At some point, most Seattle businesses realize their marketing has no one truly steering it. Freelancers execute in silos, an agency runs campaigns against a brief, and no single person owns whether any of it produces pipeline. The obvious fix — a full-time CMO — costs a quarter of a million dollars and months of hiring risk.
Here a fractional CMO is the obvious answer. Instead of a full-time commitment, you get a battle-tested marketing leader part-time — owning the number, building the team, and installing systems that outlast the engagement. For Seattle businesses, it delivers the caliber of leadership they need at a cost and risk profile they can actually accept.
A fractional CMO takes the whole function off your plate. Positioning and messaging get locked so your Seattle buyers understand why you win; demand generation gets built and measured to pipeline; analytics get honest; and the team, tools, and SOPs get put in place so marketing keeps producing when the engagement scales down.
A clear go-to-market for the Seattle market and beyond — messaging your whole team can repeat.
Channels and campaigns that produce pipeline, measured to revenue instead of clicks.
The right hires, tools, and SOPs — a marketing department that runs itself.
Honest reporting that ties every dollar of spend back to pipeline and closed revenue.
A marketing budget allocated by someone accountable for the return on it.
Marketing that sales trusts and the board understands — one shared number.
The right time is usually when effort stops translating into growth. Your Seattle team is working, the invoices are getting paid, and the numbers still are not moving — because no senior operator owns the plan. Add an approaching raise or an undefendable budget, and the case for a fractional CMO makes itself.
Weeks 1–2: understand your funnel, goals, data, and the gaps holding Seattle growth back — talk to sales, customers, and the numbers.
Weeks 2–4: lock positioning, choose the channels that fit your motion, and build a 90-day roadmap tied to revenue targets.
Weeks 4–8: install the systems, make or manage the hires, launch the channels, and start producing measurable pipeline.
Weeks 8–12 and on: attribution to revenue, cut what is not working, and double down on what is — then keep compounding.
A full-time CMO owns your marketing but costs like it — $250,000-plus and a hire you cannot afford to botch. An agency will execute all day but will never set your strategy or take your number. A fractional CMO gives a Seattle company the missing middle: real ownership and senior judgment, part-time, at a price that fits.
Fractional CMO pricing stays predictable and honest — a flat monthly retainer, no equity, no surprises, scaled to the leadership you need. It typically runs 30–50% of a full-time CMO’s total compensation, so most Seattle, Washington companies get the same quality of marketing ownership for meaningfully less than a full-time hire.
With Brennen, Seattle, Washington companies get a marketing leader who has actually done the job — built the team, owned the budget, carried the number. He operates inside your business, not adjacent to it, and measures success by the engine he leaves running when he scales down.
He did not hand us a deck and leave. He built the system, hired the people, and stayed on the hook for results.
Client, B2B SaaS — CEO
A fractional CMO is an experienced chief marketing officer who leads your marketing on a part-time, ongoing basis instead of as a full-time employee. You get executive-level strategy, team leadership, and accountability for growth — at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire, and without the long recruiting cycle or equity package.
Yes. Brennen Lesser works with Seattle, Washington companies as a fractional CMO — both remotely and on-site as the engagement requires. That includes founder-led startups, funded scale-ups, SaaS businesses, professional-services firms, and established B2B companies across the Seattle metro.
Most fractional CMO engagements run at roughly 30–50% of a full-time CMO salary, billed as a flat monthly retainer with no equity and no long-term contract. The exact number depends on scope and how many days a month you need. For most Seattle companies that is a meaningful saving versus a full-time executive who would command $250,000 or more in total compensation.
An agency executes tactics — ads, content, email — usually against a brief you provide. A fractional CMO sits a level above that: they set the strategy, decide which channels to invest in, hire and manage the people (or agencies) who execute, and own the results. Think of it as renting a marketing leader, not renting a marketing vendor.
If you have the budget, the workload, and the revenue to support a $250k+ executive full-time, hire one. If you need senior marketing leadership now but can’t yet justify that cost — or you want to de-risk the decision before committing — a fractional CMO gives you the same caliber of leadership scaled to your stage, and can help you hire your eventual full-time CMO when the time comes.
Most Seattle engagements ramp in about two weeks. You skip the four-to-six-month executive search entirely — after a short discovery period, Brennen is embedded in your business, auditing the funnel and shipping a strategy while a full-time search would still be scheduling first-round interviews.
Typically seed-to-Series-B startups, SaaS companies, and growing B2B firms in Seattle, Washington doing roughly $1M–$50M in revenue — companies large enough to need real marketing leadership but not yet large enough to justify a full-time CMO on payroll.
Clear positioning your whole team can articulate, a demand-generation engine measured to pipeline and revenue, honest attribution so you stop wasting spend, and a marketing team and set of systems that keep producing after the engagement scales down. The goal is a self-sustaining function, not dependence on a consultant.
Both. Brennen works with Seattle, Washington teams remotely day-to-day and comes on-site for kickoffs, planning sessions, and key moments where being in the room matters. Modern marketing leadership doesn’t require a desk in your office five days a week.