What's Your Edge?

About What's Your Edge?

Helping you use data, analytics, process, and measurement to create an edge for you and your customers.

Publisher

Laura Patterson-VisionEdge Marketing President

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

22 Aug 2019

Latest episode

5 May 2026

Latest episodes

65 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 May 2026

   The Power of Customer-Led Product Development for Market Growth | What’s Your Edge?

   True differentiation takes boldly reimagining how products are created and delivered. For many organizations, the secret to market growth isn’t found in the boardroom alone. It’s forged in partnership with their most demanding customers. In this episode of What’s Your Edge?, we are joined by Armen Alajian, CEO of ARTO, a family-owned innovator in the tile, stone, and brick industry. Armen is going to share with us how they turned customer challenges into a catalyst for innovation and sustainable growth. Embracing customer-centric product development propelled them ahead of overseas competitors and established a blueprint for unlocking new levels of market success. Welcome Armen. How a Remarkable Legacy Ignites Customer-Centric Product Innovation Armen, I know from personal experience that sustaining a family legacy in a highly competitive, mature industry requires more than tradition. It demands strategic leadership and the courage to adapt expertise to evolving customer needs. Legacy can be either a constraint or a springboard. We have found that the companies that thrive are those that use their history as a foundation for reinvention, not as an excuse for inertia. I believe the future belongs to organizations willing to leverage their deep expertise while reimagining what’s possible for their customers. It’s less about discarding the past and more about building on it to create new value and differentiation. ARTO’s journey is a prime example of how honoring legacy means using that legacy to fuel innovation and growth. From a governance perspective, this balance between continuity and change is often a central board conversation. Armen, how have you and your brother balanced honoring your father’s legacy with the need to innovate and adapt ARTO for today’s market? My father, Arto, was both a maker and a merchant. He crafted products based on what he knew customers already liked or what he anticipated they would appreciate once they saw them. He was inherently adaptable. Because we always keep the customer in mind and often work with limited resources, my brother and I view innovation not just as a way to honor our father’s legacy, but as the method for staying relevant to our customers. Epic Customer Challenges Spark Breakthrough Market Growth In our work, we’ve found that engaging customers early, especially those with demanding requirements, dramatically increases the odds of developing products that succeed in the market. We have used customer scenarios to reveal gaps and opportunities that internal teams may overlook. They provide a valuable real-world perspective that moves product development from guesswork to grounded innovation. When companies are willing to take on challenging projects, they transform these customers into partners for co-creation. This accelerates learning, validation, and confidence in future investments. At ARTO, this willingness to tackle the “hard jobs” did more than bring in premium business. It created a pipeline for new, validated products that could be brought to market faster and with greater certainty. From a leadership standpoint, this approach replaces random acts of innovation with deliberate experimentation anchored in customer reality. Can you share a story where working with a particularly challenging project for a customer led to a breakthrough product or a new market opportunity for ARTO? To be clear, it wasn’t the customers’ personalities that were challenging, but the technical demands of the work itself. Two projects stand out: Fertitta Hall at USC and the Belle Isle Library in Oklahoma. Both required very specific custom colors—a precise “USC Red” and a unique palette for the library. While we continue to offer those custom colors today, the real breakthrough was internal. These high-stakes projects forced us to develop new, streamlined procedures for color matching and production. Those processes now allow us to serve all our customers with much greater ease. Isn’t it illuminating that it is our difficult customers who often have the clearest vision of what’s missing in the market? And that by listening to them, understanding their market requirements, and leveraging their real-world scenarios, you can turn custom work into a proving ground for future bestsellers. Customer-Centric Engagement is a Powerful Ingredient for Market Success It seems true that the most customer-centric companies are the ones willing to invest in understanding what their customers buy, where they spend their time, how they make decisions, and what truly matters to them. Armen, I know you share our philosophy about the importance of personal outreach, whether through events, video, or direct email. Personal outreach builds trust, opens dialogue, and