Demand generation ran region by region with different agencies, tools and content, almost no reuse across a long, technical portfolio, and only a weak link between spend and pipeline. The value proposition itself was inconsistent market to market, cost per qualified lead was high and erratic, and sales did not trust the numbers.
VA built one global demand-gen operating model — a consolidated global-regional panel on a defined proposition, fees tied to pipeline contribution and a shared content engine with reuse by default — so cost per qualified lead falls and sales trusts the numbers.
CMO, Head of Content, Head of Marketing Operations
The strategic problem
Demand generation ran region by region with different agencies, tools and content, almost no reuse across a long, technical portfolio, and only a weak link between spend and pipeline. The value proposition itself was inconsistent market to market, cost per qualified lead was high and erratic, and sales did not trust the numbers.
Diagnose & Design
VA ran a spend mapping & cost baseline analysis of demand-generation investment across regions, breaking out agency fees, content production cost, technology spend and working media by segment; a marketing & production ecosystem audit reviewed the tool stack, content workflows and agency contracts, exposing duplication and the absence of a shared measurement framework. Stakeholder and customer interviews tested whether the value proposition held across markets before any scaling; gap & maturity assessment and market benchmarking defined best-in-class B2B demand-gen at this portfolio scale, and governance design (RACI, KPI framework, scorecards) set the structure linking marketing to pipeline, with the transformation roadmap phasing the move region by region.
Ecosystem & Remuneration
VA designed a global demand-gen partner ecosystem — roster rationalisation & consolidation merged regional arrangements into a structured global-regional panel, and a managed selection appointed the lead creative and demand partner against a defined proposition and scope. Vendor scouting & shortlisting from the VA 5,000+ supplier database identified specialist content and demand-gen partners suited to a long, technical portfolio. Remuneration model design tied fees to pipeline contribution — qualified leads, MQL-to-SQL conversion — rather than activity; fee benchmarking & validation confirmed competitive rates across the consolidated roster, and scoping & SOW design formalised a shared content engine with reuse by default.
Rollout & relationship management
Contracting & onboarding formalised the global roster with agreements specifying content-reuse obligations, pipeline-linked performance clauses and shared measurement standards; handover, rollout & commitment tracking managed the region-by-region migration, ensuring each commercial team adopted the shared content engine and agency commitments on lead quality were tracked into delivery. AURA/Planner back-planned the rollout to two dates — shared content engine launch and full pipeline-linked measurement activation — while relationship management kept marketing, sales and finance aligned on the funnel accountability model.
Execution Oversight
VA applied briefing & estimate review to content briefs and campaign estimates at intake, ensuring every activation was scoped against the shared content engine before bespoke production was authorised. Production cost validation & budget control monitored cost per lead by region, flagging deviation from the efficiency baseline and stopping regional teams reverting to independent production. Bid governance applied double-award discipline to technology and data-partner procurement, keeping competitive tension across the demand-gen toolstack.
Performance Measurement
With the proposition tested, marketing was finally measured against pipeline. KPIs and scorecards from governance design — cost per qualified lead, MQL-to-SQL conversion rate, content reuse rate, marketing-sourced pipeline — tracked via partner performance evaluation on a 90/180/360 appraisal cadence; cost saving and cost avoidance reported separately. Outcomes: 22% reduction in demand-gen cost, 14% cost avoidance from content reused across the portfolio, 38% lower cost per qualified lead (today closure reports; full performance measurement on the roadmap).
Why VA
In B2B, marketing earns its budget by pipeline. VA tests the proposition, builds the content engine and the measurement, so demand-gen cost falls and sales finally trusts the numbers.
Common questions
What is a demand-generation operating model?
A consolidated global-regional partner panel on a single defined value proposition, with a shared content engine that reuses assets across the portfolio and fees tied to pipeline — replacing region-by-region agencies, tools and content with almost no reuse.
How do you tie marketing spend to pipeline in B2B?
Fees are linked to pipeline contribution — qualified leads, MQL-to-SQL conversion — rather than activity, and cost per qualified lead and marketing-sourced pipeline are tracked, so marketing is measured against the outcomes sales cares about.
Why does sales stop trusting demand-gen numbers, and how is that fixed?
Because spend and pipeline were only weakly linked and the proposition varied by market; testing the proposition, standardising the content engine and measuring on a 90/180/360 cadence against pipeline restores a shared, trusted number.