When designing a demand generation strategy, at what stage do you audit internal departments to determine if there is sufficient stakeholder buy-in and infrastructure needed to support success?

This one is slightly tricky but a good rule of thumb is getting primary stakeholders’ inputs as early as possible, especially for things that need resourcing from other teams and anything that involves technical implementation. Throughout the planning process, this is where you can pinpoint the members for the working team. It’s also important to identify one primary PoC from each functional area to avoid having too many cooks in the kitchen. From there, establish a clear RACI (responsible, acco ...Read More

Generally speaking your demand generation strategy isn't a single wouldn't have a distinct beginning and end so I believe you need to build into your strategy a set of regular check points to audit for resources and buy in. I would audit my strategy for infrastructure quarterly. For buy-in I believe half-yearly or annually is more appropriate. As far as who would be a part of that I would include at least the following teams: Marketing/revenue operations Design and creative teams Product marketi ...Read More

Here are a group of internal stakeholders that I believe is important to get buy-in and approval. I would ensure every group listed below have seen your plan prior to getting it launched as each group can actually help provide assets/ideas to complement your plan. Sales leadership (Informer): Please note I specifically didn't put Sales leadership as an approver. This doesn't mean you shouldn't work with your Sales leaders often and early to get their feedback on your strategy but make sure every ...Read More

I’ve seen the most success when auditing along the way. This should not wait until the end. If you are transparent and have ongoing communication, the need to have a stage to then audit becomes nonexistent. Why take this approach? In the words of Brené Brown, “Clear is kind.” Be sure to include checkpoints throughout your demand generation plan. Identify who needs to be included as part of the ongoing discussions upfront. When you are clear and focused on what the strategy is, stakeholders are n ...Read More