AMA: Observable Head of Growth Marketing, Erika Barbosa on Demand Generation Soft and Hard Skills

What hard skills are must haves for a demand generation leader? * Curiosity. While a soft skill, a curious, growth mindset is critical for a demand generation leader. This is how you can stay humble, but also continue to allow for growth in yourself and your team. * Data analysis / data-informed. Don’t just be data-driven, but rather be data-informed. Put your curiosity to work and think deeply about what the data is showing, coming to your own insights, and visualizing the data. * Storytelling. Being a demand generation leader means you need to tell meaningful stories with the data and give it life. You can’t just throw data points out there without having a why to them or desired outcomes. * Informed by customers’ actions. As concerns around cookies and privacy continue to grow, it’s important to know how to use the zero party and first party data your customers provide to make smarter business decisions. * Forward thinking. The demand generation space is evolving - fast. You have to be forward thinking and educating yourself and your team. You have to level up in areas such as knowing how to apply algorithms to your data, understanding what is trendy and not going to stick versus has potential, and other repeatable, scalable marketing motions. * People management. Emotional intelligence is critical as well. You have to understand how to lead, inspire, and empathize with your team while creating a safe space for communication. What are nice to haves for a demand generation leader? * Tactical knowledge about areas where you don’t gravitate to that can be filled in via a different team member. Remember, you can’t accelerate at every single facet of demand generation. You can however, have just enough knowledge to know the north star direction.

I see the future of demand generation getting more complicated. However, let’s be up for the challenge. Attribution and understanding impact is getting trickier. And at present day, budgets are generally being reduced. That being said, this just means we need to continue to evolve. We need to focus on areas such as revenue marketing, skills for data analysis, and an overall stronger focus on customers’ needs. We need to focus more on actions that will drive more quality users for longer while reducing churn.

Attaining a demand generation leadership role is certainly not attainable on an island by yourself. There are some responses to this question that are a given such as the support of others. This is such a critical element of growth, but I won’t solely focus here. * Support of others. As noted above, relationships are critical to growth. Lead from the perspective of elevating others. * Desire for growth. The desire for continued growth has been consistent fuel for me. Let this help guide you on what is required to get to the next level. * Education. Do you want to be a demand gen leader in a specific industry? Or perhaps for a specific aspect of demand gen? Education is key. This means education in your skill set, in gaps that have been identified, and leadership skills. I encourage you to think about your end goal and work backwards from there. What do you need in order to reach the end goal? It will most likely fall into one of the three buckets I’ve noted.

The obvious answer is both. : ) However, if I had to select one option I would say it is better to have the right soft skills. Hard skills within demand generation are very teachable. In fact, “being teachable” is a critical soft skill to have. Oftentimes you’ll find educating yourself on demand generation hard skills is an ongoing process over the course of your career. While soft skills are too, having these skills come more naturally would be beneficial. For example, you can teach someone how to have excellent communication skills, but when this comes to you naturally, it helps in so many facets. This does not mean that soft and hard skills aren’t teachable as I previously noted. I recommend that you focus on having a solid understanding of your strengths and areas of opportunities and identify actions you can take to grow your skills across both.

I wouldn’t say these perspectives are exclusive to demand generation, but they certainly are imperative to the role. This could also be highly effective across any org. * Curiosity. If you’ve read some of my other responses, you’ll notice a common thread of curiosity. I believe it is critical to the role. It’s also a useful way to approach not only your job but also life. * Metrics focused. I recommend staying close to your metrics. Understand what is working and what isn’t working. Study them and understand how they relate to your customers. * Never stop learning. This is another one that is not only helpful in your role, but also in life. It also pairs nicely with curiosity. Your perspective largely impacts how you feel. Just a small shift in perspective can have a huge impact. This isn’t just a demand generation thing - it’s a human thing. :)

The most important soft and hard skills to help you build your demand gen career are captured below. While I captured each in three buckets, there is so much more to consider. Demand gen spans over many disciplines. Soft skills: * Effective communication * Critical thinking * Empathy Hard skills: * Data analysis * Deep knowledge of your skill (e.g., SEO) * Digital marketing strategy Dig into what you are passionate about in demand generation and truly become a subject matter expert. Read often. Study daily. You have the tools to grow in your career. Keep these attributes in mind as you continue to grow.

The best demand generation candidates have curiosity in common. The demand gen space is constantly evolving. If you are not curious, it’s difficult to keep up. How do you stay curious and motivate curiosity? * Keep reading, learning and exploring topics of interest. * Embody a testing mentality. * Develop new skills. If you pair curiosity with trainability, you have gold. It’s not a requirement to have an advanced degree to have a demand gen career. Many of the skills can be developed through free resources. However, if you layer in the key characteristics of curiosity and trainability, you can have a compounding impact.

