Demand generation managers often get pulled in several directions and everything feels urgent. How do we work with our Exec team to help narrow down what we focus on?

Demand generation is dynamic and constantly changing by nature. In order to manage your programs while also being pulled in several directions, it's important to align them with overarching business outcomes and the priorities that support these outcomes.

Here are a few tips:

• Alignment with the company strategy. The company's strategy and goals should be clear, and your efforts need to align with what will drive the most impact on these goals.

• Clear communication. While you may not be in direct communication with the executive team, it's important to communicate clearly with them or with your manager. Speak about what success looks like, and let it drive your day-to-day efforts.

• Establish clear and agreed-upon goals. Your efforts should be in support of the company goals. If your projects do not align with the company's goals, it may not be a good use of your time.

• Communicate performance. You can't operate in a black box. Proactively get ahead of questions. Clearly communicate how your efforts are progressing and realign as needed to manage competing priorities.

Essentially, this comes down to responding to feedback and performance while balancing competing priorities. Proactively communicating can help you get ahead of competing priorities. By narrowing your focus, you can accelerate your impact.

Demand generation is dynamic and constantly changing by nature. In order to manage your programs while also being pulled in several directions, it's important to align them with overarching business outcomes and the priorities that support these outcomes.

Here are a few tips:

• Alignment with the company strategy. The company's strategy and goals should be clear, and your efforts need to align with what will drive the most impact on these goals.

• Clear communication. While you may not be in direct communication with the executive team, it's important to communicate clearly with them or with your manager. Speak about what success looks like, and let it drive your day-to-day efforts.

• Establish clear and agreed-upon goals. Your efforts should be in support of the company goals. If your projects do not align with the company's goals, it may not be a good use of your time.

• Communicate performance. You can't operate in a black box. Proactively get ahead of questions. Clearly communicate how your efforts are progressing and realign as needed to manage competing priorities.

Essentially, this comes down to responding to feedback and performance while balancing competing priorities. Proactively communicating can help you get ahead of competing priorities. By narrowing your focus, you can accelerate your impact.

Tough one – unfortunately common and much easier said than done.

Of course, managing competing priorities and ensuring focus in demand generation require effective communication and alignment with the executive team. Here are some proven strategies to work collaboratively with the CEO and executive team to prioritize and stay focused:

Regular communication: Meet weekly with your Marketing leadership to discuss priorities and understand theirs. If there's a conflict, use this time to discuss and align. If oversubscribed, ask what other work this should replace.

Listen carefully then ask better questions: Executives love to ideate, and most don't think their jobs involve providing a thoughtful filter. Get better at gently interrogating their thinking: Is this a nice-to-do or a must-do? Is this a now or a later project? What other work would you trade-off to make this happen? Listen carefully - executives often don't remember that their words carry weight and are just happy to be heard and considered.

Speak their language:

Use the metrics your leadership cares most about – the ones in your department OKRs or KPIs. Speak their language and address what matters most to them (hint: it's often pipeline and revenue). Leverage the work from your PMM friends to show how your efforts are 100% aligned with ICP, persona, geo, and vertical. If they're not aligned, you have a problem :)

Plan 80% of your work:

Marketing should plan the bulk of its work, providing momentum, alignment, and clarity to the team. Be clear with your team that you expect 20% of the work in any quarter to be fluid. This sets expectations and minimizes frustration when new priorities and challenges arise.

Prioritize Ruthlessly:

There are more good ideas than resources. Prioritization is an important skill. Work with your leadership team to develop a shared framework – the Eisenhower Matrix (effort & impact) is often a low-effort, common way to prioritize. Want to go further? Add a column for "confidence" to your matrix. Establish a running "marketing backlog" of great ideas. Meet with your leaders monthly to "groom" the backlog, make priority decisions together, and allocate resources.

By improving communication skills, planning work thoughtfully, and making it clear that you're reserving capacity for late-breaking requests, you can protect your team and ensure the executive team feels heard.