When addressing alignment with executive stakeholders it is important to drive clear goals, KPIs, RACIs, and a strategy that outlines the pros and cons. This can include the following: 1. Goal alignment: You need to align with both stakeholders up front on the core problem we are trying to solve. By driving this alignment you ensure that everyone is on the same page around the goals we are trying to achieve. Without this, your strategy won’t align. 2. Organized swimlanes: It is important to build a RACI with an ultimate decision maker, including who can make the final decision and escalation paths as needed if these two stakeholders disagree. 3. Influencer mindset alignment: It is your job to understand their core KPIs and business needs, which you can highlight in the options you share. This includes their personal and professional drivers, which may influence their decision-making later in the process. 4. A company-first strategy: The proposed strategy should include the pros, cons, and risks. Different leaders may assign different values to each of these areas. Ideally, you align these to your company or organization's priorities to make it easier to see from a company-first perspective. Ultimately, when you provide a suggested strategy, it should be the one that provides the overall company with the least amount of risk meeting the core objectives you agreed to solve for. If needed, you can use the escalation paths in your RACI, but ideally, doing the upfront alignment will be needed less often.

Ohhh! Interesting question. Demand generation has come a long way in the last several years thanks to marketing automation, analytics, and more. We can measure, slice and dice data, and optimize in ways we never thought possible. I believe many of these systems will get smarter, likely augmented at least in some part by AI. Data will become even more important going forward. Long gone are the days when a partial picture of campaign performance is acceptable. Campaign and demand generation managers should continue to focus and hone their skills around data manipulation, analysis, optimization, and using data to tell stories. They should understand how tools with AI can help their tech stacks, program performance, and more.

A typical career path for a Demand Generation manager that I have seen involves starting within marketing operations or digital marketing. This is not all-inclusive, but I feel is common. Having a background in marketing operations makes for a strong demand generation marketer due to understanding how the business all connects between departments, between the tech stack and important processes like lead scoring, lead routing and more. Digital marketing is also a natural path because these individuals own channels that feed into the demand generation world and drive awareness or revenue for the business. Ultimately though, demand generation requires a person who is hungry, numbers driven and can problem solve quickly. So no matter your current focus, try to learn from the demand gen team at your org and find a community of likeminded marketer - like exitfive! When it comes to moving forward after you have built a solid career within demand generation, natural moves are to continue in this path which could also be named Growth Marketing, Revenue Marketing or Integrated Marketing. From my experience it's just so important to understand that our job is to drive revenue for the business.

Don't believe the "experts". NO ONE knows the answer to this question with confidence). All that said, here are my hot takes: AI will have an impact on your career as a Demand Generation professional in the medium term. How? -Automation of your routine tasks: AMEN. This is a great thing and will allow us all to spend more time focused on more interesting creative and strategic problem solving. -Enhanced Data Analysis: Again, this is rad. Imagine you have your own, personal data scientist to help you parse the reams of data we collect as marketers, and develop real and impactful business insights. -Personalization at Scale: More great news here. AI will help us personalize sales and marketing interactions beyond the hard limits of 1:1 "account based marketing". That means more net new leads, more qualified leads, more opportunities, higher average deal sizes, more closed won and happier customers. -Improved Lead Generation and Nurturing" See above for personalization; it will have a meaningful impact on our ability to ship the right ad to the right prospect at the right time. It will help us customize our nurture streams and produce the right content. This is great news for all of us. -Content Creation and Optimization: This is probably where you can see the biggest impact RIGHT NOW. If you are not using free, off the shelf tools for content ideation, outline creation, narrative flow, H1 & H2 creation and editing for readability....you are missing out. Will this replace the Content Marketing Manager or Copyeditor role anytime soon? I don't think so. It's just going to make them more productive. -Real-time Customer Insights: I don't think we're here yet, but I think it's coming and it's a GREAT THING. In near-future states, AI will provide real-time insights into customer behavior and engagement, allowing for more us to be responsive and pivot quickly to marketing strategies. The big question for us human working professionals is, "can we increase our agility and be prepared to quickly adjust campaigns based on these insights?" -Skillset Evolution: Ok so this one is INTERESTING. You want to take a risk and get ahead of building an inevitably hot, in demand skill? Invest in your query development skills (I recently heard of a startup shutting down for a month to train their entire staff on this). Get proficient in using AI tools and platforms, understanding AI-driven analytics, and how businesses can integrate AI into your overall strategy. All that said, I don't think AI will replace your role in the next 5-10 years, provided you embrace and leverage the tools that are rapidly becoming made available to you. In the long term - ten plus years - AI will almost certainly transform the the role. Maybe even eliminate it as it stands today. But there's no need to panic. It may be hard to remember, but there were no "Demand Generation Managers" 20 years ago. And Marketers like you and me still have jobs.

