I personally started my career as an entry level contractor at Salesforce, where I worked for 17 years and had 12 different roles. By the time I left, I was a Senior Vice President overseeing a large department that consisted of multiple functions and business units. My high level advice for anyone is to stay curious and slightly uncomfortable – because that will keep you learning and engaged. For recent graduates looking to start a career in Demand Generation, the key is to embrace continuous learning and adaptability. Demand Generation is a multifaceted field that touches many areas of marketing—paid media, content, email, field marketing, and analytics—offering exposure to a wide range of skills. This variety makes it an excellent starting point for those eager to develop a well-rounded marketing foundation. Early in your career, be open to taking on tasks beyond your immediate job description. In an entry-level role, saying yes to new challenges—whether it’s campaign execution, data analysis, or content development—can accelerate your growth. The more you immerse yourself in different aspects of Demand Generation, the more career pathways you create for the future. Since Demand Generation is both strategic and executional, building both soft and hard skills is crucial. Develop analytical skills to understand campaign performance, but also refine communication and collaboration skills to work cross-functionally. Being proactive, resourceful, and willing to experiment will set you apart. Finally, seek mentorship and stay curious. Follow industry trends, ask questions, and leverage every opportunity to learn from experienced marketers. Over time, this broad experience will help you identify your strengths and areas of interest, positioning you for long-term success in marketing. By staying open-minded, taking initiative, and continuously learning, you’ll set yourself up for a thriving career in Demand Generation and beyond.

Employee retention is almost always top of mind for me. I think as a people leader, it is very important to communicate the company goals and tie it back to that individual no matter what role or level. Everyone's contributions matter and being able to translate that back to what they are doing gives the individual 1) a sense of belonging and purpose and 2) motivation that their impact connects to a bigger picture. There are factors that drive people to look for new roles, maybe it's the pay, or career advancement, or they just want to solve new problems. I have had some incredible people leave my team due to various reasons. I was sad to see them go but supportive nonetheless and happy for them.

Start with understanding what the business cares about most. All Demand Gen teams are expected to help drive pipeline and bookings, but you should try to get as much context on both as possible. For example, is the business trying to move upmarket? If so, over what timeline? To what extent do your current-state investments support that objective? Are you hiring new reps? If so, in what segments/markets? The closer you can align your Demand Generation strategy to business objectives, the easier it will be to establish appropriate metrics for the team. For example, in the hypothetical above (i.e., business moving upmarket over X quarters), you will need to establish goals tied to growth within the Enterprise or Mid-Market segments instead of setting holistic lead, pipeline, and marketing-originating bookings goals.

I see Demand Gen as a system—an engine that requires multiple areas of expertise working together to drive awareness, consideration, conversion, and retention. Especially in B2B, where you’re dealing with longer sales cycles and multiple decision-makers, you need a team that can build full-funnel campaigns that nurture prospects from “never heard of us” to “customer for life.” So, who makes up this system? You’ve got performance marketers and paid media specialists making sure we’re reaching the right people at the right time. SEO experts and content strategists are constantly building our organic muscle and positioning us as a thought leader. Then you’ve got conversion rate optimization (CRO) folks ensuring that traffic isn’t just landing on our site—it’s turning into pipeline. The campaign managers/demand gen managers are the ones tying it all together. They develop campaign narratives and motions that move people through the entire buying journey. They need to know the customer inside and out—who we’re targeting, what their pain points are, and how our product solves them. And to get all of that messaging in front of the right audience, we rely on strong product marketers, copywriters and content creators who can engage prospects, whether through ads, blogs, email nurtures, or long-form thought leadership content that builds credibility in the market. On the backend, we need automation specialists and lifecycle marketers nurturing leads and driving expansion opportunities within our existing customer base. And none of this works without Marketing Ops—they’re the ones keeping the whole system running, tracking what’s working, and making sure we’re optimizing conversion rates and lead quality. Finally, we can’t forget Sales. They’re a huge part of the Demand Gen engine, whether they’re doing outbound, working inbound leads, or giving us direct feedback on what’s resonating with customers. Without a tight feedback loop with Sales (and CS, for that matter), we’re just throwing leads into the void and hoping for the best.