uncovers unmet needs that can fuel innovation. From a strategic perspective, this kind of engagement turns customer interaction into an intelligence system rather than a transactional function. What impact did your personal outreach efforts have on customer loyalty and product innovation? How did you structure these communications to maximize insight and trust? The outreach created a real connection through me. I worry sometimes it should be about the brand and not the CEO, but at the end of the day, people want to buy from people, not a logo. It made ARTO real. At trade shows, people recognized us. It gave us some “celebrity” that opened doors with suppliers. With existing customers, it lets us get deep. We’d talk about the struggles of being an employer or just being fellow travelers on the earth. It turned a transaction into a real relationship. When companies move beyond basic customer service and proactively engage customers, they uncover insights competitors miss. It’s about being present in the moments that matter, asking the right questions, and listening deeply. ARTO’s decision to launch weekly personal videos and emails wasn’t just a marketing tactic. It was a strategic move to build authentic connections and replace transactional interactions with partnerships. How did you ensure these efforts stayed focused and didn’t become another set of random acts of engagement? These are not random marketing tactics. In my emails and videos, I share the good, the bad, and the ugly. I don’t just talk about the business. I make it personal. Trust is not simply something you can convey in a standard corporate email. The beauty of this approach is that I often get direct and immediate feedback, which provides valuable insights and market intelligence. Download the CC Worksheet (https://live.visionedgemarketing.com/customer-centricity-wokrsheet) Gain a Strong Competitive Advantage with Exceptional Market Intelligence Market leaders don’t simply react to trends. They shape them by listening closely to customers and systematically gathering market and competitive intelligence from the field. Scenario planning based on real customer data allows companies to anticipate shifts and leapfrog competitors, particularly in industries where overseas suppliers compete aggressively on price. Boards often ask, “How do we know what’s coming next?” This is one of the most reliable answers. How do you and your team identify and act on market trends before your competitors? It’s like a perpetual motion machine. Once people know we solve problems, they bring us more problems. We don’t guess at trends; we look for patterns in what people are asking for. If a customer brings us a problem that is just plain cool, we might take it to market immediately. Other times, we wait until we see the same “non-standard” request pop up multiple times. When that happens, we know it’s a trend, and we turn that custom solution into a standard product. Competitive intelligence tracks what others do so we can understand where the market is headed and position our organization to lead, not follow. By regularly engaging with customers and mapping market scenarios, companies like ARTO can spot opportunities and threats early, turning information into a competitive advantage. What tools or processes have proven most effective in gaining insight into competitors? To be honest, it sometimes feels like we are following, but we track competitors at trade shows and listen to what customers are asking for. A lot of times, we spot a trend because a “market leader” has a great idea but fails in execution. The customer comes to us because the originator can’t actually deliver. We don’t just follow the trend; we step in to solve the problem the other guys created. Two Valuable Measures of Success for Customer-Led Innovation From our perspective, the most successful innovations are rooted in a deep understanding of customer and market requirements, not just internal brainstorming. Research shows that companies that effectively leverage customer feedback are 30-50% more likely to develop successful products. Measuring engagement, time-to-market, and adoption rates ensures innovation delivers business value, not just activity. When companies involve customers in the product development process, they accelerate validation and build products that are more likely to succeed in the real world. What metrics or signals do you rely on to validate new products before scaling? A product is ready for prime time when it’s actually out in the field. Depending on the situation, the testing might be rigorous over a long period, or it might be quick if the product is going into a low-friction, low-touch location. If we need to get it to market faster, we’ll use ASTM or ANSI testing to validate it and move forward. And companies that continuously test, learn, and iterate see significant sales boosts, with examples including a 50% net sales per employee increase from continuous training, a 28% revenue jump from standardized sales processes, and 7-20% productivity/revenue gains. Innovation metrics should go beyond the number of ideas generated. By tracking customer engagement, pilot success rates, and market adoption, you