When I think about measurement gone wrong, my first question is typically about the marketer, not the KPI. All KPIs can be useful, assuming your measurement is scalable (i.e., it doesn’t take a week to do the analysis) and you are using them appropriately (i.e., context is everything). That said, here are some metrics that I generally find less material to understanding the health of the business: 1. Impressions/Followers/Engagement: In a world overrun by bots, ad impressions, social media followers, and engagement metrics have become less relevant. You’d be surprised how many companies with massive social media followings built their audiences by purchasing cheap likes from engagement farms. 2. Frontend Email Metrics: Between email preview panes skewing results and well-documented issues stemming from privacy updates introduced in iOS 15, open rates have become far less relevant in recent years and are no longer sufficient to understand if your message is resonating. 3. CPL & Raw Lead Metrics Without Context: Lots of marketers fall into the trap of driving down CPL at the expense of lead quality. There's no faster way to lose the trust of your sales colleagues than flooding them with low-quality leads & expecting them to convert.

Start by aligning Demand Generation’s OKRs with the company’s main pillars so that every internal stakeholder can understand your goals. For each theme, define 2-3 highly measurable KRs (key results), then tie each KR to specific activities, campaigns, or initiatives to achieve those results. For example: * Company Goal: Become the leader in the Enterprise segment. * DG Matching Goal: Drive demand for the Enterprise segment. * DG OKRs: Increase Enterprise ARR by X%; acquire X% more new Enterprise logos. * DG Activities: Invest in Enterprise trade shows and field events, launch an ABM campaign, consider some Enterprise content syndication...

The key word here is "immediately." I struggle with that. The first reason I struggle is that I don’t trust data at face value. When results look too good or too bad, I don’t react right away. I dig in to understand what’s causing it. That means I wouldn’t immediately kill a campaign just because, after 48 hours, there were no clicks or form fills. The second reason is that a lot of things take time. Modern marketing systems don’t just launch a campaign and expect instant results. They enter a learning phase. Machine learning models adjust targeting, personalization algorithms optimize based on early engagement, and audience data refines itself. So reacting too soon can do more harm than good. But There Are Signals That Require Immediate Attention. One of the most underrated but highest-impact signals comes from sales and customer-facing teams. I once launched a campaign in partnership with PMM that I felt amazing about. The work was deep, visually stunning, and multichannel. We had events, digital, and dynamic ad creative - everything we always dream of in an integrated ABM motion. Then, I got invited to a meeting with enterprise AEs. They were not happy. The campaign had everything… except effectiveness. Instead of helping close deals, it was driving consideration of our competitors. We had worked so hard to be objective that we had actually over-positioned alternative tools. Instead of reinforcing our differentiation, we created analysis paralysis. I walked out of that meeting and killed my beautiful campaign. It hurt, but it was the right thing to do. We reworked the foundational content, and only then did we relaunch. Honestly, there are tons of reasons to reconsider a campaign and take action. You might be bringing in the wrong audiences. It might be upside down on ROI. It might just not be landing. We are artist-scientists, we hypothesize and create beautiful art that we think addresses that hypothesis and then test and measure and adjust our hypothesis based on what we learn. Audience Quality Red Flags - If unqualified audiences are engaging - wrong industries, job levels, or geographies - it means something in targeting is off. Immediate ROI Discrepancies - If a campaign is spending heavily but not converting into meaningful engagement, there’s something off in the message, offer, or targeting. "Not Landing" Reports from Sales - If sales says: "Prospects don’t care about this message." "The positioning isn’t resonating in real conversations." Then you take that seriously. Numbers alone can’t tell you if a campaign is effective - it has to move deals forward. Hope that helps.

* Align With Sales First: Meet with sales to understand their goals, the ICP, and what constitutes a qualified lead. Build trust early. * Audit the Funnel: Assess what’s working in current lead gen efforts. Are there quick wins (e.g., better nurture paths, small targeting adjustments)? * Start Simple: Focus on a few key campaigns and prove value before expanding. * Build Infrastructure: Invest in tools that provide visibility and scalability (e.g., marketing automation, lead scoring). * Show ROI Early: Prioritize campaigns that can deliver measurable pipeline impact within your first 90 days.

That would definitely make it more difficult, but there are ways I think you can make a path forward. For example if you're in an early growth stage demand gen may lean more on organic channels like SEO and social to drive demand. You can use engagements like webinars or virtual meetings, linkedin live, or free/low cost events to help.

For marketers transitioning into Demand Generation, the key is to demonstrate a strong grasp of marketing fundamentals and a strategic mindset. Start by showcasing your understanding of marketing channels, the funnel, and key Demand Generation metrics like conversion rates, pipeline contribution, and ROI. Employers want to see that you can think both analytically and creatively when executing campaigns. Leverage your existing marketing experience to highlight relevant skills. For example, if you come from product marketing, emphasize your expertise in messaging and positioning—both critical for demand programs. If your background is in content marketing, illustrate how storytelling and content strategy play a role in lead generation. Understanding how different marketing functions collaborate to drive demand is a huge advantage, so demonstrate your ability to work cross-functionally to execute campaigns. Creativity is also essential. Be prepared to discuss how you would activate a campaign in the market, optimize performance, and scale results. Employers value candidates who can not only strategize but also roll up their sleeves to get things done. Finally, show initiative by familiarizing yourself with Demand Generation best practices, tools (such as marketing automation platforms and CRM systems), and emerging trends. Demonstrating a proactive learning mindset will reinforce your ability