Let’s just start here…hiring for any role in this climate is tough, and I might be slightly biased, but your next Demand Gen Manager could make or break your team hitting growth goals this year.
Stakes will inevitably be high when you get ready to start interviewing.
Hundreds of candidates will be able to “talk the talk” during the interview process and sure, they’ll flash up all their best metrics and tell stories of large-scale successful campaign launches. But…can they really back it up?
I’ve just gone through the process to help a client hire their next Demand Gen Manager role and thought I’d share what I asked, what I learned, and what I might do differently the next time around.
According to a quick search there are more than 1300+ open Demand Gen roles on LinkedIn right now, and most already have 100+ applicants–it’s a tough market. So whether you’re the hiring manager, or the candidate seeking your next DG gig, this post is for you.
Questions for your next DGM interview:
1. What’s your approach to launching and optimizing a campaign?
I like to take the time to have them highlight a winning campaign first. Pay close attention to how the candidate shares this information with you for the first time. If they can tell a story that explains the why, the how, and the what, they’re in the top 1% of candidates. If they rattle off random success metrics, but have no idea how they achieved them, or why this campaign was a focus for the company, depending on the seniority level you’re looking for, they might need more coaching.
In general, the more in-depth the candidate’s answer, the higher the likelihood that they understand how demand gen metrics affect the rest of the funnel and customer journey. If they stop short at CPM, CTR, or CPL or the number of MQLs they’ve driven, that’s likely not the level of depth this a candidate needs in order to be successful in this role.
On the other hand, if the interviewee starts talking about Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), you’re on solid ground. In-depth knowledge of acquisition cost and lifetime value show that the candidate knows they should be accountable for lead quality, not just lead quantity.
The best candidates understand the full funnel impacts. They’ve had success being held accountable to new business metrics (net new ARR) and retention metrics (NRR).
Take a minute to also have them highlight a campaign they had bet highly on, but it just didn’t pan out. Why do they think it wasn’t successful? How did they work to diagnose the optimization opportunities?
An underrated skillset that should be on every marketing JD:
𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐆𝐍𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐍 🕵️It's an easy way you can separate the top 1% from the rest.
Someone asks, "is 44% a good MQL to SQL conversion rate? Our sales team says the ACV on those SQLs is too low."
Most people respond, "Industry benchmarks say you should be 70% or higher."
Diagnosticians respond, "How are you defining MQL? What's your MQL to closed won ratio? SQL to closed won ratio? How about your AE capacity (% of self-sourced vs marketing sourced)?"
Very few POVs are cut and dry. Most require an additional layer of detail to appropriately diagnose the issue, form a point of view, and provide a solution.
2. What tech stack are you most familiar with?
Get specific with this one. Of all the roles on your growth/demand team, this role should be the most closely connected to RevOps. Their expertise within your tech stack is critical.
Take the time to walk through each tool in your tech stack, one by one. Definitely a bit of a process, but worth it.
Drilling into tools you use will give you better insight into the candidate’s expertise, and allows you to give them a better sense of how you operate as a business. This exercise will help you identify if the candidate only has experience focused heavily on planning, and relied on agencies or other external partners to actually do the heavy lifting on campaign launches.
Important pieces of tech you should cover:
- CRM (campaign tracking, reporting, routing, integrations)
- MAP (if they’re an expert at Marketo or Pardot, they can operate within anything)
- Routing/Scheduling
- CRO
- ABM…which leads us to our next question.
3. Do all B2B companies need to run an ABM program?
The question of whether every B2B company actually needs an ABM program shouldn’t be met with a simple 'yes' or 'no.'
It's an invitation to explore the nuanced factors that influence such a decision. A compelling response shouldn’t begin with unwavering affirmation (an immediate ‘Hell Yeah’ here raises eyebrows for me…in a bad way). Instead this is a chance for a candidate to acknowledge the complexity inherent in this strategy.
Factors like Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), marketing budget, alignment between sales and marketing, and Average Contract Value (ACV) all shape the viability of ABM initiatives. Candidates who appreciate the contextual nuances and recognize when ABM might not be the optimal approach exhibit a deeper understanding of strategic marketing.
This is an interesting exploratory part of the interview process for me. How a candidate thinks about and responds to this question tends to tell me more about how methodical they might be once in seat.
