Short answer
Demand generation creates and improves coordinated programs that produce measurable interest from relevant prospective buyers without confusing activity with demand.
About Demand generation
Creates and improves programs that produce measurable interest from relevant prospective buyers. It connects audience selection, offers, distribution, follow-up, and evidence into a repeatable approach.
Use this competency for
- Roles that own programs intended to create or develop relevant prospective buyer interest.
- Work that connects acquisition choices with qualification, follow-up, and program learning.
Do not use this competency for
- Roles focused on general awareness or communications without responsibility for prospective demand.
Important distinctions
Campaign planning
Campaign planning coordinates a time-bound initiative. Demand generation owns the program logic for creating and developing relevant prospective interest.
Lifecycle marketing
Lifecycle marketing supports the next useful action across relationship stages. Demand generation focuses on prospective buyers and the creation or development of demand.
Expectations by level
IC1
Individual contributor 1
Executes defined parts of a demand program with guidance, checks audience and follow-up requirements, and records results accurately enough for the team to review.
Observable behaviors
- Checks that an assigned activity targets the audience defined in the program.
- Connects each response path to the documented next step and owner.
- Records program inputs and outcomes using the agreed definitions.
Examples
- Flags a form handoff that has no owner for timely follow-up.
- Corrects a program report that mixes relevant inquiries with unrelated responses.
IC2
Individual contributor 2
Independently designs and improves a demand program for a defined audience, connects activities to follow-up, and changes program choices based on qualified evidence.
Observable behaviors
- Defines the audience, offer, response path, follow-up, and evaluation method for a program.
- Compares program sources using agreed definitions of relevant interest.
- Stops, changes, or expands activities based on observed audience and progression evidence.
Examples
- Revises an offer after responses show interest from people outside the intended audience.
- Ends an activity that creates many inquiries but little evidence of relevant prospective interest.
IC3
Individual contributor 3
Sets demand generation direction across connected programs, resolves ambiguous audience and investment choices with stakeholders, and improves how prospective interest is defined and learned from.
Observable behaviors
- Builds a program portfolio around explicit audience and demand assumptions.
- Aligns marketing and sales stakeholders on qualification and follow-up definitions.
- Reallocates effort across programs using comparable evidence and documented tradeoffs.
Examples
- Redesigns the program mix after evidence shows repeated interest from the wrong audience.
- Leads agreement on a shared definition when teams count prospective interest differently.