Let’s talk about the elephant in your marketing department:
Your marketing ops team is drowning—and everyone’s pretending it’s fine.
It was supposed to be your strategic powerhouse.
The engine that transformed marketing from a cost center into a revenue machine.
Instead?
You're managing 80 tools with duct tape, no extra headcount, and zero authority.
You’re stuck doing password resets while sales buys new platforms behind your back.
“It’s amazing what some marketers are able to do with duct tape and bubble gum,”
Jeff Pedowitz said.
But duct tape isn’t a strategy.
Dr. Debbie Qaqish and Jeff Pedowitz just went scorched earth on Revenue Marketing Raw, and they didn’t hold back. Here’s what they laid bare:
50–80 martech systems per company. (Small biz: 50+. Enterprises? Don’t ask.)
Zero added headcount. Because obviously you can do more with less, right?
IT is taking the stack back. You can’t manage it, so they’re reclaiming it.
Sales is buying tech solo. Vendors go straight to the wallet holders now.
AI’s been reshaping business for 2 years. And marketing ops?
“Really, really absent from the discussion,” as Debbie said.
Oh—and that massive global enterprise Debbie worked with last year?
Two people in marketing ops. TWO. For billions in revenue.
Flashback to 2011. Jeff and Debbie met their first marketing ops team at TD Garden.
“Wait, you mean you have a whole group of people and all they do is marketing operations? That is so brilliant!” Debbie remembered thinking.
It was revolutionary. Now?
“I’m extraordinarily disappointed where marketing operations is as a practice.” – Debbie
You’ve gone from promise… to reactive IT support. And everyone knows it.
“If the role of marketing ops is just IT support,
I can guarantee you that marketing is not producing credible revenue.” – Debbie
Translation for non-Southerners:
“Bless your heart” = “You’re a fucking idiot.”
And right now? That’s how your exec team sees you. Why?
Because marketing is being carved up like Thanksgiving dinner:
This piece to IT
That piece to sales
Your budget to… oh wait, you never had one
“AI has been around for like two years now... and marketing ops was really, really absent.” – Debbie
While you were drowning in support tickets, Pedowitz Group built 750+ AI agents.
Not seven. Not seventy-five. Seven hundred and fifty.
No, you don’t need them all. But what if you had ten?
One for data enrichment
One for routing leads
One for creative briefs
One for prospect research
And six more you don’t have time to imagine
“Your job’s changing,” Debbie warns.
“Think about all the things you have difficulty managing today because you just don’t have enough time.”
You could stop managing systems… and start leading a revenue machine.
Remember the MarTech Stackies? Everyone submitted stacks full of logos organized by tech vendor.
Then someone submitted theirs aligned to the customer journey.
“That’s brilliant!” Debbie said.
“It shows you’re strategic—not just running tech.”
One image. Total paradigm shift.
And yet most of you are still color-coding logos by software category like it’s 2015.
Jeff and Debbie’s challenge to every marketing ops leader:
Start with a blank sheet of paper. Build your org from scratch.
Ask yourself:
What should our strategic goals be?
How should we organize around the customer journey, not tech categories?
What processes should we own?
Where can AI create leverage?
What skills do we need?
Now compare that to your current org.
That gap?
That’s not your opportunity. It’s your expiration date.
Smart CMOs know what’s up. When they get a new job, their first hire is marketing ops.
But not for support.
“They want a wingperson,” Jeff said. “Someone who can make them soar.”
Talented marketing ops leaders can name their price.
Some should be making million-dollar salaries.
But let’s be honest—if you’re:
Resetting passwords at 6 PM
Managing 80 tools with bubble gum and prayer
Still asking “Where’s the ROI?” on your own tech…
That’s not going to be you.
You can stay in survival mode.
You can keep being the department that gets tech dumped on it.
Or…
You flip the damn table.
“This isn’t Revenue Marketing Reassuring,” Jeff said. “This is Revenue Marketing Raw.”
You’ve got the blueprint. You’ve got the wake-up call.
You’ve got two people who’ve been in this game for 30 years telling you what needs to change.
🧠 Watch the full episode →
Dr. Debbie Qaqish and Jeff Pedowitz break it all down — raw, unfiltered, and unapologetic.
Still thinking, “But my situation is different…”?
Bless your heart.
Your replacement is probably 28, knows AI, and doesn’t think “strategic” means color-coding the stack slide.