Fractional Resources

I was talking with another fractional CTO recently. He’s sharp—he’s run teams, scaled companies, cleaned up messes. He knows what he’s doing.

But on a recent call, a founder told him:
“You know you’re overqualified, right?”

And that’s where most people start explaining.

• “Here’s why I want this role.”
• “I promise I won’t get bored.”
• “I really enjoy helping early teams.”

That’s fine. But it’s not the move.

The move is to pause… and start asking questions.

When someone says “you’re overqualified,” what they’re really saying is:
They don’t have clarity on why they need help.
Or they don’t trust themselves to use the help wisely.
Or they don’t understand what they’re hiring for.

But here’s the thing: being “overqualified” is the entire point of hiring a fractional.
You’re there because you’ve already solved these problems. You bring experience they don’t have in-house. You can help them skip the expensive mistakes.
And you’re not there forever—you’re there to get them to the next stage.

So instead of convincing them, start the Why Conversation.

• “Why now?”
• “Why this?”
• “Why me?”

Examples:

• “Why not keep an eye on this for six months and revisit it later?”
• “Why not hire a junior team to keep things stable?”
• “Why not outsource this offshore and save some money?”
• “What happens if you do nothing?”

This does two things:

1. It helps them get clear on what they really need.
2. It helps you figure out if you’re the right person for the job.

When you get to their why, the conversation shifts.
Now you’re not overqualified.
You’re the right qualified—because they’ve told you why they need you. In their own words.

Instead of you defending your experience, they start explaining their challenges.
Instead of worrying about you being overqualified, they start seeing how your experience matches their needs.
The conversation transforms from them questioning you to them selling themselves.

Here’s the thing: You’re not selling. You’re qualifying.
And when you do it right, they’ll do the selling for you.

You’re not here to convince them to pay you. You’re here to figure out if they have a problem you can solve—and whether it’s worth solving now.

Want to get better at these qualification conversations? This is exactly the kind of thing we work on in my fractional coaching community. Join us to sharpen your approach—or hop on my newsletter for more insights like this.