CyberTech Top Voice: Interview with Angela Cope, Director of Demand Gen at SoftChoice

Hello, CyberTech community. Welcome to part #27 of the CyberTech Top Voice interview series, featuring Angela Cope, Director of Demand Gen at SoftChoice.

I’m the director of demand generation. I lead a team of data-driven marketers across growth marketing, operations, content marketing, and digital marketing. Our department is responsible for the development of our marketing funnel and building sales-ready opportunities for our sales organization.

You are among the top marketing leaders in the cybersecurity industry. Could you tell us about your journey over the last four years that has led you to success as a demand gen specialist?

These last four years have been grounded in growth, overcoming personal limitations, and learning how to stay focused on core projects. It’s a large organization, and our team only has so many people.

The journey has required me to be resourceful and to be executing alongside my team.

My success journey is ongoing, but what has helped me along the way is my team. Their success is my success.

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What are the core offerings of Softchoice? How does it fit into a modern cybersecurity technology stack?

We are Softchoice. 

As part of World Wide Technology, we are a software and cloud-focused IT solutions provider that equips people to be engaged, connected and creative at work, and organizations to be agile, innovative, and secure by delivering AI-powered cloud and digital workplace solutions. Through our mission, we unleash the potential in people and technology to unlock value for our customers as we guide them through their transformation journey with comprehensive end-to-end solutions.

Could you walk us through your demand generation strategy for the year ahead? What specific traits or capabilities do you prioritize when selecting demand generation partners to ensure optimal outcomes?

This year we are evolving our strategy. We have built a continuous customer journey for both our acquisition and expansion efforts across five key themes – Microsoft, Security, Cloud and Modern Infrastructure, AI, and our SAM+ portfolio.

We leverage third-party and first-party data to amplify our position, value proposition, and solutions to in-market accounts.

We have adopted new technologies and have redesigned our marketing funnel to continue to grow our business.

As demand generation is a company-wide engine, it’s important that the technology that we use within our department is supported by our IT and data teams.

What role does content marketing play in your demand generation strategy, and how do you ensure that the messaging resonates with both technical and non-technical audiences?

Content has such a critical role within any organization.

To get our messaging to resonate with our audience, we have had to adjust our approach to content to ensure that every piece of content has a clear role and purpose. We leverage first-party, second-party, and third-party data when planning our content for our five key programs in the market. We are also finding new ways to work with AI tools like Copilot in our content operations.

That all said, the main way we check our content is through both qualitative and quantitative data and analysis.

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As the Director of Demand Generation, how do you collaborate with other teams, such as product and sales, to align your efforts and ensure a seamless customer journey?

Every year, we take on new steps to continue to build strong collaboration partners across our business.

This year, we have done a couple of things:

 – We introduced new program pods, which are a team of cross-functional roles that are required to meet monthly for an operating review call and weekly for general task and project updates. We worked with leaders from across the business to build these pods and provide team members with details on the roles they all have within these pods.

– We have increased our internal socialization efforts and are now holding town hall and operating calls. And I work to provide written updates to our directors-plus group.

My VP has also increased his socialization efforts. The director of customer acquisition has also partnered with me for monthly interlocks with our sales team

At the end of the day, it takes multiple touchpoints, repeating the same message, active listening, and clear expectation setting with teams to help drive collaboration.

Advice and Predictions

What are your predictions for the future of “AI in asset management and security”? How do you prepare for an AI-everything world as a marketing leader?

I’m not going to predict the future, but I do have to prepare for the AI everything world.

It just means getting my hands dirty with AI tools. At this point, I’m using AI technology every day, both for personal and professional reasons. Using the tools helps me test my own thinking in the ways in which I engage with the platforms.

I’ve also come to learn that you really need to help people adopt new AI tools. A lot of people don’t want to do the experimentation work themselves to understand how to maximize these AI tools. Instead, they just want the prompt guide handed to them. I like to be the one to test the process first and then create and deliver the training materials/prompt guide. And from there, it takes multiple touchpoints and socialization efforts to get the adoption that I’d like to see.

But that’s the reality in almost anything and everything I’ve asked from teams in the last 9 years of my leadership career.

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What recommendations would you make to young professionals regarding security certifications and upskilling?

Just do it.

Thank you, Angela, for speaking to us. We look forward to speaking to you again.