4. How do you think about marketing attribution?
Ah, the illusive beast. Marketing attribution is typically a hot button topic for most. Some marketing folks think demand gen should be able to (or try to) attribute everything. I am not one of those people.
While some advocate for stringent attribution models, a great candidate, on my scorecard, will adopt a more nuanced stance. Those who recognize that not all valuable interactions can be neatly attributed tend to have a more comprehensive understanding.
I’m looking for them to at least acknowledge that it’s often what happens outside what we’re able to measure as marketers that actually drives the purchase decision. It could be word of mouth, it could be social proof, it could be good branding.
By this point if the candidate isn’t fired up, or we’re just not getting to the root of their psychology, I’ll lean in for a follow up question about brand, influencers, building a media brand, etc.
5. What are some non-standard things you’ve done for your demand gen campaigns?
I’m looking for something I’ve never heard of.
Unconventional approaches to demand generation are the hallmark of a truly innovative marketer. Rather than regurgitating standard tactics, I seek candidates who dare to tread uncharted territories. Whether it's guerrilla-inspired strategies or ingenious retargeting techniques, I'm eager to hear about novel methodologies that defy convention.
Merely listing established channels won't suffice; I'm in search of candidates who challenge the status quo and bring fresh perspectives to the table.
This recent candidate I’ve hired used Apollo for contact development within target accounts. Then layered those enriched contact profiles over hot geos and created scale behind a micro-events strategy for novel events hosted for C-Suite execs. Absolute fire.
6. What’s your experience with audience-building?
It’s no surprise that I really value audience marketing. And it’s not exactly groundbreaking to say that audience-building is one of the most important skills for a demand gen marketer to possess.
“Gone are the days of relying solely on paid media for marketing success. My hypothesis is that people are going to start waking up to the fact that building an audience creates valuable optionality for your business, and this realization will give owned media its time to shine.”
I’m looking for candidates who have taken a unique path to building their audiences—like leveraging proprietary first-party data to fuel a zero click content founder brand strategy on LinkedIn, or scaling a PLG motion with tools that rank high organically. The ideas are endless.
7. How are you using AI in your role?
AI is here to stay. And while I’m not looking for someone who’s handed off their entire role, we know there’s plenty within a DGMs day-to-day that could be offset through AI. And I’m typically hiring for early to growth stage B2B SaaS brands—meaning nearly everyone is still wearing multiple hats.
Leveraging AI means we’re able to unlock new levels of efficiency, innovation, and effectiveness.
A few examples of they might be offloading through AI:
1. Personalized Content Recommendations for their ICP to be used in content, email, web personalization, ads, etc.
2. Automated Email Campaign Optimization: By piping in email metrics AI can continuously analyze performance metrics (open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates) to identify patterns and trends. With this data, they could automate the optimization process (SLs, send time optimization, content personalization, etc.) to drive better outcomes.
3. Sentiment Analysis and Brand Monitoring: AI-powered sentiment analysis tools monitor social media platforms, online forums, review sites, and prospect + customer call recordings to gauge public sentiment and track brand mentions in real-time.
What I’d do differently next time around
Hiring in this climate is interesting. Candidates are under more pressure than ever. Most that I interviewed had been impacted by layoffs. The role received 600+ applicants and took me 4 months to fill. Much different stakes than say even a year ago.
And it was a critical role for the company so stakes were high on both sides. We ran the interview process like this:
Round 1: Recruiter Call
Round 2: Hiring Manager: 45 minutes
Round 3: Head of Marketing: 45 minutes
Round 4: Head of RevOps: 30 minutes
Round 5: Quick (off the books) touch base with the hiring manager to make sure the candidate had plenty of time to ask questions for themselves
Round 6: VP of People: 30 minutes
And then an offer call.
At this point, we felt the candidate had more than proven themselves so we didn’t prioritize a case study or exercise for this particular role. But in previous roles when you have more than 1 candidate in final stages, case studies really do show true colors. In the future I’d reorganize the interview flow to allow for a case study with a real prompt applicable to the brand. And yes, I’d pay them for their time! This gives the candidate a more realistic view into the types of projects and priorities they’d have. And gives them a chance to interact with the hiring committee a little more realistically than a typical 1:1 interview.
Hope this helps you on current and future hiring needs!