Demand Generation Career Path

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 stats, and a product that I feel excited about/passionate about. Most importantly I also look for a team that I like, because let's be real—we spend so much time with our coworkers, I need to like them!

The framework will be unique to an individual, but here are some areas I recommend you consider: * Seek a manager you can learn from. I firmly believe in a growth mindset. That being said, I recommend seeking an opportunity where you have confidence in your manager. I love having the opportunity to learn and grow and your manager will impact this. * A supportive team. How do you feel about the team you would work with? For the opportunity to last, you’ll need confidence in your team. It’s very rewarding when your team elevates one another. * Career growth. Is the opportunity for career growth important to you? This is critical for me so it’s a requirement of mine while assessing new opportunities. * Culture fit. You spend a lot of time with co-workers and in your role. Does the culture appeal to you? * Leadership team and mission you believe in. It’s important to me to have a leadership team you are confident in and a mission you can get behind. There will be details to this framework that will change over the course of your career. I recommend being confident in the areas that are non-negotiable for you versus flexible depending on the opportunity. Lastly, I recommend considering why you are looking into a new opportunity and does it satisfy the shift you are seeking.

This is a great question, and like most questions, there isn't one perfect answer. It really depends on the organization (size, growth rate, etc.), but I'll share some key things I would certainly want to evaluate for most situations. * Available support: unless they are expecting you to do everything, it's important you understand what type of support resources you have. Will you have Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, paid media support, content marketing, etc. Some demand gen marketers can do all of that - and more power to you if you can, but organizations that invest in those areas, particularly in Marketing Operations, are likely to perform much higher from a demand gen perspective * Alignment: this doesn't have to be perfect, but there has to be a desire. Alignment first and foremost with sales, but then also with Product as well as with Finance. If it's a smaller company you're going to want further alignment including those who drive influence such as the CEO * Customer retention: the most frustrating thing for a demand gen marketer is if you are successful in your job (acquiring and even growing customers), but those customers are leaving as soon as they can. It makes your job that much more difficult, and ultimately it's a strong indicator of a larger organizational problem that you should at a minimum discuss during the interview process Beyond those, just make sure it's a product/solution you can get excited about. The best marketing comes from marketers who are passionate about the customers they are serving. You don't have to be an expert in that particular field, but you should believe in what you are doing as that will show in your work!

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 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.

My favorite question to ask during an interview is “If you could spend an extra $100k on demand generation in your current role, what would you spend it on and why?” I really like this question because it helps me understand a variety of things about how the candidate thinks. Dependent on the response, I can learn which type of marketing campaigns they tend to prefer to work with and how they budget and plan. The answer I look for is typically something with a multi-channel approach. Throughout my career I have learned to trust the saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” That has been even more true after the last 2 years of the pandemic. The entire way we do Demand Generation or Field Marketing shifted with the removal of in person events combined with the rising cost of digital marketing. Now as we are shifting back to in person, we face the battle of inflation overall. Multi-channel gives you a lot of at-bats and allows you to shift funding around as needed.

My favorite demand generation interview question is around how do you measure success. I tailor the question based on the role, but the essence of the question is the same. This is my favorite question because I’m a believer of being data informed within demand generation. Right away I can gauge the sophistication of the candidate's experience based on this question. I’m looking for an understanding of how to gauge performance and the rigor of data analysis you’ll have with your programs. This of course will vary based on the role. What was the best answer I’ve received? When the candidate teaches me something I’m not familiar with. Educate the hiring manager on a nugget of information or a unique perspective and that will give them insight into how much you can bring to the table.

Walk me through your favorite campaign.  I love this question but it's pretty open-ended and can reveal a lot about the way in which a candidate thinks. Did they understand their audience? Did they design their program in a way to achieve the goals? Did it even have established goals? Was in creative in the sense that it ultimately achieved what it set out to achieve?  It enables a candidate to demonstrate how they think about strategy, planning, and execution without leading the witness!

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 you have that foundational piece, focus on getting creative. At the end of the day, most demand gen teams are running the same types of programs—webinars, emails, etc. It's up to you as the leader of your team to think out of the box.  Tip: Look at those programs that are converting well and see how you can hypercharge them by adding a gift card incentive for taking a meeting!

