Five Key Implementation Steps for a Demand Center Strategy

In my previous blog Should Your Organization Create a Demand Center? I talked about the important role that a demand center can play in the demand creation value chain and the business benefits we see organizations achieve when they implement a demand center strategy.

A couple weeks ago at SiriusDecisions’ fourth annual EMEA Summit in London, Massimo Sangiovanni – marketing VP for Europe and Africa at Motorola Solutions – shared the instrumental role the demand center has played in transforming his organization. He talked about the “Rule of One” – one user, one campaign; one campaign, many languages; one touch, once a month; one guardian of the send; one message, all platforms. Implementing and staying true to this rule is pretty impressive for an organization the size of Motorola Solutions!

This demonstrates the need to establish clear rules and responsibilities between the demand center and its internal stakeholders. For this reason, SiriusDecisions has developed an implementation methodology that guides organizations through critical implementation decisions. In addition, we help organizations audit their existing demand centers. After all, as organizations grow and strategies evolve, the demand center must evolve too, so a regular checkup and diagnosis is best practice.

Here are some of the implementation steps we go through with clients:

Although this is not an exhaustive list of the steps and decisions required when considering a demand center strategy, it’s a good start toward defining the demand center’s purpose in a specific organization. Often organizations don’t have this clarity; as a result, they put at risk their objective of being successful with their demand creation efforts. As John F. Kennedy once said, “…effort and courage are not enough without clear purpose and direction.”