From this week's Revenue Marketing Raw with Jeff Pedowitz and Dr. Debbie Qaqish

The gloves came off on this week's Revenue Marketing Raw as Dr. Debbie Qaqish and I tackled one of the most contentious debates in B2B today: Should Marketing Ops report to RevOps?

Spoiler alert: If you're a CMO reading this, you might want to sit down.

The Uncomfortable Truth Nobody Wants to Say

"If I'm a CMO, you will never, ever, never, never get Marketing Ops out of my hands," Debbie declared within the first two minutes of our livestream. "To give that up is to give up all of your power."

Strong words? Absolutely. But after working with over 1.5 million customers since 2007 (okay, maybe not quite that many, but it feels like it), we've seen this movie play out too many times. And it rarely has a happy ending for marketing.

The RevOps Promise vs. The RevOps Reality

For six years now, the industry has been selling the RevOps dream: unified operations across sales, marketing, and customer success. One team. One vision. Perfect alignment.

The reality? As Debbie put it bluntly: "Nobody's done that."

Sure, some small companies under $100 million in revenue have made it work. But once you hit enterprise scale, the politics, power dynamics, and competing priorities make true RevOps integration nearly impossible. Why? Because nobody wants to give up their fiefdom.

The 10th Person on the Totem Pole

Here's what actually happens when Marketing Ops moves under RevOps (which 85% of the time reports to sales):

Marketing becomes the "10th person on the totem pole." Your technology needs? They'll get addressed after sales fixes, after customer success priorities, after everything else. That campaign attribution system you need fixed? Get in line behind the 47 sales requests that came in this week.

Even worse is when Marketing Ops goes to IT. As we discussed, that's the "kiss of death" for marketing velocity. You'll be filing tickets just to get basic campaign work done.

The Knowledge Gap That Nobody Talks About

But here's the deeper issue that emerged from our debate: When marketing loses control of their tech stack, they lose something even more critical – the ability to understand and optimize technology for revenue impact.

Think about it. Marketing teams already struggle to use more than 20% of their martech capabilities effectively. Now remove them even further from that technology by having another department manage it. The result? Marketing becomes twice removed from understanding how to leverage technology for business impact.

As I pushed back during the show, "What if marketing ops was never strategic in the first place?"

Debbie's response was swift: "They're not going to get the job done if they go to some other department either. It just makes it worse."

The Switzerland Solution

Interestingly, we did find one scenario where RevOps can work: when it reports to a COO or CFO – essentially a neutral party who isn't playing favorites between sales and marketing.

"It's kind of like Switzerland," Debbie noted. In these rare cases, you have a chance at true equality and shared focus on customer outcomes rather than departmental politics.

The Billion Dollar Question

Perhaps the most provocative point from our discussion: Can you be a revenue marketing organization if you don't own your tech stack?

Debbie's answer was unequivocal: No.

"Once that technology leaves marketing, I don't think marketing can be a revenue marketing organization. Their tech stack will be well run, minimized, and efficient. But I'm not sure they can be a revenue marketing organization if they don't own their own tech stack."

The Path Forward

Look, we're not saying RevOps can't work. We've seen a handful of companies make it successful. But they're the exception, not the rule. And they usually have:

  • A true commitment from leadership to customer-first operations
  • A RevOps leader with deep marketing understanding (often from marketing themselves)
  • Reporting structure to a neutral party (COO/CFO) rather than sales
  • Clear swim lanes and shared accountability metrics

The Bottom Line

Marketing's failure to demonstrate ROI on their martech investments has led to a 28% year-over-year reduction in tech budgets. Leaders are tired of bloated stacks that don't drive revenue. The knee-jerk reaction? Consolidate under RevOps to cut costs.

But cost reduction isn't revenue generation. And efficiency isn't the same as effectiveness.

If you're a CMO facing pressure to move Marketing Ops under RevOps, ask yourself:

  • Who will own RevOps, and what's their track record with marketing?
  • How will marketing priorities be weighted against sales priorities?
  • What happens to your team's ability to innovate and optimize?
  • Can you still be held accountable for revenue without controlling the tools to drive it?

As we wrapped up the show, one thing was clear: This debate is far from over. But for CMOs who want to remain revenue drivers rather than cost centers, giving up Marketing Ops might be giving up more than just technology – it might be giving up your seat at the revenue table.

Catch the full heated debate on Revenue Marketing Raw, where we keep it real about what's actually happening in revenue marketing. No scripts, no corporate polish – just truth. Watch the replay at www.pedowitzgroup.com/revenue-marketing-raw

What's your take? Has your organization successfully integrated Marketing Ops into RevOps? We'd love to hear your story – especially if you're one of the unicorns making it work.