ensure that your innovation pipeline delivers tangible results. The best organizations make learning loops part of their DNA: test, measure, refine, repeat. How do you measure the ROI of customer co-creation at ARTO, and how do those insights inform future investment decisions? I look at ROI through a few lenses: top-line sales and market share. Eventually, the CFO tells me if we’re actually making money. Every product has to pass two tests: Does it help me make payroll this Friday, and does it help ARTO become a 100-year brand? That balance between surviving today and building a legacy is just human nature. Take a Customer-Led Growth Strategy to Improve Your Competitive Advantage I love these two tests! Market leaders implement processes that drive those outcomes, such as customer engagement, product validation, and innovation velocity. Companies that continually learn from their customers and adapt their approach are those that sustain growth, even in crowded markets. Differentiation is possible when organizations relentlessly focus on customer collaboration and learning from every engagement. In my experience, the most resilient organizations treat every customer interaction as a learning opportunity. They don’t shy away from tough feedback. They seek it out. From a board and leadership perspective, this requires discipline, patience, and a willingness to invest ahead of certainty. Armen, as we wrap up, what advice would you give to other business leaders facing intense competition, especially those tempted to compete on price alone? My advice for CEOs is to get on the ground, meet the customer, and get involved. If you’re already doing that, the answer isn’t necessarily to do more of it, but to do it better. Always go back to the two lenses: paying the bills today and building the business for 100 years. Price is often not the real issue; focus on the margin. If you have to shrink the business to survive, then do it, but protect that margin at all costs Thank you, Armen, for sharing ARTO’s journey, which shows the future belongs to those who listen deeply, act boldly, and measure relentlessly. Turning adversity into innovation and customers into collaborators is the foundation for sustainable growth and market leadership. For leaders and board members listening, this episode is a reminder that the strongest differentiation is built not through random acts of innovation, but through a disciplined, customer-led growth strategy. If you’re ready to move from reactive innovation to a deliberate, customer-driven growth strategy, we invite you to explore how we help leadership teams turn customer insight into measurable market advantage. FAQ: (written by Penn of Sintra.ai) Q1: What is customer-led product development, and why is it important for market growth? A: Customer-led product development is a strategy that actively involves customers in shaping and refining products. This approach uncovers unmet needs, accelerates innovation, and reduces risk. Companies that leverage customer feedback are up to 50% more likely to develop successful products, fueling measurable market growth. Q2: How can engaging customers with challenging needs drive innovation? A: Customers with challenging needs often highlight unique problems and unmet opportunities. Collaborating with these customers turns challenges into co-creation opportunities, resulting in validated products, streamlined processes, and a strong foundation for future innovation. Q3: What metrics should organizations use to measure the success of customer-led product development? A: Key metrics include customer engagement, time-to-market, product adoption rates, and return on investment (ROI). Tracking these metrics ensures that customer-driven innovation delivers business value and supports sustainable growth. Q4: How can personal outreach enhance customer insight and product innovation? A: Personal outreach—through direct conversations, video, or events—builds trust and uncovers valuable insights. This engagement transforms customer interactions from transactional exchanges into strategic intelligence, fueling more relevant and successful product development. Q5: What is the role of leadership in customer-driven product development? A: Leadership sets the tone for a customer-centric culture by prioritizing listening, learning, and adapting based on customer input. Strategic leaders ensure that customer insights are embedded in decision-making and that innovation is anchored in real-world needs. Q6: What are common challenges in collaborating with customers on product development, and how can they be overcome? A: Challenges include aligning expectations, managing diverse feedback, and maintaining focus. Success comes from structured engagement, clear communication, and a disciplined process for evaluating and implementing customer insights. Q7: How can organizations balance legacy and innovation in mature industries? A: Organizations can honor their legacy by leveraging deep expertise and established relationships while remaining open to change. The most successful companies use their history as a foundation for reinvention, embracing customer-led innovation to drive new value and differentiation.