In order to become a demand gen leader, you need to understand how to empower your team to execute to the best of their ability, and also forge a professional development path for every team member. Sure, there are skills like effective budgeting, managing cost efficiencies of channels, and typical manager-level skills such as performance management and coaching. But ultimately, a demand gen leader has many similarities to a CMO: the people that are on a demand gen team have many disparate disciplines, and you need to at least understand the key success drivers of each of those disciplines. It's common for medium-sized (~10+ full time people) demand gen teams to require smaller sub-teams for marketing operations, campaign management, paid media, events and field marketing. Understanding how to grow each function to meet the needs of the business is table stakes for a demand gen leader. What helps teams get to the next level is being a demand gen leader that focuses on the professional development and growth of everyone on your team. Ensuring that everyone has clarity into where they want to go next in their career, and giving them the resources they need to create their own specific path from the role they are in today to where they want to go next.

Aside from mastering the skills in your discipline, two pieces of advice I would give to others who are looking to become demand gen leaders include: * Be curious and learn. In this space, you have to be curious and constantly learning. Without this, your knowledge will quickly become outdated due to the velocity of demand gen. * Be a leader not just a manager. What is the difference? Leaders inspire, they help elevate others, they lead with empathy. People often (although not always) leave bad managers, not bad companies. This too takes constant growth and refinement. You’ll notice the common theme for my two pieces of advice include education. I believe this is critical. Without continuing to learn and grow in all aspects such as reading books and blogs, listening to podcasts, etc., you’ll limit your leadership abilities.

This is a great question as Demand Gen has so many unique skills, responsibilities, paths, roles, etc. - one could easily go crazy trying to become an expert in every field, or feel inadequately prepared to be a leader if they don't feel qualified across the broad spectrum of DG responsibilities.  I have good news for you - being a Demand Gen leader isn't easy, but it's not as hard as you may think. I belive if you focus on the following two things you will significantly improve your chances of success - Strategy and Sales Alignment. Strategy I can't emphasize this one enough. So many marketers (and non-marketers) get hung up on tactics - webinars, direct mail, Facebook, etc. - these aren't bad, but they are nothing without a strategy. A strategy means you have defined a problem or opportunity and you have a way to solve it. It means knowing what's going on in the market, being able to develop messaging that addresses those needs, and ultimately helping solve that problem once you've established the trust of your buyers. All of your tactics will only be as good as your strategy. If you don't have the right set of accounts, the right messaging, the right content and the right timing, your efforts, no matter how "cool" they may be will likely not amount to much. I go back and forth on the second one between business acumen and sales alignment. But for my second one I'm going to prioritize sales alignment. Sales Alignment I simply can't understate the importance of this one. I've seen the opposite of this, and it's messy. It's not that intentions are bad, or that everybody isn't doing "their job." It's that there is no alignment and strong demand gen (whatever that looks like in your company) simply can't be successful without alignment with sales. Being aligned on the target accounts, the messaging, the lead management process, follow-up, the data, the results ... the list goes on. My brother is a SaaS sales rep, so I can say this pretty confidently. Sales reps and marketers are different. That's not a bad thing. They should be different. And while the lines are blurring in some ways, each job does require some unique skills. But for both to be successful they need each other. And that means being aligned and working to stay that way.

The most important soft and hard skills to help you build your demand gen career are captured below. While I captured each in three buckets, there is so much more to consider. Demand gen spans over many disciplines. Soft skills: * Effective communication * Critical thinking * Empathy Hard skills: * Data analysis * Deep knowledge of your skill (e.g., SEO) * Digital marketing strategy Dig into what you are passionate about in demand generation and truly become a subject matter expert. Read often. Study daily. You have the tools to grow in your career. Keep these attributes in mind as you continue to grow.

Demand generation encompasses so many unique skills - both technical, but also business acumen. I'd contend there is no perfect singular answer to this question, as each company's situation will be unique and have some nuance around what skills would be most beneficial. With that said, there are some core fundamental skills you should develop: * Hard skills: SEO, CRO, digital advertising, data analytics, copywriting (super underrated!), nurture strategy (this one could differentiate you), and it wouldn't hurt to be dangerous with some of the common marketing automation platforms  * Soft skills: creative, collaborative (you can't do this alone!), strong communication, disciplined and organized (this one is also highly underrated, but arguably when this one is lacking it can destroy all trust and credibility) These lists are by no means comprehensive, but certainly a great foundation that one should have entering into a DG Manager role and ones that will serve you well as you continue to progress in your career. 

