Is GTM ops a real thing, how to improve MQL conversions and more

A different take on go-to-market ops and how to get started in a MOPS community

In this edition:

1. GTM ops explained - is it always a good idea?

2. Question: How can I get involved in an operations community?

3. POLL: What is the best way to improve MQL conversions?

4. For Paid Subscribers: How NOT to Manage Your Team if You Are a People Manager

Join me live for a real-talk career conversation with leading marketing ops leaders from the tech industry! The Marketing Ops Breakout event of the year is in a few weeks - Join us here.

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GTM Ops Explained - Is it Always a Good Idea?

The truth is that companies can succeed with or without a GTM operations structure.

That’s because it is a structure strategy - a deliberate choice of team arrangement.

In basketball, for example:

• 2 popular defense strategies are 1 to 1 (often called man-to-man) and zone defense.

• 1 to 1 assigns a defender to each member of the opposing team, and zone defense assigns a defender to specific areas of the court.

Two different strategies - note that it is unlikely that a coach would pick one and use it in every situation for all of time.

GTM operations is a strategic choice to combine ops teams (marketing, sales, CS, finance etc) into one team.

Here are some pros and cons of this strategy:

Advantages

• Natural alignment to top business priorities

• Less conflict between ops teams from different departments

• More visibility and transparency across data and work streams

• Enables quicker decision-making - less hoops to jump through

• More holistic view of customer journey

• More objectivity in priority setting

Disadvantages

• Few leaders have the skillset to effectively run a team of this varied scope

• Without nuanced prioritization, low-hanging fruit and smaller requests may go unfulfilled

• This can create a very technology-focused team and culture that can lead to disconnect from business stakeholders

• Ops focus could lead to disinterested work - ie. too much focus on various types of ops work that some folks may not be interested in

• Brand, community, and experience can be deprioritized, since it is difficult to connect these initiatives to revenue

• Overtime, unified team can produce bottlenecks

Overall - consider all of these efforts when planning the best team structure for your organization.

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Reader Question: How do you get started and continue to be a presence in the marketing ops community? I feel I have thoughts, but I am not sure if they are worth sharing or relevant to others. I want to post more and write, but I am having a hard time with it.

Here are a few key things to think about:

1 - Stop worrying about what other people think.

99% of people don’t share their thought leadership because they are afraid others will dislike them. My approach: If your content/answer/post helps one person with their job, you have succeeded.

2- Consistency is what everyone is missing.

When I started participating in marketing ops communities, I set very easy goals each day. I would ask a question and answer a question - EVERY SINGLE DAY. Consistency beats genius every time.

3- Share what you are excited about

It feels inauthentic to try and get traction by sharing thoughts that you think will be popular. Instead, when you solve a problem or help another person, write down your solution in a concise way that can help the next person. It’s a very authentic and sustainable way to produce thought leadership.

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POLL: MQL Conversions