What can someone who has an extensive sales background do to prove themselves competent for an entry-level demand generation role?
I recommend you first check out my answer related to this at the link below. One incredibly meaningful aspect of sales that is highly applicable in demand generation is having a deep understanding of your customers. The sales and marketing relationship is critical. I am of the belief you have a unique perspective that can truly be utilized in an entry-level demand generation role.
How do you prove yourself for an entry-level demand generation role?
Show your commitment to understanding customers, listening to their feedback, and crafting meaningful recommendations in service of your customers. Always bring it back to your customers. Happy customers see and realize the value that is delivered and as a result feel good about their investment.
Related:
Ultimately the challenge is going to be the hard skills and translating a 1:1 customer engagement strategy to 1:many. Often times, having a long history in sales won't translate to being able to analyze for a key goal or KPI and then know how to optimize via marketing tactics. A way to get started is:
1) Hone into which field in demand gen you're interested in pursuing. It may be easier to tackle via digital marketing where there are a ton of courses out there. There likely is a technical gap so having proficiency by taking trainings and certifications on areas like SEO, SEM, PPC, etc will help. Finding ways to play with the tools will be helpful as well. Maybe take up helping a charity or a friend with their digital marketing so you can apply what you're learning as well and speak to the experience in interviews.
2) Instead of a quota, you're held accountable to the overall business performance. When you interview, can you articulate how your business is driving from awareness to consideration and then through the entire lead flow? (IE: marketing qualified lead > sales qualified lead > meeting > opportunities, etc?). Take a current demand gen expert at your company out for coffee and ask to understand how they run the funnel end to end. What tactics do they use and where in the customer lifecycle. Then leverage the skills you've learned above on the different tactics to map how you'd tackle if there was a breakdown in conversions at any given spot of the funnel.
Top Demand Generation Mentors
