What's your process for figuring out what metrics to hold demand generation accountable for?

Demand gen is responsible for every stage of the funnel but accountable for stages where they have ~50%+ of the influence on that stage compared to sales.

For example, 

Demand generation at the awareness stage is 100% responsible for delivering that message to the masses by driving the DG machine to those target accounts. 

Demand gen can support leads that come in by educating them through email and display even while sales reps work that lead. 

Demand gen also supports leads down to stage 2-3 SFDC by displaying social proof campaigns, and email campaigns about social proof, and even host events to invite prospects and clients to close big deals. 

Every stage after that is beyond demand gen in my opinion. There are ad hoc cases where custom landing pages, custom sales decks, and custom ROI packages are created and delivered but that's a tight partnership with sales so both marketing & sales are accountable for that. 

I’m going to approach this question from a product-led growth (PLG) perspective. My process for identifying the appropriate metrics consists of mapping out the user journey along with its associated metrics.

For example, a user will sign up, experience value, engage, stay retained and hopefully refer others and expand. Then I would identify the metrics that align with this flow. This would consist of metrics such as:

• Count of sign-ups
• Sign-up rate
• A quality metric based on your goals
• Activation rate
• Engagement rate
• Retention rate
• Churn rate

From a PLG perspective, I do believe in being responsible for metrics past the sign up. This does fall into the world of growth marketing, but especially in today’s economy, it’s smarter marketing.

Understanding what factors influence your company's buyer cycle is the first step, including the company's goals, market, and target audience. 

1. Define your goals: Start by understanding the goals of your company and how demand generation fits into those goals. Are you trying to increase revenue, expand your customer base, or drive more engagement or a mix of them? Your goals will guide your metrics.

e.g. for an early-stage startup, it is more important to create awareness and build a marketable database, therefore account engagement and lead generation metrics (# of leads, # of MQLs, # of SALs and account engagement share) are going to be very important. On the other hand, for a more mature company, revenue or margin metrics could matter more (ROI of marketing spend, attribution models, ABM engagements)

2. Identify your target audience: Next, you need to understand your target audience and what they care about. This will help you identify the metrics that matter most to them and the channels that will be most effective in reaching them.

e.g. In a technology company with sales cycles longer than 12 months and large buyer's committees, you will need to define audiences considering job titles and seniority and target them with different types of content on different channels based on their preferences. Each campaign based on the audiences and tactics will require different metrics.

3. Identify your channels: Once you know your audience, you can identify the channels you will use to reach them. This may include social media, email marketing, paid advertising, or other channels. Each channel will have its own set of metrics that you can use to measure success.

4. Determine the metrics: Based on your goals, target audience, and channels, you can determine the metrics that you will hold demand generation accountable for. Some common metrics include:

• Lead generation: This measures the number of leads generated by your demand generation efforts.
• Cost per lead: This measures the cost of generating a lead, and can help you optimize your spending.
• Conversion rates: This measures the percentage of leads that convert into customers or make it to different stages of the sales funnel.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Set targets: Once you have identified the metrics you will track, you need to set targets for each metric. These targets should be realistic, achievable, and aligned with your overall goals. Research benchmarks from companies in your industry and similar size.

5. Monitor and optimize: Finally, you need to monitor your metrics regularly and optimize your demand generation efforts based on the data you collect. As the business grows and market conditions change, so will your metrics. 

Overall, the process for figuring out which metrics to hold demand generation accountable for requires a deep understanding of your company's goals, target audience, and channels. The metrics that matter most and drive growth and success vary by industry, company/market maturity and so on, so always review your company's business model and be flexible to adapt and change. 

When demand generation teams are held accountable for sales qualified leads (SQLs), pipeline and closed-won revenue, the process defines itself. Here's why:

1. It encourages collaboration between sales and marketing. Marketing is incentivized to generate quality leads that convert into SQLs

2. Sales teams look up to marketers to help them meet their revenue goals

3. It is incredibly rewarding to look back at the end of the quarter/year to see that our campaigns drove x% customers and $ ARR

Framing KPIs in terms of control and impact: if you control it or influence it, you can own it. In Demand Gen, we can control lead quality, MQLs routed to sales, and even the initial stages, such as Sales Accepted Leads, meetings, and early-stage opportunities. However, once we move past meetings and into opportunity creation, we enter a gray area. At that point, we’re less in control of what sales is doing during meetings or POCs, making it harder to be accountable for bottom-of-funnel outcomes.

Similarly, in a self-serve model, it’s challenging to be fully accountable for results that are dependent on the product experience and UX. We can drive engagement with emails and in-app messages to guide users toward a successful trial, but ultimately, accountability for product and UX changes lies outside of our control.