Bring in a Fractional CMO when growth stalls due to GTM misalignment, rising CAC, flat SQL/SQO conversion, or missing attribution. Common triggers include moving from founder-led selling to a repeatable engine, preparing for fundraising or exit, and needing an operator to align marketing, sales, and RevOps under one revenue system. For most B2B SaaS and tech-enabled services, this inflection happens around $10–50M ARR when complexity outgrows the current operating model.