How Can Marketing Ops help with the "Messy Middle" of the Buyers Journey with Martin Pietrzak

Ops Cast

Text us your thoughts on the episode or the show!

On today's episode, Mike Rizzo talks with Martin Pietrzak, founder and president of Pinch Marketing, to unpack what Google and others have called “the messy middle” of today’s buyer’s journey.

Gone are the days of the simple, linear sales funnel. Instead, buyers loop through endless cycles of exploration, evaluation, and self-education before they ever talk to sales — if they do at all. Martin shares how marketing ops pros can embrace this new reality by becoming strategic partners who help build flexible data-driven systems that enable real-time insights, better attribution, and scalable growth.

You’ll hear:

• Why the messy middle exists — and how buyers’ behavior has changed forever.
• How technology, data, and AI are reshaping go-to-market architecture.
• The critical role marketing ops plays as the “marketing scientist” in modern organizations.
• Practical steps to capture buyer signals and turn them into actionable insights.
• Why marketing ops leaders must think like product managers to architect the GTM stack.

Whether you’re building your ops career or leading teams through complex martech stacks, this episode is packed with insights you can apply right away.

Episode Brought to You By MO Pros
The #1 Community for Marketing Operations Professionals

Support the show

Chapters

1. Introduction to the Messy Middle (00:00:00)

2. Why Buyer Journeys Are No Longer Linear (00:04:38)

3. Technology's Impact on Complex Buying (00:09:06)

4. Marketing Ops as Strategic Partners (00:15:28)

5. Data Collection and Signal Intelligence (00:22:40)

6. Brand Stewardship and Always-On Marketing (00:30:37)

7. Marketing Ops as Marketing Scientists (00:35:48)

8. Closing Thoughts and Final Reflections (00:40:06)