Some examples of ways I have been able to get promoted and support my colleagues and direct reports largely center around trust, education, and curiosity. What do I mean? * Trust: I believe trust is built as a collection of many micro moments. Trust can also be lost in one interaction. * Education: My leadership style is centered around education. I want to help empower others to learn and grow. I want to help elevate others around me. * Curiosity: In order to be successful in demand generation, you have to be curious. This space evolves too quickly to not be curious. Of course you should also have solid domain expertise. Think deeply about metrics and how you are measuring impact. Know the metrics that matter; study them daily. Lastly, I would sum it up as being a good human being. Be someone that gives other people energy.

I believe there are two keys to growing your career as a demand marketer: * Know your numbers * Own your numbers Now this isn't to say demand gen is all about pipeline. There's more to unpack here. Knowing your numbers means knowing what's required to achieve the plan, both from a marketing perspective but also from an overall sales and revenue perspective. Beyond that, it means understanding the different levers you can pull to achieve your numbers (hint, it's not just about volume!).  Owning your numbers involves building a strong partnership with sales - not just sales leadership, but across the organization. You need to create an environment of transparency and accountability if you want to succeed and grow in your career. You will have some great quarters, and you will have some not so great quarters. The key is owning it - not just your part - but being part of the overall growth of the business - the overall number.  Similar to a sales rep growing their career there is certainly accountability for hitting your targets, but beyond that, and arguable of equal if not greater importance, you must demonstrate an understanding of the business and demonstrate that alignment and shared accountability.

I’ve included 6 different resources for you to use as a starting point below (in no particular order). This covers everything from building a demand gen plan for a startup up to an enterprise. I wanted to provide a variety of resources so that you can mix and match what makes the most sense for you. I’ve also included some of my responses from my AMA on 30-60-90 day plans. You can go visit my AMA page for all of my responses or check out the top responses below. 30-60-90 day AMA responses: * What's the most effective way to scale a Demand Generation team beyond the first Demand Generation manager? * What do you think about your first 30/60/90 day goals when coming in as the Head of demand generation in a startup that didn't have demand gen managers before? * What's a good way to think about, contextualize, and approach a 30/60/90 plan if you've never done one before, when you're new to demand generation? Additional resources: * https://www.usebroca.com/blog/startup-head-of-marketing-30-60-90-days * https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/30-60-90-day-plan * https://www.coursera.org/articles/30-60-90-day-plan * https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/starting-new-job/30-60-90-day-plan * https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/30-60-90-day-plan/ * https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/30-60-90-day-plan/

My role evolved as the organization grew from $100 mil ARR to ~4X the size today. In earlier days, our GTM motion was primarily PLG. I was measured on Qualified Traffic as a leading KPI, and Trial volume and Sales CVR% as the lag KPIs. Today, we have a twin GTM engine - PLG & Direct Sales model. My role and success parameters have evolved accordingly. I'm measured on Marketing sourced and influenced pipeline. The leading metrics are Trial volume and # of accounts displaying category intent and engagement in a given period.

In the Demand Generation world, KPI's are ever-evolving but one always remains consistent - "to drive marketing pipeline for the business." When starting out your career in DG, KPI's will be decided by your MLT team and assigned dependent on the annual, bi-annual or quarterly goals. Some of the most common may be dependent on: - a low performing product line needing a boost - a regional team needing pipeline assistance - or a channel needing support As you grow into DG leadership, additional KPI's come into play around driving better ROIs on campaigns, driving down business costs, while delivering additional pipeline, as well as employee development for your team.

This has varied for me from role to role and based on my responsibilities. As I grew in my career and managed a team, my KPIs also evolved. Think about the difference between getting to 1 million ARR compared to 100 million ARR, as an example. In terms of measuring my own success in my role outside of company KPIs, it’s largely focused on helping others, growing my knowledge and growing from a career perspective. I reflect on how much I have helped my team grow as individuals and ensure I help elevate them. I reflect on how I have leveled up my own knowledge. I reflect on the trajectory of my career. My reflections also ladder up to the company goals, it’s just while the company KPIs evolve, so do my own measures of how I upgrade my contributions.

