Senior CRM leadership, without the permanent hire.
Scoped, deliverable-based leadership of your CRM and lifecycle function. For groups between hires, mid-integration, or not yet at the size where a permanent head of function makes sense. Enterprise-grade standards from nine years inside Disney+, Barclays, Informa and ICAEW.
The problem
There is a gap between needing CRM leadership and being able to justify the permanent hire. It opens when a head of function leaves, when an acquisition doubles the estate overnight, or when the function has grown practitioners but no operating model.
The usual answers both disappoint. A permanent hire takes six months to land and locks in a cost before the shape of the role is clear. An agency provides hands but not judgement, and its incentive is more activity, not better decisions.
What usually goes wrong
The permanent hire comes first. The role is specified before the function is understood, so the group hires for the org chart it imagined rather than the operating model it needs, and finds out in month seven.
The agency fills the gap. Output continues, so the gap looks closed. But an agency executes decisions; it does not make them, and the decisions are what the gap actually was.
The best practitioner gets promoted into it. The strongest doer inherits the leadership gap without a mandate, budget or operating model, and the function loses its best pair of hands without gaining a leader.
Interim is bought as presence. Days in a seat rather than defined outcomes, so the engagement drifts, extends, and quietly becomes employment with an invoice attached.
Nothing is written down. The function runs on what its people remember, so every departure is an outage and every handover starts from zero.
The review
Fractional leadership structured around deliverables, not days in a seat.
A defined set of outcomes over a defined period: an operating model designed and installed, a team structured and standards set, a migration governed, a post-acquisition estate brought under control, a permanent hire scoped and handed a function worth inheriting.
The engagement is asynchronous by design, with scheduled leadership calls and working sessions. What you are buying is decision quality and standards, not presence.
What you receive
Agreed at the start and reviewed monthly. Depending on the scope, typically:
The deliverables themselves: an operating model documented and installed, standards and contact rules set, a team structure with roles defined, a migration governed to its acceptance criteria
A monthly written progress position against the agreed deliverables, suitable for board or fund reporting
Decisions made and recorded, so the function's logic survives the engagement
A written handover at the end: what was built, what is owned by whom, and what the next owner needs to know, whether that owner is a permanent hire or your existing team
Scope and shape
Typically the equivalent of one to one and a half days per week over three to six months. Deliverables agreed at the start; progress reviewed monthly. This is a leadership engagement, not staff augmentation: campaign execution stays with your team or your agency.
Who this is for
Groups of 200 to 2,000 people with a real CRM estate and no senior owner of it. Commissioned by the CMO, COO or CEO, and increasingly by fund-side operating partners placing capability into portfolio companies.
Why Saiga
Nine years inside CRM and lifecycle functions at Disney+, Barclays, Informa and ICAEW. Enterprise scale, regulated environments, and platform depth across Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze, Eloqua, HubSpot, Dynamics 365 and Dotdigital.
After the engagement
The engagement is designed to end. What follows is defined at the start: a permanent hire inheriting a documented function, a step down to light-touch oversight, or a clean close. A fractional arrangement that cannot articulate its own ending is a payroll line, not leadership.
Price
From £3,500 per month at one day per week equivalent, minimum three months. Scoped fully before commitment.
The function needs an owner before it needs a headcount.
FAQs
Is this an interim role?
No. It is scoped around deliverables over a defined period, not days in a seat. That distinction matters for how the engagement runs and for both sides' obligations.
How much time do we get?
Typically the equivalent of one to one and a half days per week, structured around scheduled leadership calls and asynchronous work.
Can you run our campaigns too?
No. Execution stays with your team or agency. What you are buying is decision quality and standards.
What happens at the end?
Usually one of three things: a permanent hire scoped and handed a function worth inheriting, a step down to the oversight retainer, or a clean close. All three are defined at the start.