AMA: Snow Software Director of Demand Generation and Channel Marketing - Americas, Liz Bernardo on Demand Generation 30 / 60 / 90 Day Plan

In my personal experience, it was best to expand the team by bringing in a marketing generalist with an interest in Demand Generation. Someone who had a solid base of entry-level marketing skills in multiple departments and that was eager to learn the role of Demand Generation, allowed me to have a starting point to expand and grow upon. A generalist has experience in all of the marketing basics and can be a "pinch hitter" for all aspects of your program. ie. If you need a content writer or editor, someone to assist with social media, events or basic SFDC/Marketing Automation platform skills, you have an asset that can fill the gaps. As time grows, you can teach DG basics and the "why" and how to run successful programs, then eventually the newest team member can branch out to develop and run smaller strategic programs for the business and also grow in their career.

The first question that immediately comes to mind is: "What is the best way we can work together?" Dependent on the team member's role, you may be working with this person regularly and you will need to align on how you both work, but also how you both can make an impact to the business together. Identifying their OKRs and goals will help you learn how you can support them and become a trusted business advisor.

The prioritization should align with your business objectives. Those overarching goals decided by your sales and marketing leadership team should formulate a foundational layer for you to build from. From there you can prioritize the programs based on the largest gaps that need to be filled. Are you needing Leads? Content? Events? Sales Materials? Digital or ABM programs? You don't have to focus on one thing at a time, so make sure to be able to multitask. Sorting priorities from most critical to least then executing will help you make the quickest impact to fill the business need. 

5 things I would consider quick wins within 90 days are: 1. Understanding challenges in the market and what differentiates your product in solving them. 2. A solid grasp of average deal sizes, time to close, and past 3 years of sales metrics and goals. 3. Completing a detailed analysis of past Demand Generation campaigns for successes, failures and most profitable ROI. 4. Received feedback on previous campaigns from cross-functional stakeholders and took a "needs assessment" to help them be more successful. 5. And lastly, and probably the most obvious, begin generating a pipeline with a solid 6-month plan. 

When you are coming in new to a role, your first month should involve getting a lay of the land. Understanding and reviewing past metrics, meeting with stakeholders, learning your team and company's strengths and weaknesses, OKRs, etc. Once you have identified the above, you should then start building a 6-month roadmap. In this roadmap make sure you are kicking off multi-channel programs and campaigns. Start with the easiest to execute and continue to build on it. A great example of this is starting with a solid eBook. From that eBook you can create a blog, design an infographic, create an email/BDR campaign and then run a larger-scale webinar on the topic. Build your hero asset and then launch multiple variations. Make the squeeze worth the juice.