Although I’ll provide a framework here, you must consider your top non-negotiables when considering moving to a new company. Where you work, the culture, company size, and solutions likely differ from those around you. When I review a company, I look at the following areas and questions: 1. The Technology / Solution 1. In today’s volatile market, I look for a technology or solution that solves real-world customer problems and is future-proof against a market downturn (e.g., people will still buy this solution in a recession). 2. The company’s TAM today and future potential. Does this solution have the ability to grow, and at what rate does the market expect it to grow? 2. Leadership Team - What does their track record for success look like? For example, if they are pre-IPO, has this leadership team ever led a company to a successful IPO? Do they have a clear future vision for the company? 3. The Direct Team Culture: The direct team you work for can heavily impact your day-to-day. I am looking for a team that is: 1. Collaborative and inclusive, they enjoy working as a team. 2. Willingness to change and take on new ideas. 3. Strong leadership can help us prioritize where we focus our efforts. 4. The Opportunity: The value I believe I’ll get from taking on this role: 1. Will I learn more or something I’ve never done? 2. Is there room for me to make an impact? 3. Will the work be challenging and something different or the same every day?

Depending on your business model and offering, I recommend first and foremost partnering with your cross-functional stakeholders and building trust. For example, in a traditional B2B sales led go-to-market motion, you should make it a point to become best friends with your sales leadership team and understanding what is most important to them. If you're not aligned with what is important to sales, it'll be very difficult to see success. If you're part of a self-service SaaS go-to-market motion, partnering with Product leadership will be critical so you can work together to understand product dependencies that lead to successful customer acquisition while decreasing product barriers for customers.

Conflict results when trust has been broken. As leaders, part of our job is to pioneer change and drive culture forward, often stepping into roles where historical conflict has been present. However, being present doesn't mean the conflict has to be constant. Resolution is a path, not a switch, and most cross-team conflicts resolve when trust is re-established. To regain that trust, you need to eliminate silos as much as possible, starting in the planning cycle. Involve people in this process. One of my personal philosophies is "no surprises." None of your stakeholders should be shocked when a program is launched or an event is secured. If you plan together, you carry the accountability bag together. You win together. To improve a historically tense relationship between functions, establish regular, structured communication forums such as joint meetings, cross-functional workshops, or team-building activities. This helps break down barriers and fosters open dialogue. Align both functions around shared objectives, clearly articulating how each contributes to the organization's overall success, emphasizing mutual benefits. Ensure that leaders from both functions are committed to resolving tensions and modeling collaborative behavior. Their buy-in is crucial for driving cultural change. Conduct a thorough analysis to understand the underlying issues causing the tension, possibly involving confidential surveys, interviews, or facilitated discussions. Encourage team members to understand each other's roles, challenges, and pressures through job shadowing or role-swapping, which can build empathy. Implement clear, agreed-upon processes and workflows to reduce misunderstandings and conflicts, documenting roles, responsibilities, and expectations to clarify ambiguities. Acknowledge and reward collaborative efforts publicly, as recognizing successes can motivate continued cooperation and reinforce positive behavior. Equip team members with conflict resolution and communication skills, empowering them to handle disagreements constructively and professionally. Create channels for continuous feedback and improvement, regularly soliciting input on what's working and what needs adjustment to keep the relationship on track. If tensions are particularly high, consider bringing in a neutral third party to facilitate discussions and mediate conflicts, helping to reach fair and unbiased resolutions. By taking these steps, you can transform a historically tense relationship into a productive and collaborative partnership, ultimately enhancing overall organizational performance.

Great question! To me, it would be what I call 'MCI' (Marketing Customer Interaction) or 'MAI' (Marketing Account Interactions). The goal here is to track marketing touches at the account level. By tracking all campaign touches—whether it’s for a prospect account or an account ready for expansion—you can assess some level of intent. For instance, let’s say one account had 5 people attend a webinar, 2 people meet us at an event, and 10 others open and click your newsletter. This would give a total score of 17 interactions for the week, which is a clear indicator that the sales team should reach out. MCIs allow you to prioritize these accounts based on urgency. Sales teams love this!

It depends on the stage of the company and your goals. If you have huge brand recognition and can rely on organic (web or social) or word of mouth, you may not need ads to amplify your programs. Otherways, advertising is a great way to get in front of an audience. Another amazing (and often forgotten) application is that ads are a fantastic place to test and learn and then apply to other channels. In ads, you can control the audience, the test, and the message.

Effective OKRs for demand gen are measurable objectives that drive impact or growth in key areas such as acquisition, pipeline, awareness, and engagement. Before creating OKRs, it's crucial to have a firm grasp of not only your team's specific goals but also the broader company objectives. This ensures that your marketing efforts and the OKRs you develop will ladder up to these higher-level objectives. This approach elevates your OKRs from good to great and enables you to tailor them more effectively, making them more specific and relevant. For instance, if launching a new product is a top company-wide priority, then your OKRs should be refined accordingly. Here are a couple of examples: * Decent OKR: Source X% of site traffic * Better OKR: Source X% of traffic to the new product site page * Decent OKR: Source $X in sourced opportunities * Better OKR: Source $X in sourced opportunities, with Y% being new product opportunities