AMA: TripActions Former Director of Demand Generation, Sruthi Kumar on Demand Generation Career Path

1) BE CLOSE TO THE NUMBERS. I cannot stress this enough. I was once told that this was my weakest spot–being metric driven. I quickly tried to rectify this and what I realized is that numbers could be my best friend. Once I got closer to the numbers, I was able to reframe them to tell the story I wanted to tell. (This is the hard skill I leaned into when I wanted to transition from field marketing to demand gen). 2) Be comfortable with writing. Sometimes on your teams, you won't always be the on ...Read More

This one is going to be simple. Focus on being close to the numbers and be ready to be creative! I do think there are some foundational pieces to building a demand generation engine. The first is having a balanced program mix, make sure are bringing names in a consistent and steady flow. Being close to the numbers helps understanding what channels are working, which channels to invest more time & money in, and making sure these are the programs that convert to meetings and closed won.  Once ...Read More

I start making a list of what I want in my next role during my current role. I don't wait until anything is bad or tough, I just start compiling the list when inspiration hits me. (ex. Own a pipeline number, or report straight into the CMO).  For the role itself I look for some of the items I write on my list, opportunity for career growth, and managers that I can learn from. In terms of the company itself I look for product-market fit, opportunity for company growth, understanding their sales s ...Read More

There is definitely not a single path for demand gen. I personally transitioned into demand gen from field marketing. I can't say there is a single path that makes more sense than the next, but I can say there were a few things that helped me make the seamless transition.  1) All the events I ran had a quantative goal along with a qualitative goal. All programs had success metrics attached to them so we could look back and understand was it sucessful or not.  2) The other was that I always had b ...Read More

This is a great question! Always use the metrics to support the story you are telling. You can get creative with this one and honestly— the world is your oyster when it comes to telling a story with metrics. So firstly, share your qualitative story. "Since I joined the team, we have diversified our programs and channels where we have been bringing in a bigger of volumes of names" Then you need to support that with a quantative story.  - Where are your MQLs coming from? Are a majority coming from ...Read More

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 ab ...Read More

My biggest frustration is the fact that sometimes programs work really well and then two months later, that same program will just not work. It's tough when you forecast a certain volume of new names or registrants coming in and it doesn't hit. There are some factors that influence this like seasonality (summer time or holiday months can influence the effectiveness of a program) or world events like a pandemic.  While this is a frustration, it is the reason why demand gen leaders should have a g ...Read More

Ask yourself these two questions: 1) Are you already performing at the level you are aspiring to be in? The best orgs won't promote you soley on tenure, but also with peformance leveling. If you're already performing at a director level, you will get promoted. You can ask your team for a career pathing guide so you have something to hold yourself to. (And also show it off to your manager) 2) Do you have the time? Recall your last 1-1 with your manager. Did you spend the time complaining about ha ...Read More

I think coming from field marketing has been a huge driving force into helping me getting a demand gen leadership role.  Field marketing opened up doors for me to: 1) Build massive integrated campaigns that coordinated with the whole GTM team (Sales, SDR, CSM) to come together to pull these off successfully. There were also activation of a lot of channels to make these programs successfuel so strategizing email outreach, sales outreach, direct mail, tie ins with webinars, website, and more helpe ...Read More