Breaking Down Silos: How CMOs Can Drive Better Collaboration Between Teams

The Cost of Misalignment

One of the biggest issues I see in B2B organizations is the disconnect between marketing, sales, demand generation, and product management. These teams are all part of the go-to-market (GTM) strategy, but too often they operate in their own lanes, looking at different metrics, working on different priorities, and not talking to each other enough.

And that’s a problem. Because when these teams aren’t aligned, you get:

• Messaging that doesn’t land with the right audience
• Demand gen campaigns that don’t convert because they’re disconnected from product positioning
• Sales teams struggling to communicate value in a way that resonates with prospects
• Product teams building features based on internal assumptions rather than customer needs

The good news? Fixing this isn’t rocket science. It just takes intentionality. CMOs have a huge role to play in breaking down these silos and making sure product marketing, demand gen, sales, and product management work as one team.

Why Product Marketing, Sales, Demand Gen, and Product Management Need to Work Together

Each of these teams brings a different (and valuable) perspective to the table:

• Demand gen looks at pipeline impact, lead quality, and channel performance.
• Product marketing thinks about market fit, customer messaging, and competitive positioning.
• Sales focuses on what’s actually landing in conversations with prospects and customers.
• BDRs serve as a direct link between outbound prospecting efforts, gathering invaluable insights from initial customer conversations.
• Product management is responsible for building the product roadmap, but they need real customer insights to make the right decisions.

When these teams aren’t aligned, it’s like a band where the drummer, guitarist, and singer are all playing different songs. No matter how talented each musician is, it’s going to sound like noise.

But when they’re in sync? That’s when the beautiful music plays and you start seeing real GTM effectiveness. Messaging is sharper. Campaigns convert better. Sales teams close deals faster. Product managers build solutions that customers actually want. Everyone is working toward the same goal with a shared understanding of what’s working and what’s not.

How to Build Cross-Functional Collaboration

So how do we actually make this alignment happen? Here’s what works:

1. Create a Shared Feedback Loop

Too often, product marketing, demand gen, sales, and product management teams are running their own playbooks. That has to stop. There needs to be a structured way to share insights regularly.

• Demand gen needs to share campaign performance data with product marketing. If a campaign flopped, was it the messaging? The audience targeting? The channel? Product marketing needs that data to refine messaging and/or positioning.
• BDRs should provide real-time feedback from early prospecting calls, helping product marketing understand firsthand how messaging is or isn’t working to progress to the next stage.
• Sales needs to report back on what’s resonating in customer conversations. Product marketing can use that feedback to tweak messaging and update enablement materials.
• Product marketing needs to bring competitive insights and market trends to both teams so everyone is making data-driven decisions.
• Product management needs direct insights from sales and marketing. If a feature isn’t selling, why? Is the positioning off, or is the feature itself missing the mark? These discussions need to be happening before products ship, not after they fail.

This should not be a one-off exercise. It should be a structured, repeatable process. Put in place weekly or bi-weekly meetings where these teams come together to look at results and make adjustments in real-time.

2. Align on Core GTM and Product Metrics

One of the biggest reasons teams end up misaligned is that they’re measuring success in different ways.

• Demand gen looks at MQLs and pipeline impact.
• BDRs track engagement and response rates to determine how well the initial outreach messaging is performing.
• Sales cares about quota attainment and closed deals.
• Product marketing wants to see market adoption and messaging effectiveness.
• Product management is focused on roadmap delivery, but without customer adoption, those efforts don’t mean much.

These aren’t competing metrics, they’re connected. But if you’re not looking at them together, you’re missing the full picture. CMOs should ensure these teams are working toward shared goals and that their KPIs tell a cohesive story.

3. Involve Sales and Product Management in the Messaging Process

Sales is on the front lines. They’re the ones actually talking to prospects and hearing objections firsthand. But too often, messaging gets built in a vacuum without input from sales and product and then handed down like a finished product.

That’s a mistake. Both sales and product teams should be involved early in the messaging development process.

• Have product marketers sit in on BDR calls with prospects to hear about prospects’ problems first-hand.
• Have new positioning vetted by sales and product.
• Get their take on whether it aligns with what they’re hearing in the field.
• Test messaging in real sales conversations before rolling it out at scale.
• Ensure product management understands how features are being positioned and why customers are buying (or not buying) certain capabilities.

When sales and product management feel ownership over the messaging, they’re more likely to actually use it. And when product marketing has sales and product input, the messaging is more likely to work.

4. Encourage Cross-Team Collaboration Beyond Meetings

It’s not just about meetings; it’s about building real relationships between these teams. That might mean:

• Embedding a product marketer in sales and product meetings
• Having demand gen and product marketing teams co-own campaign planning
• Encouraging informal Slack channels where teams can share quick insights in real time

The more these teams actually talk to each other, the more natural collaboration becomes.

The Role of CMOs in Breaking Down Silos

At the end of the day, alignment doesn’t happen by accident. It needs to be a priority from the top. CMOs need to:

• Set the expectation that these teams work together, not in isolation.
• Provide the structure for regular cross-functional collaboration.
• Lead by example actively pulling together insights from all teams and making decisions based on collective input.

The companies that get this right aren’t just the ones with the best campaigns or the best product. They’re the ones where product marketing, demand gen, sales, and product management are in lockstep working as a true GTM team. That’s how you build a system that adapts quickly, executes effectively, and ultimately drives revenue.

Final Thoughts: Creating a More Agile and Effective GTM Process

If your product marketing, demand gen, sales, and product management teams aren’t working together, you’re leaving money on the table. Misalignment leads to wasted effort, missed opportunities, and slower growth.

But when these teams operate as one? You get messaging that resonates, campaigns that convert, sales teams that are armed to win, and a product roadmap that actually delivers what customers want.

The CMO’s role is to make sure these teams aren’t just working hard—but working together. The sooner that happens, the faster the business sees results.

Read Suresh’s previous post, What Every CMO Should Know About Product Marketing, to find out more tips.