Compare the leadership gap and the delivery gap separately.
If decisions stall, compare leadership responsibilities. If agreed work waits for skills or time, compare production capacity. Either a director or an agency may cover both; the proposal must name who does each part.
Start with a stalled decision or task. You may need a leader, a team with a specific skill, an internal hire or simply a clearer brief.
- Need direction? Ask who will choose and review priorities.
- Need more hands? Check skills and time for the actual work.
- Need both? Agree how leadership and delivery fit together.
What is keeping the work from moving?
Look at a recent piece of work.
Take a page update, campaign or sales handoff that stalled. Find the last point where progress stopped and name the decision or task still waiting.
A vague offer may need a business choice before anyone writes copy. An agreed plan may need a designer or writer who has time to finish it.
Amanda Natividad’s account of fractional roles shows why the job matters as much as the title. A director and a CMO can have different scopes.
“Certainly, every business is different”
Separate need from habit.
More work is not always the next step. If nobody can explain the purpose of a campaign, pause it until the owner and team agree what it should do.
Use our guide to what a fractional director owns for the role itself. This comparison helps you choose the right mix of people.
A proposal needs named leadership and production roles.
A director can connect decisions and delivery.
A part-time director may choose priorities, brief specialists and produce some work themselves. Ask which of those duties are included and which require other people.
WSI’s fractional CMO guide stresses leadership scope and the need for delivery capacity. It describes an executive role, so do not assume a director has the same remit.
An agency can bring a team or a focused skill.
An agency may offer strategy, creative work, website builds or ongoing channel support. Check the people assigned to your account and the duties covered by the proposal.
Opere18’s comparison sets out its own service offer. Its claims about agencies describe a seller’s view, rather than a rule for every agency or hire.
Three gaps to check.
Direction
Someone must choose the priority and explain the trade-offs.
Delivery
Someone needs the skills and time to make the work.
Approval
Someone must check facts, scope and spending.
An internal hire or a pause can also make sense.
Daily work may suit an employee with close access to your team. You still need a clear role and enough support for that person to succeed.
If the business has no time to review work or follow up with leads, fix that gap first. A new supplier cannot remove every duty from the owner.
Give each proposal the same brief.
Ask for a named first piece of work.
Send the same goal, current facts and available budget to each candidate. Ask them to explain the first deliverable, its owner and what would need to wait.
For a website project, use the website brief to record the work and handover needs. It remains a planning tool, rather than a hiring score.
Compare these details side by side before you compare fees. A small fee may cover less work, while a larger team may include skills you do not need.
- Who leads the work and who makes each item?
- What time and access must your team provide?
- What work, tools or supplier costs sit outside the fee?
- Who keeps the accounts and files when the work ends?
Name who can approve a change.
Asana’s RACI guide separates doing a task from owning its final result. Use that distinction to prevent a finished draft from waiting for an unnamed reviewer.
Atlassian’s DACI framework gives a decision one approver. Set spending and publishing limits so useful advice can become an agreed next step.
The same business can need both.
Imagine Birch Services, a fictional firm with an unclear service offer and an old website. The owner has hired a designer but keeps changing the brief.
A director could help the owner choose the offer and agree the page’s purpose. The designer could then build it, while the owner checks the service facts.
Test the mix against the real workload.
Birch asks for one page update and a clear inquiry handoff. It checks who can write the page, build it, review it and keep it current.
A small agency might cover all that work. A director plus a specialist might also fit, or an existing employee could lead it with some focused support.
One brief, a fair comparison.
Agree the job
One page, a clear offer and a working inquiry handoff.
Match the people
Name the lead, writer, builder and business reviewer.
Check the result
Review the page, handoff and work still left to do.
The useful comparison is which proposal covers Birch’s actual gaps. Neither a senior title nor a long service list proves the team can deliver that brief.
Review completed work and duties still left with the owner.
Keep the first review practical.
Agree a review date and the evidence you will bring. Look at completed work, unresolved choices and whether inquiries are reaching the person who can respond.
A report should help you decide what to keep, change or stop. Meetings and output counts can describe effort without proving the work helped the business.
Before choosing a supplier, use our questions for a fractional director. Ask an agency the same scope and handover questions when they fit its role.
Leave room for a different choice.
Still Matter offers defined projects, ongoing management and fractional marketing leadership. Our services describe those options; a conversation should establish the scope your business needs.
Keep useful records with the business so an employee or another supplier can take over. The goal is clear support you can judge, rather than a title you must keep.
Frequently asked questions.
We have a plan but no time to produce it. Which proposal should we favor?
Look for the skills and capacity to deliver the agreed work. An agency or hands-on director may fit, but a leadership-only remit would leave the production gap unresolved.
Our existing agency knows the business. What would justify adding a director?
A missing decision owner or coordination role may justify it. Define that gap with the agency and owner first, so the new engagement resolves a responsibility rather than duplicating an existing one.
An agency offers strategy as well as production. How do we compare it fairly?
Ask who owns the strategy, who delivers it and how the work is reviewed. Compare those named responsibilities with the director’s proposal instead of assigning capabilities by supplier label.
What owner time belongs in our comparison of the two options?
Include briefing, factual review, approvals and customer follow-up left with your team. A fee covering fewer duties can require more internal work, so compare the same complete brief.
Glossary.
- Fractional director
- A marketing leadership role with an agreed part-time scope.
- Agency
- A business providing a team or specialist services under an agreed scope.
- Remit
- The duties and decisions a person or team is asked to own.
- Capacity
- The time and skills available to complete agreed work.
- RACI
- A responsibility map identifying who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed for a task.
- DACI
- A decision framework identifying a driver, approver, contributors and people to keep informed.
Sources and method.
These primary sources support specific role and collaboration methods. Seller descriptions are perspectives, not neutral proof that one hiring model is better.
- Amanda Natividad: fractional roles and their scope
- WSI: fractional CMO remit and delivery capacity
- Opere18: its own service comparison
- Asana: RACI task responsibilities
- Atlassian: DACI decision roles
- MarketingProfs: Andy Crestodina on collaborative content
Sources checked on 14 October 2026. Birch Services and both diagrams are original illustrations. They are not client results or price forecasts.
About Jake Tripp.
Jake Tripp is the owner of Still Matter. He helps businesses connect brand strategy, identity, websites, content and practical marketing systems.
He works on his own brands and client projects. His focus is clearer decisions and work that is easier to manage.
Here, he writes about useful websites and content your team can maintain.
Learn more about the author