2. 

   14 Apr 2026

   The Focus on Right-Fit Customers Yields Faster Profitable Growth | What’s Your Edge

   The manufacturing industry is defined by complexity, competition, and opportunity.  Founded by Alfonso Aramburo in 2012 as a product development company, Brecher Manufacturing (https://brechermfg.com/) has evolved into a premier source for Rotomolding, Injection Molding, Sheet Metal Fabrication, Thermoforming, Rapid Prototyping, and CNC Machining, serving clients across Mexico, the U.S., China, and Canada. Alfonso’s journey to profitable growth illustrates what becomes possible when leaders resist the temptation to chase every opportunity, avoid random acts of revenue, and instead make deliberate strategic choices about who they serve and how they grow. For executives and boards alike, this episode of What’s Your Edge? is a powerful reminder that growth without focus often creates complexity, margin pressure, and operational drag. Profitable growth, on the other hand, requires discipline, clarity, and sometimes the courage to say no. Welcome Alfonso. I’m sure everyone is eager to hear your story. How Shifting to Specialized Excellence Created Momentum for Growth Alfonso, you originally started Brecher Manufacturing as a product development company, then repositioned it as a design and prototype firm, and ultimately as a full-fledged manufacturer. That kind of evolution isn’t trivial. Repositioning (https://visionedgemarketing.com/time-embark-repositioning/) often introduces risk, stretches capabilities, and can create internal tension if the organization isn’t aligned. There’s more to repositioning than changing your message. It often takes realigning your entire business to better address evolving market needs and opportunities. Successful repositioning requires a willingness to challenge assumptions, embrace change, and focus on delivering differentiated value. When done well, repositioning can revitalize growth, sharpen competitive advantage, and set the stage for long-term success. What prompted this evolution? Was there a pivotal customer insight, market signal, or operational constraint that made it clear the original model wouldn’t support the kind of growth you envisioned? Laura, you hit on something critical. The main shift was an internal battle against FOMO. Early on, we were in a “yes-man” phase. We offered a massive range of processes, and we were spinning our wheels, quoting everything that walked through the door. I realized we were actually losing existing business because our team was so distracted by chasing the ‘new’ that we couldn’t execute on the ”now”. Our margins were thinning, and we were essentially subsidizing complexity with our own burnout. The breaking point came in 2019. We saw a massive influx of RFQs because overseas supply chains were failing. I looked at our numbers objectively and realized we had a major issue and an opportunity.  We were spending days quoting complex, multi-process projects with low win rates. On the other hand, for our Rotomolding, we could turn a quote around in hours. Our knowledge was deeper, our margins were higher, and frankly, nobody could touch our speed in tooling or molding. I had to make a hard decision. Kill the interesting/great potential projects to save the ‘profitable’ ones. It wasn’t a math problem; the numbers were clear. It was a mindset problem, my own mindset. I had to move from a state of mind of growth-at-all-costs to a clear direction of specialized excellence. Once we decided that Brecher was going to be the authority in Rotomolding and full-product integration, the ‘chaos’ started to clear. We built an execution engine around what we were actually best at, rather than what we were merely ‘capable’ of doing. That shift is what allowed us to scale from a prototype shop to a high-volume manufacturer for industries like Aerospace, Military, and Automotive. A Winning Value Proposition in Eliminating Logistical Friction As you began working with customers who had larger volumes and more complex requirements, you recognized the need for a single point of contact. From our experience, fragmentation, such as multiple vendors, handoffs, and accountability gaps, often creates friction for customers and inefficiencies for manufacturers. Reducing customer effort is a proven way to enhance both satisfaction and retention. High-performing companies understand that every interaction, especially those tied to quoting, onboarding, or support, should be as frictionless as possible. By measuring and actively managing customer effort (https://visionedgemarketing.com/measuring-customer-effort-improves-customer-experience-satisfaction-retention/), organizations can strengthen loyalty and drive repeat business. How did this realization reshape your service model and operational processes? What did consolidating responsibility change for customers and for your internal teams? Laura, you’ve touched on one of the biggest pain points of manufacturing partnerships: fragmented accountability. Buying different parts from multiple suppliers for one integrated product creates a massive coordination headache. We reshaped our model around a single, non-negotiable principle: One Project, One Face. We understood that by owning the entire lifecycle, we would be solving a gap in the market. Whether it’s good news or bad news, the customer has one person who knows exactly where their project stands, and most importantly, who owns the quality of the project. We went from Yes, we can do it all to We own it all. But the real game-changer was consolidating the supply chain itself. Because we are experts in Rotomolding, we became the ‘hub.’ We took over the sourcing and integration of the sheet metal, the CNC components, and the injection molding. This gave us the ability to eliminate logistical friction for our customers. Now they can focus on their market while we handle the complexity of the execution.” Slow Growth and Low Profit by Saying Yes to Everything In the early days, you’ve said profitability was good, but not great. That’s a familiar place for many growing manufacturers: busy, revenue coming in, but margins under pressure and complexity creeping in. You’ve shared that learning when and how to say no was critical to unlocking profitable growth. Alfonso, can you talk about the challenges you faced in making that shift? What criteria did you develop to decide which opportunities were worth pursuing and which ones, even though they brought revenue, were actually holding the company back? And looking back, how did saying “yes” too often contribute to what we sometimes call random acts of revenue—work that looks attractive in isolation but doesn’t align with long-term strategy? In the early days, I was my own worst enemy. I had this deep-seated fear that if I said no to a project, I was failing as a CEO. But the truth was that by saying “yes” to everything, I was failing to potentially grow. I realized that price is a commodity. If you compete on price, you are easily replaceable. We decided to compete on expertise and trustworthiness. To do that, we developed a rigid strategic screening process.  This approach improved our margins and our stability. Customer Retention: A Powerful Indicator that the Formula was Working Despite early profitability, repeat customers were nearly zero, a common challenge in manufacturing, where the industry average retention rate sits around 67%. Retention is often treated as a downstream outcome, but in reality, it’s a leading indicator of product-market fit, operational discipline, and customer experience. Customer retention (https://visionedgemarketing.com/customer-retention-more-than-a-noble-pursuit/) is a strategic imperative for sustainable growth and profitability. Companies that prioritize retention benefit from lower acquisition costs, higher lifetime value, and more predictable revenue streams. What were the biggest obstacles to retaining customers in those early years? How did you diagnose the root causes rather than just addressing symptoms? From a leadership perspective, when did retention shift from being a “nice-to-have” metric to a strategic priority that influenced decisions? Laura, you’ve hit on a hard truth. In the early days, we weren’t just below the industry average for retention; we were practically starting from zero every month.  We were built for ‘one-off’ product development sprints. We gave the customer a great design, but we didn’t give them a reason to stay. We were effectively ‘firing’ our customers as soon as the project was successful, as entrepreneurs and small- to mid-sized companies are not constantly working on the next product. As we shifted into high-volume manufacturing, I realized that if we wanted to grow, we had to stop the revolving door. Coming from a background of leading Kaizen events, I developed a framework I call Root Cause Branching. In Root Cause Branching, look at the problem holistically and how every part of the organization may have contributed to the problem.  This was the “game-changer” for customer retention. We started evaluating every lost customer we didn’t want to lose and mapped those failures across the entire organization. For example, The Sales Branch: Did we quote an unrealistic SLA just to win the deal? The Leadership Branch: Did we provide the team with the right Direction, or did they feel pressured to cut corners? The Sourcing Branch: Was the raw material choice fundamentally flawed for this application? Once we started solving the branches, our stability increased, our costs went down, and retention moved from a “nice-to-have” metric to the very foundation of our execution engine. Download the CC Worksheet (https://live.visionedgemarketing.com/customer-centricity-wokrsheet) The Voice of the Customer Reveals Actionable Insights In 2020, Brecher Manufacturing sought out customer feedback that became a catalyst for meaningful change. Effective Voice of Customer research (https://visionedgemarketing.com/effective-voice-customer-research/) uncovers actionable insights that drive strategic decisions. Organizations that systematically listen to their customers are better positioned to identify unmet needs, improve offerings, and enhance satisfaction. This disciplined approach transforms customer input into a source of innovation and competitive advantage. What did you learn from your Voice of the Customer research? Were there any insights that surprised you or challenged long-held assumptions? How did that feedback directly inform your strategic priorities and operational focus? Laura, the most difficult part of VOC research is that you have to be willing to have your ego bruised. We went in thinking our biggest value was our ‘jack-of-all-trades’ flexibility and our speed. But the feedback we got was a cold shower. Our customers told us: ‘We love that you own the whole process, but because you’re trying to do everything, your expertise is spread too thin, and we’re seeing it in the quality.’ That was a hard truth. It challenged my long-held assumption that ‘more services equals more value.’ This feedback was the final push we needed to double down on Rotomolding as our core expertise and use our other capabilities as supporting integration tools rather than standalone services. But the biggest surprise was about speed. We assumed ‘Speed to Market’ meant ‘How fast can you run the machines?’ The VOC research taught us that the real bottleneck wasn’t production, it was the Design-for-Manufacturing phase. Customers wanted a manufacturer who could do more than follow instructions.  They wanted a partner to tell them when their instructions were wrong. This reshaped our entire strategic priority. We moved from a model of ‘do as you’re told’ to a model of ‘Joint Forces.’ We started getting involved much earlier in the product lifecycle. By partnering with our customers during the engineering phase, we could identify potential quality issues before the first tool was even cut. We realized that true speed meant removing the roadblocks before the race even starts. That insight is a core pillar of what I now call the execution engine. Less Hustle, More Focus, Reduced Customer Acquisition Costs Alfonso, you’ve described a period when acquiring new customers required enormous effort that kept the organization in constant hustle mode. Growth fueled purely by hustle can mask inefficiencies and exhaust teams. Over time, it also raises an important governance question: Is this growth scalable and repeatable? One of the steps you took was to optimize lead conversion (https://visionedgemarketing.com/optimize-lead-conversion-improve-sales/) to improve the quality of leads and the efficiency of your sales process. High-performing organizations analyze every stage of the customer journey to identify bottlenecks and accelerate the quote-to-close cycle. By focusing on conversion metrics and process improvement, companies can drive higher win rates and sustainable revenue growth. What steps did you take to analyze your customer acquisition process? What did the data reveal about where time, effort, and resources were being spent and whether those investments were paying off? Laura, you hit on a vital distinction: Hustle is not a strategy; it’s an admission of a broken process. In those early years, our ‘hustle’ was actually masking a massive lack of direction. We were celebrating the volume of RFQs coming in, but when I finally sat down to look at the data, the reality was sobering. We were spending 80% of our engineering and quoting resources on ‘Random Acts of Revenue’. There were projects that had a less than 5% chance of closing or, worse, were for industries that didn’t fit our long-term goals. I realized that our execution engine was overheating because we were feeding it the wrong fuel. To fix this, we moved from a ‘Sales’ mindset to a ‘Governance’ mindset. We analyzed the ‘Quote-to-Close’ cycle and identified the biggest bottleneck: Unqualified Effort. We mapped out exactly how many people-hours it took to quote a complex assembly versus a specialized Rotomolding project. We discovered that the ‘complex’ quotes took 10x longer but yielded lower margins. This data gave me the courage to finally say ‘No.’  We started treating the RFQ states as a gate.  We stopped quoting any project that didn’t align with our ideal customer profile. We mandated a specific set of technical questions be answered upfront to accelerate our internal response time. Because the data was clean, we could quote in hours, not days. The data eventually revealed something powerful: By reducing our total number of quotes by 40%, we actually increased our revenue and boosted our win rate. We focused on managing our focus. That transformed us from a chaotic shop into a scalable, high-EBITDA business. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurapattersonvem/recent-activity/articles/) Acquiring Right-Fit Customers Is the Secret to Growing Faster Companies with high customer retention rates are often a direct result of targeting “right-fit” customers, and typically grow 1.5x to 3x faster than their peers (https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/experience-led-growth-a-new-way-to-create-value). By analyzing your data, you identified tooling as your sweet spot and became far more selective about the customers and projects you pursued. We know from our work that not every customer is the right customer. High-performing organizations consistently profile their best customers and use that insight to focus their customer acquisition efforts. By defining the attributes of right-fit customers (https://visionedgemarketing.com/acquire-keep-right-fit-customers-7-steps/) and aligning resources accordingly, companies can improve conversion rates, increase average order value, and foster long-term loyalty. How did this focus on right-fit customers, that is, those who needed, tooling change your quote-to-close ratio, average order value, and operational predictability? What changed internally once the organization had clarity around where it should and should not compete? Laura, when we stopped chasing every RFQ and focused on ‘Right-Fit’ customers, specifically those requiring both tooling and production, the transformation was a total step-function change for the business. First, let’s talk about the Quote-to-Close Ratio. Before this focus, we were “spraying and praying”. Our win rate was low because we were competing against specialized shops on their home turf. Once we narrowed our focus to projects that required our specific integration of Tooling and Rotomolding, and positioned Becher as the company that owned the entire technical risk from the first mold to the final assembly, our closing rate nearly doubled. Second, our Average Order Value (AOV) skyrocketed by 2-5X. By focusing on customers who needed Tooling, we were essentially ‘locking in’ long-term production. We moved away from the one-off parts and toward integrated projects. Tooling as the ‘hook’ that secures the production life cycle, drastically increased the lifetime value of every customer we work with. By focusing on where we could compete and win, we became masters of a specific set of constraints, making us 3x faster and more accurate. We were no longer constantly switching setups for random projects. We had a predictable flow of similar high-value work. And we went from Hustle/Panic Culture to Professional Execution. We stopped bleeding margin on the wrong work and started compounding value on the right work. That clarity is what turned Brecher MFG into a much more predictable operation. Doubling Down on Customer Value Drives Growth By 2022, the impact of doubling down on tooling customers enables you to achieve 2X growth and increase repeat customers from 0% to 70%. That’s impressive given that, as of 2025, the average customer retention rate in manufacturing (https://explodingtopics.com/blog/customer-retention-rates) is approximately 67%. That’s a meaningful distinction in an industry where growth is often driven by volume rather than value. Those results don’t happen without discipline. Organizations that excel at delivering customer value consistently outperform their peers in organic growth (https://visionedgemarketing.com/customer-value-delivers-faster-organic-growth/). By focusing on what customers truly value and aligning offerings, processes, and communications around those priorities, companies create stronger relationships and accelerate growth. Ultimately, the ability to measure and act on customer value is a key differentiator in today’s competitive landscape. What were the most important operational, cultural, or leadership shifts that enabled this transformation? And today, what metrics do you track to ensure the company doesn’t drift back into chasing misaligned opportunities? From a board or leadership standpoint, what indicators tell you that the business is growing well, not just growing fast? Laura, reaching a 70% retention rate in an industry that averages 67%, especially when we started at zero, was the result of moving from volume-driven growth to value-driven growth. The most important shift was a leadership shift in the Power of No. Early on, I thought growth meant a bigger top line. Now, I know growth means a healthier middle line and bottom line. To get there, I made two internal shifts. First, we stopped treating Tooling as a product and started treating it as the Onboarding Phase of a Partnership. We aligned to realize that a tool isn’t ‘done’ when it’s built; it’s done when the customer has a repeatable, high-quality production run. And second, we stopped incentivizing the Big Win and started rewarding Process Adherence. We taught the team that a small, perfect project is better for the company than a large, chaotic one. Today, to ensure we don’t drift back into chasing the wrong things, I track three key indicators that tell me if