An Interview with Cathy Johnson

Today we interviewed Cathy Johnson about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue. TPG: 1.  What are some of your most effective lead generation programs? Cathy : Executive to Executive interviews TPG: 2.  How do you measure your marketing performance?  What are some of the key metrics you use? Cathy : Number of leads passed to sales; dollars closed by sales from marketing generated leads TPG: 3.  What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation? Cathy : 50% TPG: 4.  How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization? Cathy : Marketing participates in the weekly sales meetings; processes are put in writing and agreed upon by both sales and marketing. TPG: 5.  How do you define a qualified lead? Cathy : Identified decision maker(s), budget and timeline TPG: 6.  What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts? Cathy : We use Salesforce.com; we're looking into marketing automation TPG: 7.  How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand? Cathy : We're not TPG: 8.  What are your three top priorities for this year? Cathy : 1. Revenue 2. Revenue 3. Revenue TPG: 9.  What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation? Cathy : Get sales and marketing working together first and implement lead definitions and lead processes that both agree upon. TPG: 10.  How do you see the role of marketing changing? Cathy : Marketing is increasingly more responsible for helping to build the pipeline.