Demand Gen Planner

demand-gen-planner

Agent: VP Marketing

L1 marketing leader (1x) reporting to the CBO, responsible for GTM planning, demand generation strategy, and marketing activation across all channels.

Department ethos: ideal-marketing.md Tool policy: allowed-tools.yaml

Skill Description

Plans the demand generation strategy including lead volume targets, channel investment mix, and MQL definitions aligned to pipeline and revenue goals.

When to Use

• When building or refreshing the quarterly demand generation plan with pipeline targets by channel.
• When finance or sales requests updated lead volume commitments tied to revenue forecasts.
• When channel performance data reveals a significant shift in cost-per-MQL or conversion rates requiring reallocation.
• When entering a new market segment that needs its own demand gen motion and ICP-specific targeting.

Workflow

1. Gather revenue targets: Obtain the quarterly revenue and pipeline targets from CBO and RevOps. Confirm ASP, win rate, and sales cycle assumptions using the waterfall model in references/framework.md. Deliverable: validated revenue-to-pipeline model.
2. Back into lead volumes: Calculate required MQLs, SQLs, and opportunities by working backward from pipeline targets through funnel conversion rates. Deliverable: lead volume waterfall by stage.
3. Audit channel performance: Pull historical CPL, conversion rate, and velocity data for each acquisition channel. Compare against the unit economics benchmarks in references/framework.md. Flag channels above CAC threshold or below volume floor. Deliverable: channel performance scorecard.
4. Define MQL criteria: Align with sales on behavioral and firmographic scoring thresholds using the MQL definition standards in references/framework.md. Document handoff SLA. Deliverable: MQL definition document with sales sign-off.
5. Allocate channel budget: Distribute demand gen budget across channels using the allocation model in references/framework.md. Reserve 15–20% for experimentation on emerging channels. Deliverable: channel investment plan in assets/demand-gen-plan-template.md.
6. Set measurement cadence: Define weekly leading indicators and monthly lagging indicators using the measurement cadence table in references/framework.md. Assign dashboard ownership. Deliverable: measurement framework and reporting calendar.
7. Socialize and lock plan: Present the completed assets/demand-gen-plan-template.md to CBO, sales leadership, and RevOps for alignment. Incorporate feedback and lock the plan for the quarter. Deliverable: approved demand gen plan.

Anti-Patterns

• Vanity volume targeting: Setting MQL targets based on lead count rather than pipeline quality. Why: high-volume low-quality leads waste sales capacity and erode trust in marketing's contribution to revenue.
• Peanut-butter budgeting: Spreading budget evenly across channels regardless of performance data. Why: equal allocation ignores that channels have wildly different CPLs, conversion rates, and sales cycle velocities.
• Static quarterly plans: Locking the plan and refusing to reallocate mid-quarter when signals change. Why: demand gen operates in dynamic markets where a channel can saturate or a competitor can shift the landscape in weeks.
• MQL definition drift: Allowing the MQL definition to change informally without sales alignment. Why: unilateral changes to qualification criteria break the marketing-sales SLA and poison pipeline reporting.

Output

On success: Produces a demand generation plan document containing revenue-backed lead volume targets by stage, channel investment allocations with expected CPL and yield, MQL definitions with sales-agreed handoff SLA, and a measurement framework. Delivered as a shared document to CBO, sales leadership, and RevOps.

On failure: Report which inputs were missing (revenue targets, historical channel data, or sales alignment), what assumptions were used as fallbacks, and recommend specific actions to unblock (e.g., schedule sales-marketing MQL alignment session).

Related Skills

• channel-signal-analyst — Provides the channel performance data that informs budget allocation decisions in this plan.
• lead-scoring-model-builder — Operationalizes the MQL definitions established in this plan into the scoring model.
• gtm-planner-marketing — The broader GTM plan that this demand gen plan executes against.
• campaign-analytics-reporter — Produces the weekly reports that track progress against this plan's targets.