Kelley Sandoval

When addressing alignment with executive stakeholders it is important to drive clear goals, KPIs, RACIs, and a strategy that outlines the pros and cons. This can include the following: 1. Goal alignment: You need to align with both stakeholders up front on the core problem we are trying to solve. By driving this alignment you ensure that everyone is on the same page around the goals we are trying to achieve. Without this, your strategy won’t align. 2. Organized swimlanes: It is important to build a RACI with an ultimate decision maker, including who can make the final decision and escalation paths as needed if these two stakeholders disagree. 3. Influencer mindset alignment: It is your job to understand their core KPIs and business needs, which you can highlight in the options you share. This includes their personal and professional drivers, which may influence their decision-making later in the process. 4. A company-first strategy: The proposed strategy should include the pros, cons, and risks. Different leaders may assign different values to each of these areas. Ideally, you align these to your company or organization's priorities to make it easier to see from a company-first perspective. Ultimately, when you provide a suggested strategy, it should be the one that provides the overall company with the least amount of risk meeting the core objectives you agreed to solve for. If needed, you can use the escalation paths in your RACI, but ideally, doing the upfront alignment will be needed less often.

Depending on your organization’s goals bringing in sales, CS, and operations can be key to running successful Demand Generation campaigns. I have more experience working in the B2B Enterprise space and the relationship with Sales and CS has been important to success. * In large-scale Enterprise sales (where deal lengths can extend beyond a year), the Field (sales, sales engineers, etc.) is critical to moving a deal from TOFU opportunities to POC and closed-won opportunities. Sales can help you understand the core influencers and buyers in the sales cycles and the problems customers are trying to solve. It’s important to align on the top accounts and how you are best positioned in the market. * Customer Success becomes more important in B2B buying cycles because customers who churn are very costly to the business. In addition, happy customers will buy more over time. If you have a large product portfolio, CS can be another seller for you, helping drive additional upsells and cross-sell opportunities in the buying cycle. Both of these teams help accelerate opportunities and can provide a unique perspective you may not have considered in past Demand Generation campaigns. 

Always approach the discussion with an open mind to understand the “why” behind the ask. When people come to you asking about ownership it may be to create clarity, remove duplicative work, or something else. Once you understand the “why” you can start to dive into the specifics of the project workflows and areas of ownership to have a discussion on the “how” to solve it. This then becomes a discussion on the process, pieces of the project, and potentially re-reviewing a RACI built previously. If this impacts headcount or resources leadership may need to weigh in. By coming in with a curious mindset, I’ve found people are excited to be heard, and you learn how to work better together and build a try compromise where needed. 

For each cross-functional project, I build a clear RACI with one ultimate decision-maker for each milestone. This defines who has the power to green-light the project, and it is shared during the introduction phase of the project. It’s important to make clear who has decision-making power vs. consultative power early on in the project and get buy-in from leadership. Likewise, it’s important to provide a strong workback schedule with go-no-go dates that have to be met and be clear on when deadlines will push and which teams will be impacted. If needed, this work can be up-leveled to managers if too many projects are impacting downstream teams.

One of the most challenging parts of a cross-functional role is managing a project with people across the organization who do not report directly to you or your function, but it is necessary. To be a good cross-functional leader you will need to provide clear direction and be a trusted business partner. Here are a few things I’d suggest in your work with other teams: * Leadership alignment: Ensure that the leaders in your organization and their organization are aligned on the strategic importance of the project you are working on together. The buy-in will be key. * Drive clarity: Create clear roles and responsibilities along with timelines to set expectations and, upfront, have them confirm they are bought in to be a part of the effort. * Understand their availability: Understand clearly what other priorities they may have and how this may impact their support of your project. This includes their own personal vacation schedule. Work this into your overall timeline. * Be a trusted business partner: Develop strong working relationships with them. Meet all your deliverables and timelines to show them you are someone they can depend on. * Hold a high standard for quality of work: Provide constructive feedback with a lens back to the project's original intent. Point back to the project's objective or best practices. This makes your feedback more impactful and aligned with what you are both trying to achieve. If needed, bring in other SMEs to back up your feedback so they understand it is coming from a place where you are all trying to deliver the highest-quality work. * Be open: Be willing to receive their feedback on your work and/or communication style.

