Most contractors doing $5M to $20M should hire a fractional COO first. The fractional COO job description covers the whole business: operations, sales process, pricing, and the leadership team. A fractional CMO covers marketing. If the business can’t handle the leads it already gets, more marketing makes the problem bigger, not smaller.
Here’s the pattern. The phones are ringing. Marketing spend keeps climbing. But you can’t tell which dollars turn into profit. Calls get missed, estimates sit unsold, and the board is chaos by 10 a.m. Your A/R is over 30 days. You’re the answer man, on call 24/7.
It feels like a marketing problem because the numbers look bad. Usually it’s a business that grew faster than its systems. That’s an operations problem wearing a marketing costume.
The Fractional COO Job Description vs. the Fractional CMO Job Description
| Compare | Fractional COO | Fractional CMO |
|---|---|---|
| Owns | The whole operating business: people, process, profit | Demand: brand, channels, campaigns |
| Main question | “Can we deliver what we sell, at a profit?” | “Are enough of the right people calling?” |
| Typical scorecard | Booking rate, close rate, gross margin, A/R days, callbacks, revenue per truck | Leads, cost per lead, channel ROI, brand reach |
| Works with | Owner, GM, service manager, dispatch, CSRs, techs | Owner, agency, marketing staff |
| Fixes | Bottlenecks, broken handoffs, pricing, leadership gaps | Weak demand, poor positioning, wasted ad spend |
| Can’t fix | A market with no demand | A business that can’t handle the demand it has |
The last row is the one that matters. A great CMO can fill your phones. Nobody in that job is there to fix the dispatch board, the price book, or the manager who won’t make a decision.
Is Your Problem Marketing or Operations? Usually Both.
Here’s what owners don’t hear from agencies. Marketing and operations aren’t two problems. They’re two ends of one problem. Marketing creates demand. Operations turns it into profit. When they’re out of sync, you either have leads you can’t handle or crews sitting idle.
Hiring a CMO and a COO separately can mean two executives pointing at each other. Marketing says the leads are good. Ops says the leads are junk. Nobody owns the gap in between, and that gap is where your money leaks.
That’s why the job I do goes past a standard fractional COO job description. I work as a fractional chief growth officer: one leader who owns growth from the first ad click to the paid invoice. Demand, booking, sales, delivery, and pricing all answer to the same scorecard. That’s revenue operations, and it’s what growth leadership means in a home service company.
I spent eight years running a $50M logistics operation, and I’ve run a marketing agency since 2019. I’ve seen both sides, and I’ve seen how often the marketing gets blamed for an operations problem.
A Quick Test: Is It Marketing or Operations?
Answer these honestly.
- Do you miss calls during busy weeks?
- Do more than a third of your estimates go unsold with no follow up?
- Are techs booked out a week or more in peak season?
- Has revenue grown while profit stayed flat?
- Do you still approve most quotes, hires, and refunds yourself?
If you said yes to two or more, start with operations. A fractional COO will get more profit from the leads you already pay for.
If you said no to all of them, your crews have open capacity, and the phone is quiet, demand may really be the constraint. Then marketing comes first.
At $2M
You probably need neither. A solid sales process and a good marketing vendor go a long way.
At $5M
This is where operations starts to crack. Leads you can’t handle show up first. A fractional COO usually pays off before a CMO does.
At $10M
You have managers and a marketing budget, but they don’t talk to each other. You need one leader over both. That’s the fractional chief growth officer role.
At $20M
Marketing and operations both need executive attention. A fractional COO who owns growth keeps them on one scorecard.
What a Growth Focused Fractional COO Covers
This is where the two job descriptions overlap. A fractional COO who owns growth covers both sides.
Local SEO and Lead Generation
A CMO asks, “How do we get more leads?” I ask, “How many leads can we handle, and which ones make money?” I led customer acquisition for an asphalt company that grew from $2M to $5M in twelve months. It worked because operations was built to keep up.
Google Ads and Paid Media Management
Google Ads costs keep rising in every trade. I hold every channel, including LSAs, to cost per booked job and margin, not clicks or cost per lead. If your agency can’t report that, it’s reporting the wrong thing.
Sales Process and CRM Alignment
This is the handoff where most money leaks. CSR booking rate, estimate follow up, and good, better, best options sit between marketing and operations. A CMO usually stops at the lead. I own it through the close.
Revenue Growth Strategy
The cheapest growth is often already in the building. One plumbing company I worked with added $500K to its bottom line from services it already offered, with no new ad spend.
Operational Systems (Like EOS) and SOPs
I run EOS in every company I work with: a weekly scorecard, a weekly leadership meeting, and clear quarterly priorities. Marketing numbers and operations numbers go on the same scorecard.
Owner Leverage and Exit From the Day to Day
“How do I stop being the bottleneck?” Neither more leads nor a better brand fixes that. Clear decision rights, managers who own their numbers, and a weekly rhythm do.
COO or CMO First? How It Plays Out by Trade
HVAC Companies
In Phoenix or Dallas, July brings more calls than you can run. More marketing in peak season just means more missed calls. Hire for capacity and memberships first. Use marketing to fill the shoulder seasons.
Plumbing Businesses
Emergency demand is rarely the issue. Dispatch, first time fix rate, and pricing usually are. Operations first.
Roofing Contractors
After a hail storm in Texas or a hurricane on the Gulf Coast, leads aren’t the constraint. Production and cash flow are. Between storms, steady retail demand matters more, and that’s where marketing earns its spend.
Electrical Companies
The labor shortage is the ceiling for most shops. More leads won’t help if you can’t staff the jobs. Recruiting, retention, and job costing come first.
Painting Companies
Painting is one trade where demand can be the real constraint, especially in slow seasons. But check your close rate and crew production first. Most painting companies have margin hiding in the estimate.
Home Restoration and Remediation
Work comes through carriers, referral partners, and aging housing stock. The bottleneck is usually response time and slow insurance A/R. That’s operations.
Logistics Companies
I turned around a trucking and freight brokerage that was near bankruptcy, got it profitable in under 24 months, and helped grow it to $50M. The new revenue lines came after the operation could carry them.
Who a Growth Focused Fractional COO Is For
A good fit
- You’re doing $5M to $20M in HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, painting, restoration, or logistics.
- You spend real money on marketing and can’t tell what’s working.
- Leads come in, but chaos follows.
- You want one leader accountable for growth, not a marketer and an operator blaming each other.
Not a fit
- You’re under $5M. A good marketing vendor and a tighter sales process come first.
- Your operation runs smoothly and you only need more demand. Hire a fractional CMO.
- You want cheap leads, not a better business.
Common Questions
What is in a fractional COO job description?
Running the leadership meeting, owning the scorecard, fixing the handoffs between sales and the field, setting pricing and SOPs, and taking daily decisions off the owner. In a home service company, the best ones also own growth across marketing and sales.
Why isn’t my marketing working?
Often it is. The leads just leak out after the phone rings: missed calls, slow follow up, one option quotes. Fix that before you change agencies.
Do I need a COO or just better leads?
If you can’t handle the leads you have, you need a COO. If your crews are idle and the phone is quiet, you may need better leads.
Can one person really cover both?
Yes, if they’ve done both. That’s the fractional chief growth officer role: one leader, one scorecard, from first click to paid invoice.
Book a Growth Diagnostic Call
This is a 30 minute working session, not a free consultation. Bring your marketing spend and your numbers from the last few months. We’ll find out whether your constraint is marketing, operations, or the gap between them, and what to fix first.
Book a Growth Diagnostic Call
