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Fractional vs full-time: the honest cost.

The rate card is not the cost. A full-time senior CRM lead costs the salary, plus employer overhead, plus the months the seat stands empty while you recruit. Put your numbers in — the comparison comes out in writing, ready for the budget thread.

Presets:

Full-time, year one all-in

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Fractional, 12 months

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Difference, year one

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All math runs in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

How to read this

The formula is deliberately simple: salary × (1 + overhead) + the pro-rated cost of the months the seat stands empty, against twelve months of a flat retainer. It leaves out what’s harder to price and mostly favors the same side: onboarding ramp, management time, the risk the hire doesn’t work out, and the exit cost when it doesn’t.

It also leaves out the honest counter-argument: if CRM work genuinely fills a senior person’s week, every week, a hire is the right call — and I’ll say so on the first call. The presets use my public retainer prices; the salary defaults are round placeholders, not claims — put in yours.

The written version of this comparison — three ways to buy the work, with what each actually includes — lives on the diligence page, built to be forwarded to your CFO.

Questions this tool gets asked

What does a full-time senior CRM lead actually cost?
The salary is the visible half. Employer taxes and benefits add 20–40% depending on the country, and the 3–6 months of recruiting add the cost of the seat standing empty. The calculator counts all three — that's the number to compare against, not the base salary.
What is a fractional CRM lead?
A senior operator who owns your CRM/lifecycle system on a fixed monthly scope — days per month, not a full-time seat. You get the judgment and the hands without the headcount, the ramp-up, or the exit cost.
When does a full-time hire beat fractional?
When CRM is your core function and the volume of work genuinely fills a week — every week. If the honest need is senior judgment plus a few hands-on days a month, a full-time senior will either be underused or drift into work you didn't hire them for.
What's included in the retainer number?
In my case: a written monthly scope, hands-on work inside your stack, decisions documented, no meter running — and leaving is deliberately easy, month-to-month after the third. The point of the calculator is that even the bigger retainer is usually a fraction of the all-in hire.

Read it like it’s your money — the diligence page → How the retainer actually works →

Want the comparison for your actual situation?

Thirty minutes, an honest read on whether you need a hire, a fractional owner — or neither yet. If a hire is the right answer, that’s what I’ll tell you.

Book a 30-min fit call or read the diligence page first