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Service · marketing leadership
Somebody senior deciding what not to spend the budget on
Most Pune manufacturers are not under-spending on marketing. They are spending across a social agency, a website vendor, an exhibition contractor, a printer and somebody doing search, with nobody owning the outcome. Nothing compounds.
Ask about availability See the operating rhythm
- Commitment
- One to two days a week
- Minimum
- Six months preferred
- Owns
- Plan, budget, agencies, the number
- Reports to
- MD, promoter or group marketing head
What the retainer covers
The value is not the hours. It is that somebody with two decades of pattern recognition is deciding where your budget should not go.
The plan and the sequence
What happens, in what order, and the discipline to stop activities that are not working. Stopping things is most of the early value.
Budget ownership
Allocation, forecast, and defending the number in front of the promoter or the board, with one-time investment separated from run rate.
Agency and vendor leadership
Selection, briefing, quality control and consolidation. Managing five vendors properly is a job, and it is usually nobody's.
Channel and distributor marketing
The communication system, enablement material and co-marketing, run rather than commissioned.
Demand generation
Search, technical content, account programmes and events, against one definition of a qualified lead.
Team development
Where a marketing team exists, leading it and addressing capability gaps honestly. Where it does not, designing the structure for when revenue justifies it.
Reporting the promoter trusts
A written monthly report with weighted pipeline, spend against plan, what shipped and what we stopped.
The operating rhythm
One day on site each week, a written report each month, a reset each quarter. It sounds procedural because it is, and it is the single most common reason clients extend past the first six months.
A promoter who cannot see what is happening in marketing will either micromanage it or cut it, usually both in that order. The rhythm removes the reason to do either.
The weekly on-site day matters more than it looks. Marketing decisions in a manufacturing business get made in corridors and canteens, and you cannot participate in those from a video call.
Fractional, agency, or a full time hire
| Fractional CMO | Agency | Full time head | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owns | The plan, the budget, the number | Delivery against a brief | Everything, once ramped |
| Strong at | Deciding what to do and holding vendors to it | Producing work at volume | Continuity and depth |
| Weak at | High volume production | Deciding what should be done at all | Being useful in month one |
| Time to value | Two to four weeks | Two to four weeks | Six to twelve months including search |
| Risk if wrong | Low. Exit at notice | Low | High. Roughly a year lost |
| Right when | You need judgement before volume | The plan exists and needs executing | Marketing is a permanent function with a team |
When you should hire instead
When you can write the role specification from experience rather than from a template. When the work is continuous rather than project shaped. When there is a team or a vendor set to lead. When revenue supports the cost without forcing short-term activity that damages what you have built.
If you cannot tick those, hiring is premature and the role will drift. That is also an argument against extending a fractional arrangement indefinitely, and I would rather say so than keep invoicing. Several engagements have ended with me writing the job description and sitting in on the interviews, which is the correct outcome.
Before you ask
How is this different from hiring you as a consultant?
Accountability. A consultant advises and leaves. In a fractional arrangement I hold the budget, brief and manage the vendors, own the KPIs and answer for the result. If an arrangement does not include those, it is advisory work and should be priced as such.
Will you work with our competitors?
No. I do not hold retainers with direct competitors in the same category simultaneously, and the conflict position is disclosed before an engagement starts.
Do you sit in our office?
Typically one day a week on site, more during a launch, with reviews and calls in between. For plants in Chakan or Ranjangaon that means a full day rather than a split one.
What is not included?
Media spend, production, printing, research, exhibition costs and any third-party fees. Travel within the Pune district is included.
We are a family business. Does an outsider work?
Frequently better than expected, because an outsider can say things internally that a long-serving employee cannot. It works when the promoter genuinely delegates decision rights, and it fails when the arrangement is really about having someone to blame.
What is currently on your marketing budget?
List the vendors and roughly what each costs. In most cases I can tell you within one conversation whether you need leadership, better execution, or simply to stop paying for two of them.
Ask about availability See case studies
Kunal Waghmare · Padmavati Hills, Mokai Vasti, Bavdhan, Pune, Maharashtra 411021
office@quiamo.com · +91 90216 02686