As a DG leader, you play a critical role in supporting Sales by driving the acquisition and conversion of prospects into leads and converting them into customers. Here are some hard and nice-to-have skills (the list isn't extensive) Hard skills: Vision and experience building a multi-channel demand gen strategy - Having a good understanding of the levers that are available to you is necessary to build out your plan. This includes understanding your target persona so you can address their pain points, behaviors, and the channels they like to consume content. Data driven decision-making - This skill has become very important as finance and executives are interested in ROI and the results of your programs, so being comfortable around metrics/numbers and the ability to have deep inspection of funnel conversions will help you diagnosis and evolve your strategies. Strong cross functional collaboration - In this role, you are often the go between with Sales, Product Marketing, and Content teams. Strong communicator - Getting buy-in and alignment are important, so if you are able to provide the strategy, successes, and challenges to executives, they will more likely support your requests for resources. Nice-to-haves: Deep technical proficiency with marketing tools - basic knowledge is adequate Advanced graphic design skills In-depth product knowledge Sales-specific skills as you won't be negotiating or closing deals.

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.

Structure depends on the size of the organization, the GTM motion (sales-led or product-led, for example), and where the business is in its growth and maturity lifecycles. You can organize these roles in multiple ways, but it's crucial to avoid a bloated org; you don't want it too wide (+6 direct reports), and you should be cautious of having one manager with only one direct report. The core functions that run the demand engine must include integrated campaigns, digital demand, and event and field marketing. If you're a larger organization (over $50M in ARR), you'll likely build out an ABM and Customer Marketing function. The ABM arm can operate independently under your VP or Sr. Director of Demand or be nested within Integrated Campaigns or Digital. Customer Marketing typically sits with Demand or PMM, depending on the business goals. Integrated Campaigns: Works closely with Product Marketing on core business themes, leveraging them to build audience-first campaigns. Campaigns are not just eBooks or webinars but a collection of assets targeting a core audience across the entire account lifecycle. Measuring integrated campaigns can be tricky, so it’s important to measure signals via leading indicators like asset performance, audience engagement, lead creation, MQL conversions, and pipeline sourced and influenced. I spoke about this in detail at my 2023 SaaStr talk, check it out here. Digital Demand: Manages your inbound digital funnel; paid, organic, and owned properties. They activate, acquire, and convert leads across multiple channels, working closely with integrated campaigns, Product Marketing, Brand/Creative, and Content. This team often includes digital (paid and organic) associates and conversion rate optimization and analytics managers. They also manage key agency relationships. Monitoring leading metrics ensures efficiencies in ad spend, including impressions, CPL, CPMQL, first touch conversions, pipeline sourced, and pipeline influenced. Field and Event Sponsorships/Marketing: Manages in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, aligning with broader marketing goals. Event shapes vary based on GTM motion and core ICP. Efficient event spending requires field sales team enablement, clear objectives, audience targeting, and budget management. Key activities include logistics, content creation, and promotional campaigns. The golden thread principle comes to life here, as events reach your target ICP, and the team must work closely with PMM on positioning, campaigns on content and activations, digital on promotion, and customers on participation and engagement. Performance metrics, feedback collection, and data analysis measure event success. They track pre-event engagement, day-of metrics, and long-term pipeline and revenue metrics, ensuring new and the right audience engagement.

* Vanity Metrics: Metrics like social media followers or email opens that don’t correlate with pipeline or revenue are dangerous to focus on. They look good but rarely drive business outcomes. * MQL Quantity Over Quality: Pushing for a specific MQL count without ensuring alignment with sales can lead to wasted resources on low-quality leads. * Unrealistic Targets: Setting goals like 10x growth in a single quarter without proper market conditions or resources can damage team morale.

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.

Here are a group of internal stakeholders that I believe is important to get buy-in and approval. I would ensure every group listed below have seen your plan prior to getting it launched as each group can actually help provide assets/ideas to complement your plan. Sales leadership (Informer): Please note I specifically didn't put Sales leadership as an approver. This doesn't mean you shouldn't work with your Sales leaders often and early to get their feedback on your strategy but make sure every decision you make nested underneath that strategy is back by data and historical trends to predict the desired outcomes. Field (sellers/AEs, inbound/outbound sales rep (Input): You should always find a handful of seller to understand what painpoints your customers/prospsects are facing in market and whether or not your messaging resonates with those pinpoints. Product Marketing (Influencer): Messaging and positioning is a critical part to your success! Ensure you bring PMMs on early and often to ensure you are on point with pitch and value propositions. Your boss/VP/CMO (Approval): This one is obvious but I would absolutely make sure you get sign off on this by your chain of command to ensure your plan is complementary to the rest of the overall global marketing strategy. Customer Marketing (Influencer): It's critical to have customer success stories to validate your product/services! Your prospect/customers are going to ask sellers how other customers are using your product/services similar to them or in their industries. ABM (for up market, Influencer): Make sure your plan doesn't overlap with ABM's plan! Product (if you own PLG, Informer): same logic as ones listed in the "sales leadership" section above. Sales Enablement/Sales Programs (Informer): doing things in silo will never work. Amplify your impact by ensuring everything you do aligns with sales programs and the enablement programs for the quarter. That way, whatever you are creating demand for, your sellers will have the proper education/training to sell the solution and they will have tools from sales program and target accounts to go after. Once everyone signs off on your plan I would recommend you check in mid campaign and post campaign.