Demand Generation Managers work between many teams to bring to life a GTM strategy to meet key business objectives. Therefore, the skills I measure my team on include the following: * Collaborative Project Management: The ability to execute a high-caliber program that resonates with your audience is critical. This means you need to motivate cross-functional teams to work with you by communicating clearly and often. * Strategic Mindset: You have to be someone who can see the forest beyond the trees. Beyond your programs, you must understand how your program relates to larger OKRs, where it sits in the customer lifecycle, and how to drive your prospect or customer to the next step in their journey. * Truth-Seeking: Demand Generation requires balancing the budget, resources, and time allotted. Since you can never have everything, you need to understand how to prioritize across all your asks to drive efficiency and meet your business's KPIs. You need to be able to use data to drive your decisions and help others understand why you are prioritizing some aspects of your plan over others. * Ability to Influence Stakeholders: Demand Generation does not work in a silo. You have to bring along all your stakeholders to see the value of working with you, to feel ownership of your joint projects, and to feel accountable for the results. Furthermore, as you become more senior, you need to be able to bring along senior leadership to agree to your plans. * Team Leadership: Leading cross-functional teams and motivating them to follow you. Be a leader within your own team, helping train, coach, and grow our overall team’s abilities. * Growth Mindset: The ability to have an agile learner mindset. Someone is constantly trying to grow and improve with what and how they do things. 

Although I’ll provide a framework here, you must consider your top non-negotiables when considering moving to a new company. Where you work, the culture, company size, and solutions likely differ from those around you. When I review a company, I look at the following areas and questions: 1. The Technology / Solution 1. In today’s volatile market, I look for a technology or solution that solves real-world customer problems and is future-proof against a market downturn (e.g., people will still buy this solution in a recession). 2. The company’s TAM today and future potential. Does this solution have the ability to grow, and at what rate does the market expect it to grow? 2. Leadership Team - What does their track record for success look like? For example, if they are pre-IPO, has this leadership team ever led a company to a successful IPO? Do they have a clear future vision for the company? 3. The Direct Team Culture: The direct team you work for can heavily impact your day-to-day. I am looking for a team that is: 1. Collaborative and inclusive, they enjoy working as a team. 2. Willingness to change and take on new ideas. 3. Strong leadership can help us prioritize where we focus our efforts. 4. The Opportunity: The value I believe I’ll get from taking on this role: 1. Will I learn more or something I’ve never done? 2. Is there room for me to make an impact? 3. Will the work be challenging and something different or the same every day?

Different organizations have various criteria and promotion processes. Depending on your company culture, different leaders will review promotions and sign off on these changes. What I’ll say is these are the typical questions managers and leaders consider before someone is put up for promotion: 1. What are the current business needs? For example, if someone is promoted, what work would they do differently to fill a business gap? People managers usually only open up when the business has a need for an additional people manager. 2. What are the technical competencies someone needs to have at the next level? 3. What brief of work can you point to showcase that this person is already operating at the next level? 4. What peers and leaders can speak to the level of work this person owns? If you are looking for someone to help advocate for you in your promotional journey, it’s essential to have a transparent conversation around the expectations of the next level, and if you are meeting those, provide them clear examples and metrics about how you’ve exceeded in these specific areas. 

As a people manager, you must wholeheartedly invest in your team and your employees’ career objectives, even if it’s not Demand Generation. Here are a few things I do to cultivate my team’s growth: 1. Create strong career ladders. This drives a few things: 1. Clear articulation of my expectations for their existing role and promotional requirements. 2. Transparency in your career discussions on their strengths and areas of opportunity, which can be used throughout the year and during the review cycles. 3. Hiring skills are clearly outlined, so your recruiting team can attract the right candidate at the correct job level. 2. Leave the space for them to grow. There are a few ways to do this: 1. Carve out dedicated time on people’s calendars where they can hold space for learning opportunities. 2. Support outside L&D with company funding for educational courses. 3. Host team L&D sessions on relevant topics related to your career ladders. 4. After discussing their areas of interest, stretch projects allow them to learn a new skill hands-on. 3. Give them autonomy to do their best work, this includes but is not limited to: 1. Allowing them to own their work. Do not micromanage a top performer. 2. Designate team leaders to represent your team on calls and projects, and remove those who are necessary. Allow their voice to represent your entire team. 3. Be clear about when you want to be more involved and why.

Whenever there is an open position on the Demand Generation team, we go through an exercise to understand the overall technical skill set we want this person to have, and we review the team’s current strengths and weaknesses. We often look for someone who can lift the team up. That being said, when I interview, I find strong candidates have the following qualities: * Initiative—They are always trying to push themselves and run programs that do better each time. They have a mindset of constantly pushing the envelope. * Curiosity—They are willing to chase an idea and learn new things, and although they have a POV, they are willing to hold it lightly, e.g., changing their decisions to reflect new inputs. * Energized by Data—Someone willing to dig into the data to understand the “why” behind the results and, therefore, can pull new levers and run experiments to optimize future performance. * An Empathic Business Partner—We partner with many cross-functional business partners in Demand Generation. This is why it’s not just about what you do or achieve but also how you do it. You want to work with people who have a collaborative mindset.