AMA: Addigy Head of Marketing, Laura Lewis on Stakeholder Management

Successful partnerships are built by listening, learning, and collaborating. Ask a lot of questions, especially when joining a new organization. Understand what this person is responsible for, the current projects they are working on, their goals and challenges. Don't be afraid to ask more questions about the details if anything is unclear or if you don't feel that you could explain the specifics to someone else later. Ask for material to read as a follow-up, and actually read it. As you're learning, make sure you also get to know your colleagues as people! The best partnerships are built on a friendship, or at least a friendly acquaintanceship. When it comes time to collaborate on a new project or prioritize some work you need help from the other function with, you'll have set the foundation to be able to discuss it positively and get a successful outcome.

This has changed depending on the company I've been a part of, and the strategy of that company. I've seen a few models, which have included: 1. Global Demand Generation & Regional Field Marketing - Demand Generation is responsible for overall, global marketing for products, while Field Marketing is focused on specific regions, dedicated to localizing campaigns and handling in-country events. 2. Demand Generation & Account-Based Marketing - Demand Generation is focused on a 1:Many approach, usually through advertising, virtual events, webinars, and website optimization. The ABM team carves out a small group of high-value accounts to receive dedicated messaging and high-touch campaigns. 3. Demand Generation & Corporate Marketing - Demand Generation handles all marketing programs, but works with specialists across marketing to make those programs happen. These might be website specialists, social media specialists, designers, or digital marketers. DG ensures the specialists have what they need to post or run their channels. 4. Just Demand Generation - Usually found in a smaller company, in this model DG handles everything related to programs and managing the channels. They might work with external contractors or another in-house marketer for help with areas where they are not the expert. While model 4 is seen more often in smaller organizations, each of the other models can fit multiple people in multiple roles with varying responsibilities. Success should always be measured the same way - on pipeline and revenue, and the leading indicators (such as leads) that bring these two outcomes about.

In the case where you are new to an organization and trying to improve the relationship with another team there are three things to do first. 1. Listen - Ask a lot of questions. Understand what the function is responsible for, the current projects they are working on, their goals and challenges, and what went wrong in the past. 2. Learn - Don't be afraid to ask more questions about the details if anything is unclear or if you don't feel that you could explain the specifics to someone else later. Ask for material to read as a follow-up, and actually read it. 3. Collaborate - Bring new ideas to the other function, discuss them, and build a plan together that ensures that both teams are getting what they need from the project. When you are not new to an organization but a tense relationship has built up over time, the only way to truly resolve it is to have an honest conversation with the team leader. These are never easy to have, but you both need to be honest about how you might have acted in the past and come out on the other side ready to move forward.

Success in Demand Generation is the same as business success - revenue. DG is, however, in a position to track and influence the results of many different leading indicators that come before revenue. Things like: * New contacts engaging with the brand * Hot leads / people who want to talk to sales * Sales meetings scheduled * Sales opportunities opened A while back, it was more common for DG to be measured only on top-of-the-funnel metrics, such as leads. However, just because someone is a lead does not mean they actually want to buy your product or are qualified to buy your product. It has become more important over time for DG to be measured on the same things that sales is. Depending on the organization, pipeline/opportunities created is also a good measurement for DG. This is easily influenced by the number and quality of leads and the early sales/marketing handover process, while Revenue relies a lot more on the sales process and product/market fit.

In a small start-up, DG will likely be working very closely with leaders of Sales and Customer Success, as well as within Marketing to ensure that leads pass to the sales team, the website is updated, and campaigns have well thought out messaging and engaging designs. These marketing roles may not fall into dedicated functions at this point in time. As the company grows and functions get built out more, the size of all of these teams will change. Depending on your level, you will still be working with the roles above, but there might be multiple people to work with within those teams. Marketing will also start having people dedicated to Marketing Operations, Product Marketing, Website Development, and Design. No matter the size of the company, the key stakeholders for DG are always others within Marketing, and the Operations and Sales teams.