Basic email platform engagement. But most importantly, Are emails qualifying leads for outreach. Do emails speed up the qualification process. Do leads that engage with emails perform better in the sales cycle

One of the most challenging parts of a cross-functional role is managing a project with people across the organization who do not report directly to you or your function, but it is necessary. To be a good cross-functional leader you will need to provide clear direction and be a trusted business partner. Here are a few things I’d suggest in your work with other teams: * Leadership alignment: Ensure that the leaders in your organization and their organization are aligned on the strategic importance of the project you are working on together. The buy-in will be key. * Drive clarity: Create clear roles and responsibilities along with timelines to set expectations and, upfront, have them confirm they are bought in to be a part of the effort. * Understand their availability: Understand clearly what other priorities they may have and how this may impact their support of your project. This includes their own personal vacation schedule. Work this into your overall timeline. * Be a trusted business partner: Develop strong working relationships with them. Meet all your deliverables and timelines to show them you are someone they can depend on. * Hold a high standard for quality of work: Provide constructive feedback with a lens back to the project's original intent. Point back to the project's objective or best practices. This makes your feedback more impactful and aligned with what you are both trying to achieve. If needed, bring in other SMEs to back up your feedback so they understand it is coming from a place where you are all trying to deliver the highest-quality work. * Be open: Be willing to receive their feedback on your work and/or communication style.

Great Question! Here are a few to consider and why: Sales * Why: The sales team has direct insights into customer needs, pain points, and buying behaviors. They can provide valuable input on target accounts and help align sales and marketing efforts. * Role: Identify high-value accounts, provide feedback on messaging, and collaborate on account-specific strategies. Marketing * Why: The marketing team is responsible for developing and executing the ABM strategy. They bring expertise in content creation, campaign management, and analytics. * Role: Develop targeted content, manage campaigns, and measure the success of ABM initiatives. Customer Success * Why: Customer success and support teams have a deep understanding of customer satisfaction and can provide insights into account health and opportunities for upselling or cross-selling. * Role: Offer insights on customer needs, help with account retention strategies, and support customer-focused content. Executive Leadership: * Why: Executive buy-in is crucial for allocating resources, setting strategic goals, and ensuring alignment across the organization. * Role: Provide strategic direction, approve budgets, and support cross-functional collaboration.

Being the first demand generation hire is incredibly exciting. You’re in a position with endless opportunities 🌊, but that also means you’ll need to balance owning many KPIs with focusing on the ones that truly matter. Here’s how I would approach it: 1. Own All KPIs, But Prioritize What You Report 🎯: * As the first hire, you’ll naturally be responsible for tracking a wide range of metrics. You’ll care about things like blog performance (e.g., low bounce rates 📉 or high engagement 📊) because these help you understand what’s driving traffic and conversions. However, not every KPI needs to be reported to stakeholders. * Your job is to filter the noise. Stakeholders like the CEO or leadership team will only care about KPIs that directly move the needle 📈. 2. Track These Key Metrics for Stakeholders 🔑: * Opportunities Generated * Demo Requests * MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) * Total Leads * Closed-Won Opportunities from Marketing Efforts 💼 3. Stay Informed on Supporting Metrics 🧩: * While stakeholders may not care about metrics like blog bounce rates or webinar attendance on a granular level, these are crucial for your strategy. Use them to inform decisions about content creation, conversion paths, and campaign optimization. 4. Be Patient With Big Wins ⏳: * Early on, wins might feel small and less frequent. That’s normal. Over time, as you refine your processes and track your progress, those wins will compound, creating a powerful growth story 🚀. By focusing on KPIs that matter to leadership while using supporting metrics to refine your strategy, you’ll build a strong foundation for demand generation success—and create impressive results to showcase on your resume 🌟.