If you're still on an inbound (MQL) model, I would start by pivoting every report through the lens of "target account vs. non-target account". * # of campaign responses * # of opportunities generated * $ pipeline generated * ACV * # closed won * $ closed won What matters gets measured. Over time, (ideally) it will reflect that target accounts drive the biggest impact to the business. (If not, it likely means that you'll need to take another look at the target account / ICP criteria.) In my experience, that usually is the catalyst to change how can we drive more "target account" pipeline? To do that, we'll need to think differently about engaging with an account & identify more of those leading indicators. Then, you can start thinking about the KPIs and what it means for an Account to be "Qualified".

For me, the best demand generation candidates are growth-oriented, have customer empathy, and have a strong quantitative bent. For growth-oriented, this means that they likely have some combination of the following: * Natural curiosity - What's working/not working? Why? What can I do differently? * Self-awareness - What could I/we have done differently? * Drive - A desire to make their numbers, regardless of the circumstances For customer empathy, this means that they understand who the customer is, and what their circumstances are. Demand generation is much more impactful if one can meet the customer where they are, both physically, mentally, and psychologically. Out of the three, nailing this produces the most outsized returns. I left the strong quantitative bent as the lowest priority because it's generally something that most candidates have, so it's the least differentiating. However, there's an aspect of this that's important, which is not only a comfort in working with numbers, but being able to meld the numbers with an understanding of what's happening. The cherry on top is experience. It's always great if they have it, on top of the above. However, I've generally found that folks who possess the above three qualities will be able to quickly make up any experience gaps versus someone who doesn't possess the above.

What a great question. I never thought about data in this way. Thanks for forcing me to think through the differences as it relate to KPIs vs. data to help inform vs. pure noise. Metrics: These are the key performance indications that, you as a marketer, should evaluate your programs and your teams against. At the end of the day our job as marketers is to drive revenue alongside our go-to-market partners. Key metrics I've outlined in another AMA question that is worth mentioning here: * What’s the revenue impact we are driving - early indicators include what’s our contribution to pipe generation * How are we helping our seller build relationships? These can be measured in the form of marketing responses or event attendance and executive engagement from decision makers in our ABM accounts (ie. VP+) * How are we aiding in contact acquisition by account? Not only are we driving new contacts for the sellers to build new relationships with but is marketing identifying the “change agents” or decisions that are advocates of your brand who can then become a champion for you during a deal. I'm going to group Analytics and Insights together because analytics to me is the data that backs up (or inform) the insights. Analytics: What problem are you trying to solve for? You have to have succinct questions before you (or submit a request to your analytics team) dig into the data to pull analytics. Analysis paralysis is the cause of unnecessary cycles and it will lead to dead ends. Insights: These are an individual or a group's point of views or someone's analysis based on the analytics being pulled. It is a hypothesis backed by data to gain understand of your business. Here's my thinking process when solving for a specific hotspot for the business and how I would go about looking for the analytics and surfacing insights. Problem/hotspot: Account X is not hitting the ACV target. Why? Logic: "Analytics is showing us that the pipe gen is flat YoY and we are behind target attainment by X percentage points - the trend was surfaced up last week as well." The hypothesis here is that we are behind on pipe gen, an early indicator that we'll miss our revenue target. This requires an action/get back to health plan right away. In search of insights these are the questions I would answer and gather the analytics for: * Are we simply not piping enough? * What's the close rate/win rate this quarter compare to last quarter and last year (is the hypothesis we're losing to a competitor or is this an enablement problem?) * Is the pipe stuck in a certain stage? What's the average days/weeks it's been stuck in that stage for? The action plan is to figure out how to leverage marketing touchpoints to progress the pipe. * Is there deal compression happening because Account X is putting projects on hold or swapping licenses in an effort to drive vendor cost down? These questions then become guidance to help us surface up the right analytics so we are not lost in analysis paralysis.

I don't think ABM at its core is all that different from landing net new vs cross/upsell/expansion. If you boil it down, you are taking a set of channels and tactics and deploying campaigns to get your prospects or customers to take a desired action or behavior. I will argue that you have more room for error when going into new prospects or markets where you might not have as much data or evidence to support your messaging, positioning and campaign strategy. When marketing to current customers, you better know what you're talking about. There is nothing worse that being an existing customer of a brand and receiving messaging and campaigns as if you had never worked with that brand in your life. With cross/upsell/expansion, you not only have to know your customer, but you better make sure you let your customer know you know them. For example, if you're already in at Amazon and looking to upsell, you better be able to discuss pain points that came up at prior QBRs, understand their org chart, tech stack, and review how you can help them achieve their goals,

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.

I find interviews to be the most successful as a hiring manager when I prep the questions I want to ask in advance. For a 30-minute interview, I'll have 6 or 7 questions ready to go. These questions are a mix of situational questions "Tell me about a time when..." and more general questions around the person's goals, strengths and weaknesses, and achievements. I'll also ensure that any cross-functional partners in the process have a good understanding of the seniority of the ideal candidate we are expecting and what to focus on for their interview time. For example, a sales interviewer can focus on sales collaboration and partnership, while a marketing operations interviewer can focus on skills around analyzing data. If I'm ever blanking on good questions, a quick google search and perusing a few blogs usually gets the ideas flowing.

