Marketing With Purpose Kit: Breaking Down Silos Across Teams
In this Marketing With Purpose Kit segment of The Bliss Business Podcast, Sara Whiteleather, Senior Director of Marketing at Batteries Plus, shares how aligning marketing teams around shared metrics connects digital, ecommerce, and operations into one seamless customer experience for growing franchise brands.
Aligning marketing teams starts with agreeing on what success actually means across departments, not just within one. In this Marketing With Purpose Kit segment of The Bliss Business Podcast, Stephen Sakach sits down with Sara Whiteleather, Senior Director of Marketing at Batteries Plus, to explore how marketing, ecommerce, merchandising, and operations can move as one team instead of five competing scorecards.
In this episode we explore:
• Breaking down silos across marketing, digital, ecommerce, and operations
• Creating shared goals that align teams around business growth
• Turning customer insights into better cross-functional decisions
• Building marketing systems that connect performance, experience, and purpose
• Aligning shared metrics across departments
• Balancing speed, strategy, and collaboration
Every Team Can Hit Its KPIs While the Business Still Loses
"Everyone has their own set of KPIs and metrics, and every single one of those teams can look highly effective on paper," Sara explains, "but there can be a ton of things lacking from a customer experience perspective." Her fix starts with a shared North Star goal that every department's individual metrics ladder up to, rather than optimizing in isolation.
The Fit Finder: What Cross-Functional Data Actually Looks Like
Batteries Plus built a "fit finder" tool to match customers with the right car battery, a project born from listening to customer service and social feedback, then refined further with Google and AI once conversion data showed shoppers were dropping off mid-process. "That was really good insight at first, like we need to help match people," Sara says of the collaboration that followed.
Collaboration Isn't What Slows Teams Down
Shared dashboards, cross-functional planning sessions, and clear ownership charts are what keep alignment from slowing teams down. "Poor collaboration just creates rework, misalignment, delays," Sara notes, arguing that the fastest organizations aren't the ones skipping conversations, they're the ones with the clearest frameworks for having them.
It's a principle that applies just as much to marketing partners as it does to internal teams: work moves faster, and better, when specialists collaborate instead of operating in silos, the same connected approach Zero Company brings to client marketing.
Great marketing doesn't just perform, Sara says, it connects, inside the organization as much as outside it. Learn more about Sara Whiteleather and Batteries Plus at batteriesplus.com or on LinkedIn.
Key Takeaways
• (2:39-4:15) Why breaking down silos matters more now: customers experience one brand, not separate departments
• (5:47-8:05) Where silos actually show up: everyone hitting their own KPIs while the customer experience still suffers
• (8:15-10:27) Building a shared “North Star” goal that every department’s metrics ladder up to
• (10:40-15:20) The Batteries Plus “fit finder” story: customer service insight, then Google and AI collaboration to fix the drop-off
• (16:30-18:00) Why clear decision frameworks, not fewer meetings, are what actually speed teams up
• (22:11-24:54) The systems that keep alignment going: shared dashboards, cross-functional planning, sitting next to merchandising
• (27:12-30:02) Rebuilding the entire Google campaign structure jointly with the product team, and doubling search ROI
FAQ
Where does Sara Whiteleather say marketing silos show up most?
In departmental metrics. “Everyone has their own set of KPIs,” she says, so a “successful” marketing campaign can still fail if stores lack inventory or operations can’t fulfill the resulting demand.
What is Batteries Plus’s “fit finder” and why does it matter for breaking down silos?
A tool that matches customers with the right car battery. Built from customer service and social feedback, then refined with Google and AI once data showed shoppers dropping off, it shows how cross-functional data can fix a shared problem no single team could solve alone.
Does cross-functional collaboration slow marketing teams down?
No, Sara Whiteleather argues the opposite. “Poor collaboration just creates rework, misalignment, delays.” Clear decision frameworks, not fewer conversations, are what let teams move quickly.
🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach
🎧 Produced by Martha Huerta
Read the full recap on The Hidden Cost of Silos Is a Customer Experience No One Meant to Create, hear another take on this exact topic from Rebecca Throop of Merchants Fleet, or explore the Marketing with Purpose Kit Series.
Senior Director of Marketing at Batteries Plus
Sara Whiteleather is Senior Director of Marketing at Batteries Plus and founder of Sara Whiteleather Consulting, where she helps brands connect with customers through strategic digital and growth marketing. Her career spans leadership roles at Catona Climate, AMP Agency, Nationwide, and DigitasLBi North America, where she led record-breaking new business wins and drove e-commerce growth.
