A Demand generation manager career path usually takes one of two routes. 1. A specialized expertise in a particular area, audience, GTM motion, vertical, technology focus, etc. 2. A people manager role, helping teams execute. Depending on your organization there may be several levels within each of these paths that allow for various amounts of responsibility, expertise, and scope. Spending time reflecting on what aligns with your aspirations will be important as you progress throughout your career.

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.

The best Demand Generation candidates possess a unique blend of strategic thinking, creativity, and executional excellence. They deeply understand the product, messaging, and audience, enabling them to craft compelling go-to-market strategies. Creativity is key—they generate innovative ideas to activate campaigns and drive engagement. I was once tasked with building a campaign for a software product we were selling in the Retail space. To activate this beyond the run of the mill webinar and content, we decided to take over a luxury retail store in SoHo during fashion week. We hosted top customers for an exclusive shopping experience and a live interview with the famous designer that we also streamed online and amplified on social media. Because this was such a unique and memorable activation, we were able to close business and also drive awareness. In addition, a strong grasp of channel strategy and optimization is essential. These candidates know how to leverage paid media, content, email, events, and other channels effectively, continuously testing and iterating for performance improvement. They are resourceful and scrappy, thriving in fast-paced environments where they must do more with less. Beyond tactical execution, top candidates are natural leaders who can align cross-functional teams, collaborating seamlessly with product marketing, creative, field marketing, and sales. Their high emotional intelligence (EQ) allows them to navigate pressure with composure, influence stakeholders, and drive alignment across departments. Being data-driven is non-negotiable. The best candidates don’t just execute campaigns—they analyze performance metrics, extract insights, and refine strategies based on data. They understand pipeline impact, revenue contribution, and how to optimize for business outcomes. Ultimately, the strongest Demand Generation professionals balance analytical rigor with creativity, strategic vision with hands-on execution, and leadership with adaptability. Their ability to connect the dots between messaging, channels, data, and cross-functional collaboration makes them invaluable assets to any marketing team.

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?

Short answer: Yes, it's one of the very best paths to CMO at a growth stage startup. Medium answer: I could be wrong but my experience tells me that growth stage startup C level roles (the only space I know) come from one of two backgrounds: PMM or Demand Generation. They are going to hire to solve the problems they are facing. It's usually driving predictable demand first, with a measure of brand building second. Worth thinking as you navigate your path forward. Longer answer: Please see my answer to "Is there a single career path for demand gen? Or what are some good career paths that can lead to a demand generation leadership role like yours?" I go into more detail there!

When entering new markets, I rely on the following process: 1. Data-Driven Benchmarks: If there’s no internal data, I look for benchmarks in similar industries or geographies. 2. Iterative Goals: Start with conservative, hypothesis-driven KPIs. Track performance, learn, and adjust quarterly. 3. Cross-Team Collaboration: Align with sales and product teams to ensure market entry assumptions are realistic. 4. Leading Indicators: Focus on early signs of traction (e.g., engagement rates, early-stage pipeline) rather than lagging metrics like revenue.

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!

Given the complexity of the B2B buying cycle, this is not an easy question to answer. Each lead source has a role to play in the buyer's journey and it is important to track the lead source with the right lens. Below is a five-step process that has worked well for me. 1. Define a baseline, track and monitor channel metrics, funnel metrics, and ROI of your paid media channels. * Paid Search and Paid Social * Channel metrics: * Ad CTR * Landing page conversion rate * CPL * Funnel metrics: * MQLs * MQL conversion rate * SQLs * SQL conversion rate * Pipeline sourced and influenced * Channel ROI: Pipe to spend ratio or ARR to spend ratio * Direct Mail * Channel metrics: Items delivered, engagement * Funnel metrics: Pipeline influenced * Channel ROI: Pipe to spend ratio * Trade shows and industry events * Channel metrics Registrations, attendance, and meetings booked * Funnel metrics: MQLs, SQLs, pipeline sourced and influenced * Channel ROI: Pipe to spend ratio * User conferences * Channel metrics Registrations, attendance, and meetings booked * Funnel metrics: MQLs, pipeline sourced and influenced * Channel ROI: Pipe to spend ratio 2. Continuously experiment and optimize every channel to improve efficiency 3. Keep the business objective in mind. Some channels, such as paid social, work well in driving top-of-funnel MQLs, whereas other channels, such as paid search, lean more towards bottom-funnel demo/pricing MQLs that are more ready to buy. Webinars and email nurture help with converting MQLs to SQLs 4. Rank the sources based on business objectives and ROI and adjust as needed 5. Keep an eye out for new sources and experiment to see if they work out!

By it's very nature, a Product-Led approach usually focuses on offering a free trial of a product that is relatively inexpensive. It focuses on volume and digital interactions - and marketing should be sourcing the majority of revenue for the company. This means higher marketing budgets, more marketing staff, and a lower number of sales reps. The term "Product-Led" is really a misnomer, because marketing is a key piece of the equation to drive folks in. The free trial itself needs to offer an excellent experience - but marketing also needs to be engaging with prospects every single step of the way before, during, and after their trial. This likely includes channels such as advertising, content, email, and utilizing in-app tutorials and banners. Alternatively, a sales-led company likely requires strong relationship building with buyers, and has a longer sales cycle and a higher selling price. However, don't let the terms "sales-led" fool you - marketing needs to be there working hand-in-hand with sales to drive maximum outcomes. This usually just means marketing is sourcing less of the revenue directly (say, 40% instead of 80%) and there are less marketing heads per new business dollar brought in. Marketing channels used should be more highly targeted, and should incorporate more high-touch programs in collaboration with sales reps. ABM approaches are better fits for this environment.

Socializing KPIs before and after a campaign is important. It allows all stakeholders to align, prioritize work that impacts these KPIs, and understand performance, including the reasons behind the performance. Before creating KPIs, it's important to understand the following: * Know the campaign messaging and call to action you want users to take: What do we want people to ultimately gain from this campaign? Do you want to drive users to a specific page on your site? Increase free trial sign-ups? Increase demo requests? Is this a top-of-funnel play where you'd want to measure engagement like impressions? It could be a mix of these depending on the campaign, in which case you'd want to account for these various KPIs accordingly. * Have a strong understanding of the different channels promoting the campaign: For example, if email is a large part of the promotion strategy, you'll not only want to include email metrics as KPIs but also include the percentage of sourced traffic from email versus other channels. Aside from determining KPIs, it's also important to establish goals and benchmark comparisons. To do this, you can review performance from similar marketing initiatives or research industry benchmarks and set goals based on these insights. With many moving pieces, it's crucial to communicate your KPIs once you know which ones you want to track and measure. I recommend sharing your KPIs in an easy-to-read template well ahead of your campaign launch to provide time for stakeholders to review and provide feedback. Once a campaign is launched, you can provide an end-of-day KPI performance readout, an end-of-week readout, and an end-of-month readout. Depending on the campaign's longevity, you could also provide additional KPI readouts. For instance, if the campaign is seasonal and only running for a specific amount of time, you'll want to do a final KPI readout once the campaign has ended.