Re-Leased - Interim & Fractional - Scalewise Case Study

Business type

PropTech

Solution type

Interim & Fractional

Size of commercial team

Company stage

Series B

Founded in New Zealand in 2013, Re-Leased is a cloud-based commercial property management software that helps thousands of landlords, agents and funds manage property portfolios and leases across the world. Re-Leased employs 150 people across five offices and has 1,000+ global customers across commercial, industrial, office, retail and mixed assets.

Re-Leased Need

After a promising first half of the 2021-2022 financial year, Re-Leased faced the triple challenge of a departing global head of sales, a time-consuming financing round and the first wave of the Omicron variant in the second half of the year.

Re-Leased decided to hire a full-time CRO with global and regional experience while also transitioning a high-performing sales rep into sales leadership. Re-Leased’s CEO Tom Wallace and CFO Sam Caulton were planning to oversee the revenue function during the CRO search, but their attention was soon diverted by the financing round. This left a gap in revenue leadership across the business, but especially in EMEA, which is Re-Leased’s largest market with over 400 customers and 40 employees.

ScaleWise Impact

Re-Leased’s CRO search proved harder than first thought and after a few false starts, Re-Leased’s leadership convinced the board to hire an interim sales leader to support in EMEA.

Within 3-4 weeks of reaching out to ScaleWise, Re-Leased had seasoned commercial leader Jeremy Radcliffe in place. Knowing what support they wanted, Re-Leased tasked Jeremy with addressing three crucial sales issues: rebuilding recruitment, remapping sales territories and coaching up the existing sales team. Working 4-5 days per week, Jeremy had an immediate impact in the following ways:

1. Focused results

Instead of taking on every aspect of a full-time VP of Sales role, Jeremy focused on the three core tasks. Within one full sales cycle, not only had Jeremy achieved everything that Re-Leased requested – recruited well, territories mapped out, engaged the team – but he also got the sales process working effectively again. As such, sales returned to the desired growth trajectory in under a quarter and, with results improving week by week, Re-Leased closed the quarter higher than their most optimistic expectations when Jeremy joined.

2. Developed internal skills

Before hiring Jeremy, Re-Leased had high-performing sales reps that were adept at building sales methodologies and account lists. However, the sales reps lacked a great CRO above them to help hone their skill sets. Jeremy worked with the team of sales reps, developing their existing sales skills and teaching new ones. For example, Re-Leased works in an industry where it is difficult to find information on prospects and map new territories. Jeremy taught the sales reps how to assess the market and come up with new solutions to prospect-mapping.

3. Risk-free CRO recruitment

Re-Leased thought that hiring a CRO might take four months and aimed to carry on their recruitment drive while Jeremy was in place. Not only did this improve results during the search time, but Re-Leased were able to take their time to find the perfect CRO instead of rushing the decision. In addition, thanks to the flexible nature of interim work, Re-Leased was able to extend Jeremy’s contract beyond the new CRO’s start date to support a seamless transition.

4. Removed pressure

Re-Leased’s CEO and CFO decided to take on responsibility for the revenue function alongside their other roles while they searched for a CRO. However, a drawn-out funding round pulled their focus in many directions and increased the time pressure and strain on the leadership team. Hiring Jeremy allowed the leadership team to offload that pressure, finalise the funding round and free up their time to focus on driving other parts of the business forward.

“We just assumed a fractional leader couldn’t create change in three months, but we’ve been proven wrong. We asked for three things to solve and he went and solved them: doing what a great full-time VP would do, but even quicker. For an immediate impact like that, I would pay for an interim leader time and time again.”

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Interim & Fractional leadership?

Think of it as head-renting instead of head-hunting. Rather than spending time and money trying to hire a full-time leader, Interim & Fractional leadership involves hiring leaders on either a short-term or part-time basis usually to carry out a specific purpose. They are experienced senior-level operators that can be parachuted into your company on short notice to drive high-performance in particular aspects of your business.

Unlike a coach or a consultant, Interim & Fractional leaders are hands-on doers whose remit is to get stuck in and get things done. For more information, check out our: Definitive guide to Interim & Fractional Leadership.

2. What is the difference between Interim & Fractional?

Interim & Fractional leaders both provide flexible GTM support based on your specific needs. Interim leaders usually work full-time (4-5 days per week) for a set period of time (i.e. 4-6 months) to bridge an ‘interim’ leadership gap. Fractional leaders work a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost, usually working between 2–4 days per week on a rolling basis. As Interim & Fractional leaders flexibly work between both roles depending on the requirement, we consider them as one leadership solution.

3. How does ScaleWise place the right Interim & Fractional candidate?

We’ll help you define what you need and produce a detailed role brief with realistic goals. This goes beyond a job description, capturing the specific leader profile required and clear deliverables. Then we’ll produce a shortlist of suitable candidates (based on your needs, culture and leadership style) from our wide network of experienced Interim & Fractional commercial leaders. Finally, we’ll organise interviews to ensure there’s a cultural chemistry and expertise alignment from the outset.