In order to retain good talent, I believe you have to care for the person as a whole. They need to know you care about their wellbeing. The leader of the team needs to cultivate an environment where this is naturally developed over the course of micro moments and time. I recommend focusing on the following areas: * Build trust with the individual, not just in their role. It’s important that an individual knows you don’t just care about the output of their work. This could take the form of career development and discussions on how the individual would like to grow and develop past their daily responsibilities. Growth looks different for everyone. * Clear is kind as Brené Brown says. I’m such a fan of Brené Brown’s work. Clarity in a role and expectations within the role, team, and company is critical. Oftentimes when you think you are being clear, there is still plenty of room for clarity. * Communication is key. Similar to what I noted above, you should foster an environment where communication is supported. This especially applies to having healthy debates and disagreements. Retaining top talent is about giving someone a safe space to grow, having ownership, and continuously empowering them to communicate their perspective.

From my perspective, you can transition to demand generation quite easily. Depending on where you are transitioning from and the associated level, this can help determine where you could land. This is absolutely doable though. I recommend doing some research and educating yourself on what aspect of demand generation interests you the most. Demand gen can mean different things in different orgs so get clarity on what you are motivated by. There are tons of free resources to get you started. Wherever you are in your transition, know you can do this! There is depth and breadth to the field - everything from analytical to more creative positions and everything in between.

That’s a tough position to be in. Hopefully you have the type of communication in place where you feel safe to discuss it. If you do, I recommend approaching it from an objective perspective. There could be nuggets of growth opportunities within the feedback you receive. “... Don’t always know what to do with it…” Does this mean the way the feedback is given doesn’t feel productive? Or is something unclear as it relates to next steps? “... I don’t even agree with the feedback…” It’s completely fair to disagree with the feedback you receive. I would challenge yourself and ask why do you disagree? Could this be a growth opportunity or is the feedback completely off-base? Giving and receiving feedback is a skill. It’s a muscle that needs to be developed. This doesn’t mean that you need to take action on all of the feedback you receive. It’s outside of your control on how feedback is given to you, but it is in your control on how you respond.

I recommend that you stay motivated and curious. It’s absolutely possible to get an entry level role in demand generation early in your career. One of the amazing aspects of demand gen is the breadth and depth that it allows for various entry points. It makes demand generation quite accessible. Let your determination fuel the areas outlined below: * Be curious. Curiosity has been a huge driver for me. What other revenue levers can I define? How can I become more efficient? When thinking about this from the context of how you can dive in as a recent graduate, a curious mindset can be huge for you. * Read deeply and develop a learning mindset. A growth mindset is critical. Demand generation is not a field where you do not have to continuously develop. It definitely favors those who genuinely love to learn and are up for a challenge. * Find mentors or people who inspire you. Mentors are tremendously impactful in your life. However, you can even turn to someone who inspires you that you don’t know. Use their good in the industry as inspiration. Think deeply about what you are passionate about. Seek out others who can help lead you on the journey to developing your demand generation career. While not required, you may find it helpful to start at an agency as you’ll have exposure to many industries and use cases. Lastly, I recommend thinking about any new role you accept similar to a puzzle. How do you best support the customers you are serving? How do you generate new quality customers and keep them longer? Keep these types of questions in mind regardless if you are starting at an entry-level position or a director level role.

I actually started my career in sales and transitioned over to marketing and demand generation. What made me decide to make the switch? Personally, it felt like a better fit for me. I’m more on the analytical and creative side than sales afforded me. However, sales did give me a unique perspective and foundation to build my career. I truly see the value in partnering with sales as a member of the marketing department. I can understand and empathize with different perspectives. I recommend thinking through where you feel your personality and skill set is a better fit. There are of course pros and cons to both career paths. Personally, I align more with the various directions a demand generation career can take you compared to sales. If I fast forward to today, one of the valuable partnerships I have in my role is with sales. They can give you direct feedback from customers and prospects and that type of knowledge is gold.

I recommend you first check out my answer related to this at the link below. One incredibly meaningful aspect of sales that is highly applicable in demand generation is having a deep understanding of your customers. The sales and marketing relationship is critical. I am of the belief you have a unique perspective that can truly be utilized in an entry-level demand generation role. How do you prove yourself for an entry-level demand generation role? Show your commitment to understanding customers, listening to their feedback, and crafting meaningful recommendations in service of your customers. Always bring it back to your customers. Happy customers see and realize the value that is delivered and as a result feel good about their investment. Related: https://sharebird.com/h/demand-generation/q/what-made-you-decide-to-choose-demand-generation-over-sales