Dynamic B2B Duo Marketing and Ops Prove Why Collaboration Always Wins
While strong marketing and sales are essential, B2B growth increasingly hinges on another vital internal relationship: the partnership between Marketing and Operations.
Seamless internal collaboration, particularly between those generating demand and those managing the operational systems, supports the entire revenue process.
While cultivating this relationship demands deliberate effort, the rewards are substantial.
Get this right, argue Rebecca Rissinger (Marketing Operations Manager) and Justin Van Nostrand (Demand Marketing Manager) from Orum, and you unlock a powerful engine for growth.
Their experience, shared on a recent Attributed Podcast episode, paints a picture of a "dynamic duo" where constant communication, shared goals, and mutual understanding are the key to success.
Keep reading for all the takeaways, or listen to the entire conversation here.
Communicate to build bridges
The foundation of any successful Marketing-Ops partnership is simple: they talk. A lot. And crucially, they do it in the open.
At Orum, this is operationalized through dedicated, shared communication channels like Slack.
This creates crucial visibility across teams, allowing issues to be identified and addressed transparently, rather than getting lost in private DMs.
Rebecca highlights this as a key mechanism for fostering a shared understanding of what’s actually landing in the funnel.
Justin adds that this shared space also offers a valuable "pulse" on incoming leads in real-time.
Seeing specific leads from particular campaigns immediately informs potential adjustments to targeting or messaging, offering qualitative insights that complement aggregate reports.
But true alignment requires more than just reacting to what's visible; it demands a shared understanding of purpose.
Justin stresses that Marketing must articulate the strategic reasoning behind its initiatives, ensuring Operations grasps the 'why,' not just the 'what.' This context is vital for Ops to prioritize effectively and anticipate downstream needs.
Align on strategy, speed, and systems
Clear, contextual communication enables Marketing and Ops to collaborate effectively on precise strategic execution.
A big focus for Rebecca and Justin, like many growing B2B companies, is moving towards more intentional market segmentation, concentrating efforts on ideal customer profiles rather than simply chasing volume.
This requires deep coordination, as Rebecca explains, they are working to align marketing spend and reporting specifically against these defined segments, a process needing both strategic input from Marketing and operational rigor from Ops to implement and track accurately.
This precision extends beyond who marketing targets to how quickly they can engage qualified prospects.
Slow follow-up not only risks losing a deal to quicker competitors but, allows competitors to potentially bias the prospect's requirements early on.
Recognizing this, Rebecca and Justin heavily prioritize optimizing speed-to-lead through close Marketing-Ops collaboration on the underlying systems, from implementing automated routing tools to enabling prospects to book meetings directly via calendar links on forms.
After implementing your strategy, maintaining these complex systems demands vigilance.
Regularly dig into the details rather than assuming everything is working flawlessly.
Justin cautions against complacency, emphasizing the need to constantly poke, prod, and verify that processes are running as expected. It’s about assuming things might be broken until proven otherwise.
Develop a shared commitment to data and measurement
Underpinning this collaborative ecosystem is a shared commitment to data and measurement.
A notorious challenge for marketers is proving the impact of their efforts beyond simplistic first-touch or last-touch models.
Justin described the limitations they faced and how finding the right tool became essential for smarter decision-making.
Access to reliable, multi-touch data provides a foundation for more objective and insightful conversations about campaign performance and overall marketing impact.
This becomes particularly powerful for fostering accountability, for example allowing Ops to provide an unbiased perspective on KPIs, acting as a constructive check for Marketing.
Beyond attribution, even simple tracking habits can yield significant benefits. Justin shared a low-tech yet highly effective practice: keeping a running log of significant changes made to campaigns, processes, or targeting.
This simple act combats reporting amnesia months down the line.
Conclusion
For B2B teams, your Marketing Ops counterpart is arguably one of your most vital collaborators.
Building that operational bridge through relentless communication, mutual respect, shared data visibility, and a commitment to process refinement to build a resilient, adaptable, and ultimately more successful revenue engine.
This dynamic duo collaboration is proving essential for B2B growth.
About the speakers
Rebecca Rissinger is Orum's Marketing Operations Manager within the RevOps team. Leveraging prior experience in Sales, she focuses on optimizing marketing processes, systems, and data flow, emphasizing cross-functional communication and efficiency in a fast-paced startup environment.
Justin Van Nostrand is Orum's Demand Marketing Manager for Growth, driving pipeline via paid acquisition and inbound strategies. He concentrates on full-funnel results from campaigns to revenue, relying on close collaboration with Marketing Operations for effective execution and lead management.
