3min
At Real Inbound, we’ve worked with countless organisations struggling to adopt HubSpot fully. One of the biggest culprits? Silos. Silos can exist across teams, processes, or even data, and they prevent HubSpot from becoming the unifying tool it’s meant to be.
This article explores how silos form, their impact on HubSpot adoption, and—most importantly—how you can break them down with the right strategies and implementation.
What Are Silos, and Why Do They Matter?
A silo is any barrier that isolates teams, departments, or data, creating inefficiencies and blocking collaboration. In a HubSpot context, silos can stop your CRM from achieving its full potential.
Here’s how silos manifest:
- Team Silos: When departments like sales, marketing, and customer service operate independently without shared goals or communication.
- Process Silos: When workflows aren’t connected, leading to duplication of effort and a lack of consistency.
- Data Silos: When data is scattered across different systems, making it hard to get a single source of truth.
The Connection Between Silos and HubSpot Adoption
HubSpot is designed to unify your business—bringing sales, marketing, and customer service onto one platform. But silos can prevent your team from fully embracing HubSpot.
Signs Silos Are Hindering Your Adoption:
- Teams resist using HubSpot because they’re attached to their old tools or processes.
- Data in HubSpot feels incomplete or inconsistent, making it hard to trust.
- Workflows don’t reflect real-world processes, so employees bypass the system entirely.
The result? Frustration, inefficiency, and a widening HubSpot Adoption Gap—the space between purchasing HubSpot and integrating it into your organisation’s daily operations.
How to Identify Silos in Your Organisation
The first step to addressing silos is identifying where they exist.
- Conduct a Cross-Team Audit
Meet with representatives from sales, marketing, customer service, and other key departments. Ask:
- What tools are you currently using?
- How do you share information with other teams?
- What are your pain points with the current system?
This will reveal gaps in communication and collaboration.
- Map Your Processes
Create a visual map of your workflows, from lead generation to customer retention. Look for:
- Overlapping tasks or redundant processes.
- Bottlenecks caused by manual handoffs.
- Steps that rely on outdated or disconnected tools.
- Analyse Your Data
Review where your data lives and how it flows between systems. Ask:
- Are customer records consistent across platforms?
- Are there gaps in your data that make reporting difficult?
- Do team members trust the data they’re working with?
By auditing teams, processes, and data, you’ll have a clearer picture of where silos exist and how they’re impacting HubSpot adoption.
How HubSpot Can Help Break Down Silos
HubSpot’s biggest strength is its ability to act as a central hub for your organisation. When implemented correctly, it can unify teams, streamline processes, and provide a single source of truth for your data.
- Unifying Teams with Shared Goals
HubSpot’s features encourage collaboration across departments:
- Marketing and Sales Alignment: Use the shared CRM to ensure both teams have visibility into the lead lifecycle.
- Customer Service Integration: Link service tickets to customer records, giving everyone context on customer interactions.
Real Inbound Tip: Set up HubSpot’s custom dashboards to display KPIs relevant to all teams, creating a shared sense of accountability.
- Streamlining Processes
HubSpot’s automation tools can eliminate many of the inefficiencies caused by process silos:
- Automate lead handoffs from marketing to sales.
- Create workflows that trigger notifications, tasks, or updates when certain criteria are met.
- Standardise processes like follow-up emails or deal progression.
- Centralising Data for a Single Source of Truth
HubSpot’s CRM consolidates customer data into one platform, making it accessible and reliable for all teams:
- Use integrations to pull data from external systems like email marketing or accounting software.
- Regularly audit and clean your data using HubSpot’s deduplication tools.
- Set permissions to ensure teams can access the information they need without overwhelming them.
Real Inbound Tip: Set up regular reporting to highlight key metrics and identify trends. When teams trust the data, they’ll be more likely to embrace the system.
Steps to Address Silos and Boost Adoption
Breaking down silos is a strategic process. Here’s how to get started:
Step 1: Leadership Alignment
Leadership buy-in is critical to breaking silos. Leaders must:
- Advocate for HubSpot as the central platform.
- Set shared goals for all departments.
- Foster a culture of collaboration and transparency.
Step 2: Tailored Onboarding and Training
Onboarding should address the specific needs of each team:
- Sales: Focus on pipeline management and deal tracking.
- Marketing: Highlight lead nurturing and campaign tracking tools.
- Customer Service: Emphasise ticketing and customer feedback features.
Real Inbound Tip: Use HubSpot Academy’s certifications to build confidence across teams.
Step 3: Customise HubSpot for Your Organisation
Tailor HubSpot to reflect your unique workflows and processes:
- Create custom properties to capture the data your team needs.
- Build custom reports that align with your business objectives.
- Use tagging and segmentation to organise your contacts effectively.
Step 4: Encourage Feedback and Continuous Improvement
Make HubSpot a living, evolving system by gathering feedback from users and refining workflows. Regularly ask:
- What’s working well?
- What’s frustrating?
- What additional tools or integrations would make your job easier?
The Long-Term Benefits of Breaking Down Silos
When you address silos and fully adopt HubSpot, the benefits ripple across your organisation:
- Improved Efficiency: Automated workflows and centralised data reduce time spent on manual tasks.
- Better Collaboration: Teams work together seamlessly, sharing insights and working toward shared goals.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: A unified view of the customer journey enables more personalised, effective interactions.
- Stronger ROI: Maximising HubSpot’s features ensures you get the most value from your investment.
At Real Inbound, we’ve seen businesses transform by addressing silos and fully embracing HubSpot. It’s not just about adopting a tool—it’s about creating a foundation for long-term growth.
Uncover the hidden costs of CRM adoption and assess your organisation’s readiness with our CRM Adoption Success Scorecard. Take the first step toward a fully adopted and effective HubSpot system.
