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.

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.

If Demand Generation and Content Marketing were to share a single KPI, Marketing Engaged Leads (MELs)—also known as leads generated or new emails in the system—would be ideal. MELs provide a clear view of top-of-funnel content performance, it answers which blog posts, landing pages, and ad creatives drive new signups and grow the lead base. This KPI is powerful for understanding if content is attracting the right leads and if Demand Generation can scale paid traffic to that specific content effectively. However, there are additional KPIs and metrics to consider: For Pure Awareness Efforts: Content marketing can be assessed through web traffic metrics, such as page views and visits. It’s crucial to exclude any artificial traffic boosts, like those from paid promotion or newsletters, to get an accurate picture. I recall a time when a niche topic seemed highly successful in page views, only to later realize the blog post’s high traffic came primarily from onboarding emails rather than organic interest. Further Down the Funnel: Content and Demand Gen can align on KPIs like opportunity creation and revenue influenced by content. For instance, did a particular piece of content serve as the last touchpoint before someone started a trial or before sales created an opportunity? This alignment is even stronger when the sales team leverages content in outbound efforts, showcasing its value directly in the sales process.

Resource Reality Small SaaS: * Limited budget means every dollar must work twice as hard * Pie-shaped marketers who juggle multiple channels Large SaaS: * Brand feeds into Demand. Demand gen has a tailwind. * Deep pockets fund specialized teams * Can afford to be wrong longer (but often is) Strategy Differences Small SaaS: * Narrow ICP focus is a feature, not a bug * Depending on your category, product-led growth isn't optional – it's survival * A number of one-off marketing 'activities' not fully tied to demand goals Large SaaS: * Runs parallel GTM motions because they can, not because they should. Think ABX, Partner & Sales-led. * Complex buying committee. More expensive to sell into. * Activities begin to get bucketed under campaigns, programs or themes Content That Works Small SaaS: * Takes contrarian positions that make prospects sit up * Founder-driven thought leadership that can't be delegated * Raw truths are celebrated Large SaaS: * Sometimes you trade authenticity for polish (usually a bad trade) The Channel Truth Small SaaS: * Doubles down on organic channels that compound over time * Knows that focus beats optionality in the early days Large SaaS: * Spreads attention across too many channels because FOMO * Maintains expensive field marketing programs that are rarely measured correctly Most large SaaS companies waste significant % of their demand gen budget on ineffective channels they're afraid to cut. Meanwhile, the best small SaaS companies turn their constraints into advantages – creating focused, authentic demand programs that connect directly with their ideal customers. Most times, the winners in demand generation aren't those with the deepest pockets, but those who ruthlessly align their plan with their ‘actual’ market position rather than their aspirational one. These companies thrive by placing disciplined small bets and using structured experiments to quickly validate or kill their hypotheses, allowing them to double down on what works and abandon what doesn't before burning significant resources.

It starts with understanding that there's a huge difference between expanding, which is about finding additional use cases or teams within an organization, and landing, which is about identifying the right starting point for a user. First, in many organizations, I've found that some products do NOT work for landing new customers. They don’t stand alone well against competitive products, and instead, they serve better as add-ons for existing customers, where "good enough" is sufficient when layered on top of a strong primary use case. If you think about this as breaking in vs. building up, you're already starting from the right perspective. There are also differences in where the customer is in their journey. When landing new accounts, you’re ideally creating demand, meaning customers did not know they had a pain and didn’t realize how valuable the solution could be. Side note: In the world of AI-mediated buying, this awareness of pain is more important than ever. If a customer doesn’t know they have a problem, they won’t know to search for a solution, and they certainly won’t know what to ask AI about it. When you’re expanding, you're building new relationships but from an established foothold. Instead of convincing someone of a problem they didn't know they had, you're looking for signals inside the organization that suggest a need your product already solves. You’re working through the org from a different perspective of discovery, leveraging the contacts you have today to move into new teams, geographies, or product categories. The resources and execution models differ drastically between landing and expanding. Landing requires broad reach and heavy outbound efforts to generate awareness and demand. This involves BDRs, outbound prospecting, digital campaigns, intent-based ads, events, and targeted plays. The challenge is getting net new attention and breaking into the account for the first time. Expansion, on the other hand, is about leveraging internal champions and customer teams to drive adoption. AEs, CSMs, SEs, DevRel, and partner teams play a much bigger role here. Instead of net-new outreach, this is about deepening the relationship and proactively recognizing expansion opportunities before the customer does. When landing new accounts, your content needs to answer the question: Why change? You focus on category differentiation, pain-point awareness, and competitive positioning. You need proof points, case studies, and thought leadership that shift mindsets and make prospects see why the problem needs solving now. When expanding, the question shifts to: What’s next? It’s about showing ROI, reinforcing existing success, and demonstrating additional value. Expansion messaging focuses on ease of adoption, cost efficiencies, and getting more out of what they already have. Landing ABM is expensive, you’re starting from scratch, requiring more ad spend, outbound motion, and longer sales cycles to break in. Expansion ABM has a lower CAC, you’re already inside the org, so the cost of driving additional revenue is lower, and the conversion rates are much higher. Landing is about spending money to win trust. Expansion is about leveraging trust to drive more revenue. At the end of the day, a good ABM strategy needs both. If you only focus on landing, you’ll struggle with LTV and retention. If you only focus on expansion, you’ll struggle with new pipeline growth. The key is knowing which motion to prioritize for which product, audience, and stage of the business.

* 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.

As a people manager, you must wholeheartedly invest in your team and your employees’ career objectives, even if it’s not Demand Generation. Here are a few things I do to cultivate my team’s growth: 1. Create strong career ladders. This drives a few things: 1. Clear articulation of my expectations for their existing role and promotional requirements. 2. Transparency in your career discussions on their strengths and areas of opportunity, which can be used throughout the year and during the review cycles. 3. Hiring skills are clearly outlined, so your recruiting team can attract the right candidate at the correct job level. 2. Leave the space for them to grow. There are a few ways to do this: 1. Carve out dedicated time on people’s calendars where they can hold space for learning opportunities. 2. Support outside L&D with company funding for educational courses. 3. Host team L&D sessions on relevant topics related to your career ladders. 4. After discussing their areas of interest, stretch projects allow them to learn a new skill hands-on. 3. Give them autonomy to do their best work, this includes but is not limited to: 1. Allowing them to own their work. Do not micromanage a top performer. 2. Designate team leaders to represent your team on calls and projects, and remove those who are necessary. Allow their voice to represent your entire team. 3. Be clear about when you want to be more involved and why.

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

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.

Here are some ways to get started 1. Align on goals and how success will be measured for you 2. Input tour from your partners and stakeholders to inform your plan 3. Create your vision/strategy for how to deliver on your goals/targets to align and socialize with your manager and stakeholders (your marketing team and sales as focus points) 4. Be open to feedback and incorporate the feedback as you socialize your plan. 5. Spend time is developing and setting up my measurement frameworks. This is how you're going to point to value and impact from #1