with incomplete information
- Calm leadership when things get chaotic – they maintain composure during stressful situations and help stabilize the team
You’re bringing them into your company culture, and they need to read the room while driving results. The wrong personality fit can create friction that undermines their effectiveness.
Growth Mindset and Adaptability
Health tech moves fast. Your fractional CMO needs to adapt as your product evolves, market conditions shift, and new regulations emerge. Look for someone who embraces experimentation and learning from failures, stays current with industry trends and new marketing technologies, can pivot strategies quickly based on new data, and demonstrates continuous learning in their own professional development.
Ask about times they’ve had to completely change direction on a campaign or strategy. How did they handle it? What did they learn?
Right-Sized for Your Stage
A fractional CMO who works with $100M companies will be wrong for your $5M startup. Look for someone with tiered approaches based on company stage, funding level and complexity. The scope should match where you are, not where you want to be.
Startup Experience and Agility
This is where a lot of fractional executives fall short. They’re used to working with established companies that have defined processes, clear hierarchies and predictable budgets.
Startups require a different mindset entirely. You need someone who can make strategic decisions with incomplete data, build systems that evolve as you scale, work cross-functionally without getting bogged down in politics, understand the pressure of runway and investor expectations and adapt quickly when market conditions or priorities shift.
