AMA: Salesforce Vice President, C-Suite Marketing, Kexin Chen on Stakeholder Management

I think the best way to gain insights from internal stakeholders is to: 1. Ask them directly. It's easy to jump into transactional work and I like to have an initial meeting where I spend a few minutes to understand their priorities, how they define their personal and team's success, how they see our teams partnering and how they like to be kept up to speed on projects? I like to state my personal communication preferences as a way to get a gauge on what I may need to alter about my style based on their feedback. 2. If I don't have an opportunity ask them directly, I often will see if I can meet with the Executive Assistant or others within their team who can provide some of the insights mentioned above.

In preparation for a launch, I like to consider the key milestones and create a workback plan that includes who we need to update and when. To help ensure there is strong documentation, we often create a single source of truth deck and project plan that allows us to keep all of the most pertinent information in one place for all cross functional teams to reference. As one of the key kick off meetings with stakeholders, I like to review the milestone work back plan and ensure we're capturing any expectations they have on how we keep them updated.

As a marketer, knowing your audience is critical. Internal stakeholders are no different. I view them as your internal audience. Generally, I will schedule an initial kick off call to learn their priorities, areas of concern/learnings if it is a run rate program, and their communication preferences. Getting specificity and clarity on the role they'd like to play the expectations they have on how they'll stay up to date on the project are critical to your and the project's success. I tend to over communicate initially and will double check with statements like: "since we're new working together, are these updates at the altitude you'd like? Anything else top of mind?"

A successful integrated marketing plan takes a village of marketers across a myriad of functions and specialties. When there are unclear swim lanes, I tend to like to address where the confusion lies and build a slide that defines the RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed). If this doesn't help resolve, then I also request to sit down with the partner and document out the process. Often times, I find the confusion in ownership lays in mis-alignment on definitions of certain commonly used terms and the process itself.

For historically tense relationships, one of my coaches has given me a fantastic framework: 1. Take a step back and request time to address your relationship. Request the time to discuss this so they aren't blindsided and have time to think about what they'd want to share. 2. In the meeting, both sides share a rating of 1-10 with 10 being an incredible relationship, where they stand. Have a discussion on how to raise the rating and what is needed from both ends. Be vulnerable and share where your challenges have existed and the stories you're telling yourself. 3. Agree on a cadence for check-ins and ensure you're both committed and celebrate the stronger relationship.

The audience I target are primarily Fortune 500 C-Suite. In this case, we take an account first approach and weigh events more heavily than digital in our marketing plans. For integrated marketing plans, bringing in the functional experts to inform the strategy from the start is critical. Generally I recommend having a clearly articulated goal/vision with clearly articulated outcomes of success. Then opening the space for ideation to build the strategy jointly helps create the initial alignment needed for your demand gen strategy.

In terms of defining success, more top line KPIs are aligned to the targets set for pipeline and ACV (annual contract value) and my team's marketing contribution. Since my team focuses on building new C-Suite relationships for a set global list of top accounts, we're able to measure and hold ourselves accountable to the ability to drive new C-Suite relationships and expand our footprint within the top accounts. Qualitatively I also check in with my key stakeholders to ensure my teams are aligned to their top priorities.

For sales and marketing alignment, I find understanding their core KPIs and joining their regular leadership cadence meetings allows you to understand the top of mind challenges/priorities. As you see how pipeline is progressing and the health of the business from the field leadership calls, you're able to then adjust marketing campaigns and programs to deliver on the short term gaps and plan for the long range planning needs.

You don't need anyone to report into you to be successful in leading a program/initiative/campaign. My recommendation of aligning to stakeholders also stands with collaborators. I recommend an initial meeting to get to know each other and communication preferences including their preferences on receiving feedback. If time permits, setting up a 1:1 cadence to ensure you have a regular touch base can make it easier to deliver feedback and influence prioritization. As the project milestones are hit, I always recommend having them personally showcase their work when possible or ensuring they are specifically called out on updates regarding the work product they've produced. This helps motivate the group to prioritize projects, particularly if they're high visibility.

With the start of every program, ideation is critical in inspiring collaboration and partnership. As we get ready for execution, I always recommend a few of these tips: 1. Have an identified person who runs the project management and ensures there is clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the group. 2. To drive accountability, I recommend a work back plan and documentation of the key collaborators who are helping bring the initiative to reality. This may require 1:1 convos for alignment prior to the broader team meetings to move into execution. 3. Having a clear kick off with the shared vision of the initiative, RACI defined, and key milestones from the work back plan will help drive alignment of the execution. Then sharing this with the broader group stakeholders of the involved parties with set milestones to share and socialization project progress will ensure the group is collectively aligned in meeting specific deadlines.