Find and hire a senior
Fractional Business Development Manager: Fractional Business Development, Channel Partnerships and Strategic Deals, Not Cold Outreach
Our senior fractional business development manager brings operator-level judgment to your team. Senior fractional BD leaders for companies building channel partner programs, alliances, integrations, marketplace ecosystems, and strategic deals. Real BD work, not commission-only SDR coverage dressed up with a title.
Talk to a Fractional BD
Our senior fractional business development manager brings operator-level judgment to your team
Why teams hire our fractional business development manager
BD is partnership work, not outreach
Most fractional BD offers in the market are repackaged SDR coverage, cold lists, sequences, commission-only. Real BD is channel architecture, alliance structuring, integration strategy, and deal craft. Our BD leaders have built partner programs that compound, not outreach engines that burn through their first 60 days.
Operator-level partner instincts
Our BD leaders have sat across the table from procurement, signed three-year channel agreements, negotiated co-sell economics with Big Tech, and walked away from deals that looked good on paper. The judgment to recognize an asymmetric partnership versus one that drains the team is the actual value, and the kind of judgment that doesn't come from a playbook.
Channel + alliance + marketplace as one stack
Modern BD is a stack: direct channel partners + technology alliances + marketplace listings (AWS, Azure, Snowflake, Salesforce AppExchange, HubSpot, Atlassian, Notion, etc.) + ISV programs. Most teams treat them as separate workstreams; our leaders run them as one ecosystem with shared infrastructure and aligned economics.
Why hire a fractional BD leader from Chameleon Collective
The phrase 'business development' covers a wider range of work than almost any other GTM title, anything from prospecting and outreach (which is really SDR work mislabeled) to complex partner program design to multi-year alliance negotiation. The right fractional BD engagement starts with a clear answer to which of those you actually need, because each one requires a different operator. Most teams arrive at the conversation with an outreach problem and discover, by the end of the diagnostic, that the real problem is partner program design or channel economics, work the cold-outreach motion can't fix even at infinite spend.
Channel partner programs compound; outreach engines burn cash
Direct outreach is a flow business: spend goes in, leads come out, when spend stops leads stop. Partner programs are a stock business: the work goes in, the program produces leads in the second quarter and twice that in the fourth, with diminishing marginal effort. The unit economics are radically different. Most growth-stage companies should be investing in the stock side, but the operators who can actually build a partner program are scarce, and rarely available without a senior in-seat hire. That's where fractional BD leadership fits.
Marketplace + ISV economics are the modern frontier
The biggest BD shift in the last five years is the rise of cloud and platform marketplaces. AWS Marketplace, Azure Marketplace, Salesforce AppExchange, HubSpot, Snowflake Partner Connect, Atlassian, each one represents real distribution if you're willing to invest in the listing, the co-sell motion, and the partner program. Most companies do the listing and stop, leaving the multiplier on the table. Our BD leaders have built the full motion: listing, partner enablement, co-sell rhythm, MDF allocation, joint solution development.
Deal craft for the largest opportunities
The 5-10 deals per year that actually move the revenue needle aren't won by outreach, they're won by deal craft. Multi-stakeholder navigation, technical scoping, executive sponsorship, procurement strategy, contract structuring. Our BD leaders sit in those deals when the engagement warrants, sometimes as the lead, sometimes as the strategist behind the in-house lead. The compounding effect of 2-3 well-crafted enterprise wins per year is what most BD programs actually need.
Audit your BD function
Two-week diagnostic across partner program, channel structure, marketplace footprint, and pipeline composition. What's working, what's actually outreach in disguise, where the real leverage is. Senior BD leader on it from day one.
What our fractional BD engagements cover
Most engagements bundle four to six of these workstreams, scoped against the diagnostic findings.
- Channel partner program design: partner tiers, commission structure, MDF allocation, certification program, partner-portal infrastructure.