This is going to be largely dependent on how much you want the role and the level of the role. You’ll find 30-60-90 plans are requested more often with certain roles. However, it is also not generally realistic to craft numerous 30-60-90 plans at any given time. Evaluate this from the perspective of the following questions: * How interested am I in this role? * Do I have enough knowledge to put together a meaningful 30-60-90 plan or SWOT analysis knowing there will of course be a knowledge gap? * Will I be OK with the time spent on putting together the plan if they decide it isn’t a good fit? There is no right or wrong answer to this question. It’s largely a personal choice.

In order to be a Demand Generation leader, you want to be both left and right-brained. Often people think Demand Gen is all about analytics and architecting user journeys that deliver leads. But these journeys are targeting consumers, and consumers engage best with compelling content (e.g. - videos, images, etc.). This is where the right brain comes in to deliver creativity. When I think of the list of Hard skills (aka Must Haves) vs. Soft Skills (Nice to Have's), this is where I land: Hard Skills (Must Have's): *  Analytical mindset/Data manipulator: This role calls for interpreting data and connecting the dots. How can one look at a Marketing funnel and identify gaps or ways to optimize the flow to produce more leads? Where are leads dropping off and why?   *  Tech Stack Guru: Mastering the Tech Stack used within an org is critical so  *  Curiosity: A true leader will want to explore what they do and develop hypotheses for tests to pilot. E.g. - if they introduce a new content asset, will that increase engagement? Is there a different audience to try targeting? What are other competitor brands doing in the space that can provide learnings?  *  Problem-solving: With Marketing, there are constantly challenges that arise (e.g. - leads dropping off, etc.). A great leader is constantly figuring out ways to fix and build upon these challenges presented.  *  Customer-first mindset: Having a strong understanding of the target audience and their painpoints and key motivational drivers is critical to ensure the Demand Gen program is successful.  *  Cross-Functional Communicator: This role sits at the center of Product Marketing, Sales, Content Strategy teams and more. Having a thorough understanding of those teams' work and how to leverage it would be important for a Demand Gen leader. Also communicating out the Demand Gen strategy to those teams will be important in relationship-building and ensuring all teams are aware of what's happening.  Soft Skills (Nice to Have's): *  Creativity: B2B can often be a bit stale, so it's nice to inject new ways to execute (e.g. - new channels, new content types, etc.).  *  Org Design & Communication: Make sure your team understands their remit, goals and any new company developments that affect their roles. 

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 one producing content, but I do believe demand gen should be strong writers. This is the team that knows how to get people to sign up for a webinar and download a piece of content. If you are not close to your solution/product, team up with your PMM team and refer to messaging briefs to be able to write the content that are going to convert people into leads!  Some of the strongest demand gen people I know all have different strengths, so nothing is a nice to have. It's just what makes them special. I know folks who are really strong writers, very creative, and very savvy with marketing tech. Lean into your strength and it will BECOME the hard skill the CMO/VP of Marketing interviewing you NEEDs on their team.

What hard skills are must haves for a demand generation leader? *  Curiosity. While a soft skill, a curious, growth mindset is critical for a demand generation leader. This is how you can stay humble, but also continue to allow for growth in yourself and your team. *  Data analysis / data-informed. Don’t just be data-driven, but rather be data-informed. Put your curiosity to work and think deeply about what the data is showing, coming to your own insights, and visualizing the data. *  Storytelling. Being a demand generation leader means you need to tell meaningful stories with the data and give it life. You can’t just throw data points out there without having a why to them or desired outcomes. *  Informed by customers’ actions. As concerns around cookies and privacy continue to grow, it’s important to know how to use the zero party and first party data your customers provide to make smarter business decisions. *  Forward thinking. The demand generation space is evolving - fast. You have to be forward thinking and educating yourself and your team. You have to level up in areas such as knowing how to apply algorithms to your data, understanding what is trendy and not going to stick versus has potential, and other repeatable, scalable marketing motions. *  People management. Emotional intelligence is critical as well. You have to understand how to lead, inspire, and empathize with your team while creating a safe space for communication. What are nice to haves for a demand generation leader? * Tactical knowledge about areas where you don’t gravitate to that can be filled in via a different team member. Remember, you can’t accelerate at every single facet of demand generation. You can however, have just enough knowledge to know the north star direction.