4. How experienced are the Interim & Fractional candidates?

At ScaleWise, all our Interim & Fractional leaders have scaled at least one company (Seed to Series C) in senior GTM roles, usually at VP or C-Suite level in sales, marketing, customer success, partnerships or revenue operations (RevOps). Many have worked with other scale-ups in Interim & Fractional roles too. As such, they’re adept at quickly diagnosing issues, prioritising solutions and having an immediate impact.

5. What are the standard deliverables an Interim & Fractional leader can achieve?

Instead of joining with a wide-ranging brief, Interim & Fractional leaders focus on pre-agreed objectives. During the engagement, they will implement and execute a pre-agreed plan, so it’s crucial to agree on these objectives, deadlines and KPIs beforehand. Interim & Fractional leaders can also help interview and onboard their permanent replacement, ensuring they hit the ground running.

For example, the five most common tasks for an Interim & Fractional VP of Sales include restructuring the sales process, devising a coherent commercial strategy with company-wide buy-in, improving sales team performance and advising on sales hires (i.e. SDRs, AEs or even their full-time replacement).

6. How long does it take to hire an Interim & Fractional leader?

Unlike full-time hiring (which can take up to 6 months), Interim & Fractional leaders are placed within 1–4 weeks and can have an immediate impact. This short time frame is possible thanks to ScaleWise’s unrivalled network of GTM leaders and the idiosyncrasies of the Interim & Fractional model (i.e. they don’t need company-wide onboarding and can dive into pre-agreed tasks straight away).

7. What happens if my Interim & Fractional leader doesn’t work out?

ScaleWise’s matching process vastly minimises the risk of a bad partnership. However, if the Interim & Fractional leader is not working out, it’s easy to terminate the relationship as there’s no long-term contract (you take out a month-by-month contract with ScaleWise, not the leader).

At ScaleWise, we find the reverse is usually true. Companies either hire their Interim & Fractional leader full-time (this happens in 35% of cases at ScaleWise) or they decide they no longer need support in one area (i.e. sales) and want support in another area (i.e. marketing). With ScaleWise, moving from an Interim & Fractional sales leader to an Interim & Fractional marketing leader is simple.

8. How do employees respond to being managed by an Interim & Fractional leader?

Interim & Fractional leaders are not hands-off consultants, but highly-experienced commercial leaders who join with a clear mandate and instantly command respect from the team due to their previous experience. Employees respond well to their ‘external’ status as it doesn’t disrupt the internal team dynamic (and avoids office politics) and enables them to objectively make swift strategic decisions (not decisions based on bias or nostalgia).

However, it’s important for the leadership team to support the Interim & Fractional leader and make it clear to employees that they have the authority to make changes (it helps if an internal leader introduces an Interim & Fractional leader to all the key divisions within the business at the start).

9. Do Interim & Fractional leaders often join full-time after working with a company?

Our Interim & Fractional leaders turn into permanent employees every 1 in 3 placements. If you’re looking for a leader that will eventually transition to full-time, it’s worth being upfront about this in the matching stage.

10. Who is the contract with: ScaleWise or the Interim & Fractional leader?

Interim & Fractional leaders placed through ScaleWise are contracted to ScaleWise, not your company. That means we can place them quickly and easily without you needing to negotiate payment terms or waste any time setting up contracts and billing relationships with lots of different leaders. It also makes it easier to change GTM support if required (i.e. using an Interim & Fractional Customer Success leader after working with an Interim & Fractional CMO).

11. When and how do Interim & Fractional leaders work?

Unlike a coach or a consultant, Interim & Fractional leaders are hands-on doers who get stuck in and get things done. At the outset, they will agree working schedules, practices and processes with you, including days of the week, communication channels, check-ins and access to the wider team.

For example, a leader might work part-time (i.e. three days’ work spread out across the week to ensure responsiveness to company needs) in a hybrid capacity for a few companies concurrently. No matter the working agreement, though, it’s crucial to schedule frequent catch-ups (i.e. one hour per week) to discuss updates, barriers and progress.

12. How do I know Interim & Fractional leaders are motivated to work for my business?

Interim & Fractional leaders are scaling professionals. To get roles, they need a strong catalogue of past successes, positive case studies of their previous Interim & Fractional work, and supportive references. As such, they always commit to the role whole-heartedly.

Yet, more importantly, they are motivated by enjoyment. They have often chosen a portfolio career as they love taking on new challenges and sharing their insights to help companies grow, so the more fulfilling the role, the more the Interim & Fractional leader will go above and beyond.

Re-Leased Case Study

Delivering immediate sales growth through interim sales leadership.

Re-Leased Need