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

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 ...Read More

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 ...Read More

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 commonl ...Read More

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 ...Read More

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 ...Read More

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: Have an identified person who runs the project management and ensures there is clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the group. 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 ...Read More

For historically tense relationships, one of my coaches has given me a fantastic framework: 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. 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 chal ...Read More

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 ...Read More

I think the best way to gain insights from internal stakeholders is to: 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 ...Read More