--- title: "Break Down Sales And Marketing Silos" canonical_url: "https://www.broadley-speaking.com/resources-insights/break-down-sales-and-marketing-silos" last_updated: "2026-09-29T10:40:08.928Z" --- How do you break down sales and marketing silos so pipeline is shared? Put both teams on the same account list, apply one qualification test, and write what the calls heard back into the next campaign. Pipeline stays split when marketing owns a lead report and sales owns a private opportunity list, and neither side can see which accounts the other is working. Break the silo at those three points and the forecast becomes something both teams can explain. Marketing stops handing over names. Sales stops rejecting them without a reason. The next list changes because someone wrote down what the buyer said. ## What the silo looks like in the pipeline You can see the split before anyone argues about it. - Marketing reports volume. Sales reports that the names are not ready. - Two account lists exist: a campaign segment, and a spreadsheet sales actually works. - "Qualified" means a form fill on one side and a meeting with a budget holder on the other. - Feedback from calls stays in a notebook, or in a meeting that produces no change to the message. - The weekly review turns into an argument about who gets credit, while the same accounts sit untouched. - A handoff means the buying group hears from marketing, then waits, then hears a different story from sales. None of those is a personality problem. They are the result of two teams keeping separate records of the same market. ## Share the accounts before you share the credit Start with one list of accounts for the quarter. Name who is in it, who is out, and why. Marketing does not run a broad segment beside that list. Sales does not keep a second set of targets that never appears in the campaign. [Account-based marketing](/services/account-based-marketing-services) is that list made ready for outreach: the accounts, the contacts, and the roles inside them. If the list is private to one team, the other team will keep filling the gap with whoever replies. Shared pipeline starts when both teams can point at the same accounts on Monday morning. Keep the list short enough that both teams can say, for each account, who has been spoken to and what happens next. A list neither side can recite is two lists again. ## Use one qualification test Agree what has to be true before a conversation enters the forecast. Write it down and use the same test in campaign planning and in the pipeline review. A workable test has three checks: - The account sits inside the ideal customer profile you agreed - Someone in the account can describe the problem in cost, risk, or delay - There is a next step with a named person and a date, or a clear reason to park the account [Market qualification and pipeline development](/services/market-qualification-pipeline-development) is where that test lives. Marketing uses it to decide which accounts are worth a campaign. Sales uses it to decide which meetings belong in the forecast. A lead that fails the test returns to the list with a written reason, so the review stays on the account. If the two teams score the same account differently, the test is still two tests. Fix the wording before you add another stage to the CRM. ## Close the loop on what the buyer said Shared accounts and a shared test still fail if the calls never change the next campaign. After a block of conversations, the people who held them sit with the people who built the list and the message. Write down four things: - Which accounts were the wrong fit, and what made them wrong - The objection that came up more than once - Who else in the buying group was named - The words the buyer used for the problem Then change one input: the list, the opening message, or the qualification test. A feedback meeting that changes nothing is a status update. [Appointment setting](/services/appointment-setting) is often where that evidence appears. The meeting is useful when the notes come back in a form marketing can use: account, role, problem, objection, next step. A meeting logged as "good chat" gives the next campaign nothing to act on. ## Write the ICP, the SLA, and the buying group where both teams can read them Three documents stop the silo from rebuilding itself between quarters. **Ideal customer profile.** State the sectors, company sizes, and problems you will pursue, and the ones you will not. Both teams use that page when they add an account. A profile that lives in a marketing deck, while sales adds whoever will take a meeting, splits the pipeline at the first step. **Service level agreement.** Name the owner and the deadline for each handoff. Who sends the first personal note. How fast a meeting request is worked. When sales writes the outcome back. What "not a fit" must include so marketing can retire the account. An SLA that only says "sales will follow up" leaves the timing, and the record, to whoever is busy. **Buying group.** List the roles that can change the outcome on the deals you want: the person who feels the problem, the person who uses what you sell, the person who compares suppliers, and the person who releases the money. Both teams work those roles in the same period. [Selling to buying groups](/resources-insights/selling-to-buying-groups-how-to-win-when-6-10-people-make-the-decision) sets out why one engaged contact is not the buyer. If marketing nurtures a single name and sales only calls that name, the rest of the group never hears from you. ## Run ABM, qualification, and appointment setting as one motion Treat the three as one sequence on the same accounts. 1. [Account-based marketing](/services/account-based-marketing-services) chooses the accounts and the roles. 2. [Market qualification and pipeline development](/services/market-qualification-pipeline-development) decides which of those accounts belong in the forecast. 3. [Appointment setting](/services/appointment-setting) books the meeting with someone who can influence the brief, and brings the notes back. When the sequence is shared, marketing is still on the account after the meeting is booked, because the message and the next list depend on what was said. Sales is on the account before the meeting, because the list and the qualification test were agreed first. A [predictable sales pipeline](/resources-insights/what-a-predictable-sales-pipeline-actually-looks-like) is that sequence you can point to: named accounts, a buying group you have reached, one qualification test, and feedback that changes the next list. Silos break the chain in the middle. The forecast then depends on which team last updated the CRM. Other pieces in [Resources & Insights](/resources-insights) cover the steps around this join. The work this quarter is still the account list both teams are already on. ## Frequently asked questions ### How do you break down silos between sales and marketing? Put both teams on one account list, score every opportunity with the same qualification test, and write what buyers said back into the next list and message. Agree who owns each handoff, and by when. Pipeline is shared when both teams can name the accounts, the roles inside them, and the next step. ### Why do sales and marketing silos hurt the pipeline? Each team keeps its own definition of a good account and a good lead. Marketing counts response. Sales counts meetings that can close. Accounts fall into the gap, feedback never changes the campaign, and the forecast counts work that only one team can see. ### What should sales and marketing share? The account list for the quarter, the ideal customer profile, the qualification test, the buying-group roles, and the notes from live conversations. Channel plans can differ. The record of who you are pursuing, and why, cannot. ### What belongs in a sales and marketing SLA? Name the owner and the deadline for the first response, for working a meeting request, and for writing the outcome back. State what a rejection must include, so an account can be retired or returned to the list with a reason. An SLA without a written outcome leaves marketing guessing why sales went quiet. ### How do the ICP and the buying group keep the teams aligned? The ICP decides which accounts are in play. The buying group decides which roles inside those accounts both teams must reach. Marketing that only collects one contact, and sales that only calls that contact, leave the decision with people neither team has spoken to. ### How do ABM, market qualification, and appointment setting fit together? Account-based marketing sets the accounts and the roles. Market qualification decides which conversations belong in the forecast. Appointment setting gets the meeting and returns what the buyer said. Run them as one sequence on the same accounts and the handoff continues the work. Run them as separate campaigns and the silo returns at the join.