- Partner recruitment: target partner list, outreach motion, contract design, onboarding playbook, ramp metrics.
- Technology alliances: strategic technology partners, integration roadmap, joint solution development, co-marketing motion.
- Marketplace + ISV programs: AWS / Azure / GCP, Salesforce AppExchange, HubSpot, Snowflake, Atlassian listings + co-sell motion.
- Strategic deal craft: multi-stakeholder navigation, technical scoping, executive engagement, contract structuring for top-tier opportunities.
- Channel sales overlay: partner-led versus partner-supported motion, deal registration, co-sell governance, channel conflict resolution.
- Partner enablement: sales training, technical certification, partner marketing kit, joint go-to-market plans.
- BD team build: partner manager hire plan, channel sales overlay design, transition to a full-time Head of BD.
How We Compare
| Feature | Chameleon Collective | Commission-only BD contractor | Full-time Head of BD hire |
|---|---|---|---|
| Builds partner programs that compound | Yes, channel + alliance + marketplace as a stack | Rare; usually outreach motion only | Yes |
| Marketplace + ISV expertise | Default, AWS, AppExchange, HubSpot, etc. | Uncommon | Yes, at senior hire level |
| Deal craft for top opportunities | Strategic-deal participation by default | Outreach focus; lighter on craft | Yes |
| Independent of partner referral economics | Yes, recommendations match your business | Often comp-incentivized one direction |
Frequently asked questions
Common questions from teams evaluating fractional BD engagements.
Our fractional business development manager advises: Sales closes deals into existing demand. BD creates the demand structure, partnerships, alliances, channels, integrations, that produces the deals sales then closes. In practice, the line blurs at the top of the funnel and at the strategic-deal level, but the day-to-day work is different. Sales operates against quota and pipeline; BD operates against program health and partner activation.
Our fractional business development manager advises: SDRs and BDRs run outreach motions: lists, sequences, qualification. That's a real function, but it isn't business development in the strategic sense. Our BD leaders build partner programs, alliances, marketplace motions, and strategic deals, work that compounds and produces leverage. If you need outreach, hire SDRs. If you need a partner program or alliance strategy, you need a BD leader.
Our fractional business development manager advises: Week one: pipeline review, partner landscape mapping, current-program audit. Weeks 2-4: diagnostic and 90-day plan. Weeks 4-12: partner program design or rebuild, first round of partner recruitment, marketplace listing or optimization, strategic deal sponsorship as opportunities arise. Partner programs take 2-3 quarters to fully compound; the first measurable wins land in the first quarter.
Most engagements run $15K-$35K per month at two to three days per week, scoped to outcome. A focused partner program design or marketplace motion build starts around $25K. Full multi-quarter strategic engagements run 4-8 months at the upper end.
Both. The program design is the upfront work; recruitment is the ongoing work. Our BD leaders typically run the first 10-30 partner recruitment conversations themselves, both to seed the program and to test the pitch. After that, the motion handles off to in-house partner managers or stays with the fractional leader depending on scale.
Yes, and more importantly, can help you build the motion behind the listing. The listing itself is a few weeks of setup work; the co-sell motion, partner enablement, MDF strategy, and AWS / Salesforce / HubSpot account-team engagement is where the actual distribution comes from. We have BD leaders fluent in each of the major marketplaces.
Directly. Chameleon Collective is a senior-only collective. No account-management layer between you and the leader.
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Need a permanent BD leader?
Hiring a full-time fractional business development manager? Some companies need a fractional BD leader for two to four quarters of program build. Others need a Director of BD, Head of Partnerships, or VP Alliances in seat. Our Recruit practice places senior BD and partnerships leaders into IC, fractional, and executive roles.
Get In Touch
Build BD that compounds, not outreach that burns
Work with a senior fractional business development manager. Two-week diagnostic across partner program, alliances, marketplace footprint, and strategic deals. Senior BD leader on it from day one.
