As a hiring manager, what do the best demand generation candidates have in common?

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.

The best demand gen candidates bring a balance of art and science! Demand Gen is not just being a digital marketer, and it's not just being really creative. It's so much more, and the best candidates I've worked with bring an appreciation of the customer to the forefront of the discussion. They combine that with an approach that balances both art and science, creating compelling programs that ultimately serve the customer which in turn serves their own organization.

The common traits that all of the best demand generation candidates have is a growth mindset and the ability to combine both data/science and creativity in their approach at work.

Demand generation requires a growth mindset because you constantly need to test and iterate and use your learnings to make the next idea or next piece of your strategy better for your customers. And with this style of thinking, you need inputs from both data/science but also an excellent gut instinct and a creative approach to decision making. The ability to use numbers to ground strategy while thinking outside the box is hands down the number one thing I look for in a candidate.

For me, the best demand generation candidates are growth-oriented, have customer empathy, and have a strong quantitative bent.

For growth-oriented, this means that they likely have some combination of the following:

• Natural curiosity - What's working/not working? Why? What can I do differently?
• Self-awareness - What could I/we have done differently? 
• Drive - A desire to make their numbers, regardless of the circumstances

For customer empathy, this means that they understand who the customer is, and what their circumstances are. Demand generation is much more impactful if one can meet the customer where they are, both physically, mentally, and psychologically. Out of the three, nailing this produces the most outsized returns.

I left the strong quantitative bent as the lowest priority because it's generally something that most candidates have, so it's the least differentiating. However, there's an aspect of this that's important, which is not only a comfort in working with numbers, but being able to meld the numbers with an understanding of what's happening. 

The cherry on top is experience. It's always great if they have it, on top of the above. However, I've generally found that folks who possess the above three qualities will be able to quickly make up any experience gaps versus someone who doesn't possess the above.

Across every role in growth there's one common trait I try to ensure. The ability to look at seemingly disparate data, make sense of it, create hypotheses, and prove or disprove them. Lots of people will answer yes to this if asked as a yes/no question, but the ones that truly get it can articulate examples. These are the folks that take data and turn it into action. I have often seen people be really good at collecting and presenting data, but not be as good at the "so what" part of it.

The biggest skill is an ability to learn. Learning and staying agile and relevant is extremely critical, as we operate in a highly evolving space, these day. Learning has become critical to stay abreast of not only the latest tech, but also of customers’ areas of interest.

The next thing that good demand generation folks have is an ability to read data and contextualize it. This will help understand trends and patterns and identify customer behaviour, which can shape your campaigns.

I believe the top traits across demand generation candidates are as follows:

• Sense of urgency 

• Attention to detail 

• Curiosity 

• Have a point of view but hold it lightly 

• Growth mindset, willingness to learn continuously 

• Solution-oriented thinking

The best candidates do a few things during the interview process:

1. They answer the question asked, with specificity. Don't stay theoretical in your answers - choose a specific project you worked on and explain that project and what you did in your answer.

2. They ask thoughtful questions. These questions show that they are thinking about the business and the role. It could be anything from current campaigns, to team structure, to average deal sizes and revenue targets.

3. They are humble and willing to learn. Every business is different, and will require you to learn the business. Applying a specific marketing playbook is never the right approach. A large company with a large sales team may be ready to call into content syndication leads, while a small company with a small team is not, for example. Never assume you know what to do and offer solutions during an interview, unless specifically asked.

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.