Hi Jo,
I’ve been feeling a little isolated in my marketing ops role lately.
It often feels like I’m left to my own devices, and I don’t always have visibility into what other teams are doing and how they’re doing it.
I think there could be a lot of value in connecting the dots between marketing ops and marketing more, but I’m not sure how to best go about it. Will people get offended if I just start asking questions?
Thanks,
Questioning Quinn
Hi, Quinn. You have no idea how much I resonate with how you’re feeling.
When I first started in marketing ops, it was because I raised my hand to run Marketo at my company. Like you, I was pretty much left to my own devices—not even my boss knew what I was doing, really.
It’s an unfortunate reality for a lot of MOps professionals. Depending on the size of the business, a MOps “team” might be a single person wearing way too many hats.
Plus, if a company hasn’t figured out where MOps lives yet, it may not even be clear if you report to Sales, Marketing, or RevOps. The lines of communication with each of those teams might be tenuous, at best.
With this amount of uncertainty in the role, it’s no wonder you have questions!
My advice? Ask away.
When you touch as many parts of the revenue production process as marketing operations inevitably does, you need to have awareness and visibility into what other people are doing. Then, and only then, can your company truly optimize revenue.
Not quite sure where to start? Don’t worry. Here are my three tips that should help you get the ball rolling.
Take initiative—with some help
Whether you’re new to the role or have been there a while, it’s always valuable to build relationships with people in other teams.
That said, depending on your company’s culture, asking for their time or for more visibility into the work they’re doing might feel like you’re overstepping.
If that’s the case, talk to your boss first.
Talk them through why it’d be valuable for you to build these bridges, and ask for their support in making it happen.
Connect the dots between your systems
Most people that are in charge of a technology platform will understand that it’s worth talking about how their system and your system share data.
For instance, if you’re running Marketo, set up a chat with the Salesforce admin at your company.
By sharing knowledge about each platform, you’ll be able to collaboratively identify any redundancies. If there’s a task that can be better done with one platform versus the other.
Set the standard for collaboration
If teams operate in silos, it’s because they don’t know not to.
If you start talking to people and making it a normal activity to share information and collaborate, then others are more likely to see the value and follow that behavior.
From one MOps professional to another, I’m sure you’re a proactive individual. So I know you won’t shy away from reshaping how your teams talk to each other.
Trust me, you only stand to win.
Even if nothing changes and you still have issues getting the right information from other teams, you’ll have shown initiative and added some skills to your tool belt. And that will look really nice on your resume when the time comes to move up or move on.
You’ve got this,
Jo Pulse