In order to be a Demand Generation leader, you want to be both left and right-brained. Often people think Demand Gen is all about analytics and architecting user journeys that deliver leads. But these journeys are targeting consumers, and consumers engage best with compelling content (e.g. - videos, images, etc.). This is where the right brain comes in to deliver creativity. When I think of the list of Hard skills (aka Must Haves) vs. Soft Skills (Nice to Have's), this is where I land: Hard Skills (Must Have's): * Analytical mindset/Data manipulator: This role calls for interpreting data and connecting the dots. How can one look at a Marketing funnel and identify gaps or ways to optimize the flow to produce more leads? Where are leads dropping off and why? * Tech Stack Guru: Mastering the Tech Stack used within an org is critical so * Curiosity: A true leader will want to explore what they do and develop hypotheses for tests to pilot. E.g. - if they introduce a new content asset, will that increase engagement? Is there a different audience to try targeting? What are other competitor brands doing in the space that can provide learnings? * Problem-solving: With Marketing, there are constantly challenges that arise (e.g. - leads dropping off, etc.). A great leader is constantly figuring out ways to fix and build upon these challenges presented. * Customer-first mindset: Having a strong understanding of the target audience and their painpoints and key motivational drivers is critical to ensure the Demand Gen program is successful. * Cross-Functional Communicator: This role sits at the center of Product Marketing, Sales, Content Strategy teams and more. Having a thorough understanding of those teams' work and how to leverage it would be important for a Demand Gen leader. Also communicating out the Demand Gen strategy to those teams will be important in relationship-building and ensuring all teams are aware of what's happening. Soft Skills (Nice to Have's): * Creativity: B2B can often be a bit stale, so it's nice to inject new ways to execute (e.g. - new channels, new content types, etc.). * Org Design & Communication: Make sure your team understands their remit, goals and any new company developments that affect their roles. 

I would love to be a CMO one day, and I do think owning the Demand Generation function is a good way to get there. Here are some of the strengths that I have seen from the CMOs I have respected the most: 1) Being close to the numbers - even if you aren't the one owning the direct number, a great CMO will understand what is happening in their pipeline so they can communicatr with sales. 2) Leading by example - good people want to work for other good people. A CMO who leads by example will be able to build a good team with people who help build each other up. 3) Get creative with tech stack and tactics - successful CMOs are looking at how their tech stack helps them reach their goals and aren't afraid to switch it up. I don't know about you, but to me those are all skills Demand Gen leaders should have which translate directly into being a CMO ;)

The [long] answer to this is part art, part science. Whether you are in a product led growth role, or creating demand for a sales led go to market organization, knowing your customer (KYC), developing compelling narratives and messaging, and leading with data are essential. But HOW you lead with these is equally important. It’s easier to do the KYC and data piece, the HOW is an art that takes time and credibility. General rule of thumb is to build trust through genuine curiosity and understanding your first teams, multifectas, or stakeholder’s world. To share an example, let’s say you are responsible for campaigns and you work with sales: * You should develop a solid understanding of the sales team’s territory, segment of customers, buying groups/decision makers, verticals, where they win, lose and how demand gen can help. * You can listen to sales recorded calls, talk to prospects, share insights and demonstrate that you are invested in their business and goals. * When proposing new ideas, like a campaign, seek feedback from them, give the team an opportunity to influence and have a stake in your work. * When you launch a new campaign, enable the sales with the assets/tools, create excitement and where possible, bring in advocates to voice their support. * During the campaign, provide progress updates and encourage feedback. * Once the campaign is complete, host a retro and be transparent in wins, fails, key learnings, and next steps. KYC is key to influencing internal and external stakeholders- whether it's a proposal for budget, headcount, programming, experiments, etc. In this context. knowing your customer can include: * Target audience, ideal customer profile, buyer group personas, pain points, industry/vertical, customer buying journey, respective total addressable markets (TAM) and total Sellable Addressable Market (SAM), user pain points, user profiles, product personas. * Compelling value props: product and platform positioning and what messaging should be in the context of the market you are targeting (ie. is it a buying group, or a user?). * Where does your target audience consume content or conduct research? * Existing funnel and understanding of where there are opportunities to increase volume, conversion rates, velocity, efficiency. * Having a solid understanding of why you win, why you lose, what is resonating with prospects in the sales cycle. When you present your ideas, or you are problem solving with your stakeholders, or perhaps you are new to an organization and are establishing trust with sales and or product teams, lead with data: * What trends are you seeing in the market, with prospects, customers, product. * What is the opportunity size. * What investments are required. * How will you measure success, what are you benchmarking targets or goals against. * How will you track performance. * What channels will perform based on your target audience and where they are at in the customer journey, what historical data can you share to validate. * If running an experiment, what are the control variables. * What insights can you share to validate your idea or proposal.

Setting KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for a new start-up in the technology industry can be challenging as there may not be a lot of historical data to use as a reference point. However, here are some steps to follow when setting KPIs for your new start-up: 1. Identify your business objectives: Start by identifying your overall business objectives. This will help you determine what you need to measure to ensure you are making progress toward your goals. 2. Determine the most critical metrics: Identify the most critical metrics that will help you measure progress toward your objectives. These may include metrics such as customer acquisition, revenue, user engagement, and product development. 3. Look for industry benchmarks: Research industry benchmarks for your key metrics. This will help you determine what is considered successful in your industry and help you set realistic targets. 4. Set targets: Based on your business objectives, the critical metrics you have identified, and industry benchmarks, set targets for each metric. Make sure your targets are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). 5. Review and adjust: Review your KPIs regularly to ensure you are making progress towards your business objectives. If necessary, adjust your targets based on your performance and any changes in your business environment. Remember, KPIs should be aligned with your overall business objectives and should be regularly reviewed to ensure they remain relevant and effective. If there are not reliable benchmarks, you can start by making minimum viable investments of different campaigns/channel and these results will become your KPIs.