Four Signs Your Marketing Team Might Be a Silo

Nine disgruntled marketers sat around the conference table. As their new leader, I had inherited a mess. Low productivity, mismatched data, finger pointing, angry colleagues in sales and finance. “You’ve done a great job with the team you have,” my boss had told me, “I’d like you to do the same with this group.” I was young and eager to move up the ranks. I accepted his offer. 

The group I inherited was a classic example of organizational silos. Silos develop for internal efficiency and ease. It’s easier to be productive if you don’t need a lot of meetings to gain consensus. It’s easier to manage people who all have the same job and similar skills – especially for someone who previously did that job. A homogeneous group feels comfortable. People “get” each other. Some executives like the power of a little fiefdom.

Although the group was small, they represented three distinct functions. Field marketing, partner marketing, and what would now be called marketing operations. I first met with each group separately. As I listened to their stories, I was surprised to by the lack of vision for how their role fit within the business. My predecessor had believed it was his job alone to manage the big picture. Major decisions went through him. People who reported to him did their daily job with only infrequent and episodic interactions with others.

Silos cause significant problems. 

In my experience, marketers try hard to do a good job within their functional areas. But sequestered in silos they can’t help but miss the gaps and overlaps that cause customers’ frustration and extra work. Exposure to new ideas is limited. Group think and “collective stupidity” develops as outside opinions are blocked or go unused. Agility declines. Problems always seem to arise elsewhere. Better solutions become difficult to find or execute. Employee morale suffers as people become frustrated with their inability to solve problems. They miss the opportunity to feel like they are part of something bigger.

Providing great customer experiences requires cross-discipline collaboration. Agility and innovation benefit from a diversity of cognitive styles, capabilities, experiences, and knowledge. The first step towards these worthy goals is to admit that your team is a silo. 

Four Signs Your Marketing Team Might be a Silo

1. You Have Frequent Unresolved Power Struggles Between Teams

Conflict is a normal, expected, and sometimes beneficial aspect of organizational life. However, if your team has long-standing conflicts that don't seem to get resolved, your team might be a silo.

Symptoms include frequent complaining about other groups, making snide remarks, and blaming others (including management) for things that go wrong. If you believe that one team is more important than another or that one team is intended to “serve” the other, you are likely siloed. Field marketing and corporate marketing are a familiar example of two groups in a constant power struggle. Sales and marketing are another. Marketers may speak proudly of “aligning” with sales. However, I’ve observed that “alignment” is often carefully constructed to preserve the integrity of silo walls.

2. Your Team Avoids Transparency

If your team hoards information for its own benefit, if your team uses an excessive amount of specialized language, if your team neglects to translate data into a form that other groups can use and understand, your team might be a silo.

While every expert function requires unique terms and distinctive information, this language can become so “insider” that people forget no one else understands it. Marketers are particularly notorious for generating jargon. I once asked a room of business executives from various functions what marketing jargon they thought was confusing. I literally couldn’t write fast enough and filled four pages. Baffling information can become weaponized. Teams can become so fearful, angry, or isolated that they purposefully withhold critical information.

3. Your Processes Are Set Up Like Relay Races 

Serial, staged, “waterfall” processes are one of the worst types of organizational design. Of course, work must be human-sized. However, if you work in relative isolation to complete one step in a process then pass off to the next team, your team might be a silo.

Symptoms include bickering over credit when things go well and finger-pointing when they don’t. The MQL (marketing qualified lead) hand-off is a good example of this baton-type process. Marketing completes its work on a lead and hands it over to sales. Unless care is taken to work on common objectives, joint accountability, and feedback, the MQL becomes nothing more than the demarcation of the silo wall between marketing and sales. 

The group I inherited used a waterfall-type process for market development fund reimbursement claims. The partner group planned the MDF use in coordination with the vendor they represented. The field marketing team executed the plan and the marketing ops team created and was accountable for the reimbursement claim. Constant misunderstandings ensured. 

4. Your Team’s Metrics Earn You a Win, even if Other Team Fail

Silos want to control metrics so that they can ensure wins. Whether from oversight or intention, they fail to consider the bigger picture. If your team can beat your goals and look good, even if others around you are failing, your team might be a silo.

A typical example is a marketing team that congratulates itself on the number of leads it has produced, while the sales team can't make its revenue numbers. When questioned about accountability, a common complaint is “but, we don’t control that!” Serial, staged processes and isolated metrics often go hand-in-hand. As a result of optimizing for just their own domain, marketing specialties end up with their own approach to customer data, their own content created for their groups’ needs, and often their own technology and operations. 

Softening silos requires a combination of integration and sharing. 

In many situations diversity, including skill, expertise, cognitive, and experience diversity, improves outcomes. When diversity is needed, develop integrated business processes and tech stacks. Create cross-discipline teams. On the other hand, other systems elements benefit from commonality. Databases are the quintessential example of where the “single source of truth” is needed. Sharing a common mission and foundational goals is also important.

It makes sense for some elements to remain confined to a single group. But resist capitulating to the argument “we’re unique” until you’ve tried to integrate or share. Consider the “we’re unique” objection to be like one you encounter in sales. It’s not a stop sign. It’s signal that more work is needed. Perhaps some important requirement has been missed or people don’t have enough information or trust needed to change.

The group I inherited made significant progress towards eliminating silo barriers. I vividly remember how we literally walked around to everyone’s desks. Each person demonstrated their part in the MDF claim process. The mental lights turned on. “Wow! Now that I know you need THAT, I can do THIS differently to help you.”  Inter-group conflict wasn’t eliminated that day. However, all of us learned new ways to collaborate that benefited everyone – and the company.