Daniel Sullivan

Case study — Sumo Logic · Marketing strategy & innovation

Building a Global Field & Partner Marketing Planning Framework

Designed and implemented a centralized planning and investment management framework to bring greater visibility, financial accountability, and pipeline predictability to Sumo Logic’s global field and partner marketing organization.

Company
Sumo Logic
My role
Strategy, framework development & global implementation
Regions
North America · EMEA · APJ
01

The challenge

When I joined Sumo Logic, regional marketing planning was fragmented across teams, markets, partners, and budget sources. While finance systems tracked purchase orders and spending, there was no consolidated view of what marketing initiatives were planned, how investments aligned to business priorities, or what pipeline contribution was expected.

This made it difficult to assess overall marketing coverage, prioritize investments, balance resources across regions, and communicate a clear view of marketing activity and anticipated business impact to leadership.

What was tracked

Spend, through finance systems

  • Purchase orders
  • Spending
What was missing

A consolidated view of

  • What marketing initiatives were planned
  • How investments aligned to business priorities
  • What pipeline contribution was expected
02

Objective & approach

Set out to create a single source of truth connecting strategic planning, initiative approvals, budget allocation, and demand generation forecasting.

Developed a standardized planning framework that gave the global team a consistent way to propose, evaluate, approve, and track investments while providing leadership with visibility into where marketing dollars were going and what commercial outcomes they were expected to deliver.

The framework

One source of truth, end to end

  1. Strategic planning
  2. Initiative approvals
  3. Budget allocation
  4. Demand generation forecasting

The framework evolved from an initiative planning and approval tool into a more comprehensive operating model for managing marketing investments against regional pipeline goals.

Interactive demo

Explore the Global Marketing Planning Framework

See how I connected regional marketing plans, investment approvals, budget visibility, and pipeline forecasting into a centralized operating model.

Explore an interactive recreation of the framework, using illustrative data, to understand how it supported more strategic planning and decision-making.

Explore the Interactive Framework (opens in a new tab)
03

Key components

  • 01

    Centralized global marketing plan

    Established a single initiative register spanning North America, EMEA, and APJ, bringing together field programs, partner activities, industry events, ABM initiatives, and other investments. Standardized planning attributes including ownership, timing, region, audience segment, product solution, business objective, and investment category.

  • 02

    Investment governance & prioritization

    Introduced an initiative submission and approval process with defined program priorities and tiering. Created greater accountability around investment decisions, ensuring proposed activities could be reviewed against regional needs, strategic objectives, available budget, and expected business contribution.

  • 03

    Budget management & financial reconciliation

    Connected planned and approved investments with finance tracking to monitor budget allocations, purchase orders, actual commitments, and spending variances. Enabled the team to identify available funds, reconcile differences, and reallocate investment as priorities evolved.

  • 04

    Demand forecasting & pipeline planning

    Integrated expected marketing outcomes into the planning process, including engagements, MQLs, pipeline creation, partner deal registrations, and influenced pipeline. Enabled regional teams to evaluate planned investments against quarterly demand generation targets and identify potential gaps before execution.

  • 05

    Regional visibility & portfolio analysis

    Built reporting views across regions, subregions, budget sources, solutions, audience segments, and program categories. Provided a clearer picture of marketing investment distribution and helped identify where programs were overrepresented, underfunded, or misaligned with business priorities.

  • 06

    Leadership reporting & cross-functional alignment

    Created a consistent framework for sharing investment plans, program priorities, budget utilization, and anticipated pipeline contribution with marketing and sales leadership. Improved transparency across the global team and supported more productive conversations around performance, resource allocation, and execution priorities.

04

Business impact

  • Single source of truth

    for global field and partner marketing planning, investments, and pipeline forecasts

  • Greater financial accountability

    through standardized approvals, budget visibility, and reconciliation

  • Improved demand predictability

    by connecting planned marketing investments to quarterly pipeline goals

  • More agile investment decisions

    through visibility into available funding, program priorities, and forecasted outcomes

  • Stronger leadership alignment

    with consistent regional reporting and a shared view of marketing plans and expected business impact

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