we are growing well, not just fast: The Fit Score of the Backlog: Every quarter, we audit our current projects. If more than 20% of our revenue is coming from outside our Direction (integration), we know we’re drifting. Quote-to-Close (Tooling-Production): We don’t just look at the total win rate. We look specifically at our win rate in Tooling-to-Production cycles. If that drops, it means we’re losing our competitive edge. The Friction Ratio: We track customer effort. How many ‘touches’ does it take from the PO to the first delivery? If that number goes up, it’s a leading indicator that our Execution Engine is getting clogged with complexity. Parting Advice: To Grow, Avoid Random Acts of Revenue Looking back on this journey, what are the most important lessons you’ve learned about profitable growth? If you were advising another company, what would you emphasize about: Knowing when to say no Avoiding random acts of revenue Balancing customer focus with operational discipline First, I’d learn to say NO sooner. Saying “No” protects your team’s capacity for excellence. Every time you say “Yes” to a project that sits outside your core expertise, you are essentially asking your team to pay a “complexity tax.” You lose money in engineering hours, setup times, and mental bandwidth. Looking back, I’d fire the FOMO sooner.  I spent too much time trying to “work harder” to fix a problem that was actually a direction problem Second, I’d avoid Random Acts of Revenue. In the beginning, I trusted my “entrepreneurial gut” to tell me if a deal was good. I should have built my Effort-to-Value dashboards sooner. The data is much more honest than the gut when it comes to margins. Many leaders’ thoughts on balancing customer focus with operational discipline are in conflict. True Customer Focus is providing a predictable outcome. You can only be predictable if you have the discipline to follow a process. If you “bend the rules” for a customer, you usually end up failing them because your internal engine wasn’t designed for that detour. The best way to love your customer is to give them a disciplined process. I have two pieces of parting advice. First, treat your organization’s capacity like a high-end hotel. If you fill all the rooms with “budget travelers” (low-margin, high-friction work), you have no room left when the “VIP” (the right-fit, high-volume partner) shows up. Second, look at your revenue through the lens of repeatability. If a project doesn’t have the potential to lead to a long-term production cycle or a “Directional” partnership, it’s a distraction. Alfonso, thank you for sharing your journey and insights. Your story is proof that profitable growth requires both discipline and courage to say no, stay focused, and eliminate random acts that dilute value. You also reminded us that: Strategic repositioning can unlock sustainable growth. Customer retention is both a growth lever and a profitability signal. Saying no to the wrong opportunities enables focus on the right-fit customers. Data-driven decision-making reduces risk and improves outcomes. Listening to customers and acting on what you hear drives scalable success. For business leaders and board members listening, this raises an important question: Are you growing with intention, or are you simply in hustle mode? If any part of this conversation felt familiar, strong demand, full pipelines, but margins under pressure, it may be time to step back and assess where growth is coming from and what it’s really costing you. If you’re ready to identify where random acts may be creeping into your strategy and replace them with a clearer, more deliberate, customer-centric path to profitable growth, let’s start a conversation (https://laurapatterson.co/contact-laura-patterson-stop-random-acts-start-smarter-growth-today/). FAQ: (written by Penn of Sintra.ai) Q1: What does it mean to focus on “right-fit” customers, and why is it essential for profitable growth? A1: Focusing on right-fit customers means identifying, targeting, and serving clients whose needs align with your organization’s core strengths and long-term strategy. This approach increases conversion rates, customer lifetime value, and operational efficiency, while reducing churn and resource drain from misaligned projects. Q2: How can organizations avoid “random acts of revenue,” and why is this important? A2: Avoiding random acts of revenue requires discipline in evaluating opportunities against strategic criteria rather than chasing every potential deal. By saying no to projects outside your expertise or direction, you protect margins, reduce complexity, and create capacity for high-value, repeatable business. Q3: What is the “Voice of Customer” (VOC) and how can it drive meaningful change? A3: Voice of Customer is a structured approach to gathering, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback. Effective VOC research uncovers actionable insights, challenges assumptions, and helps organizations realign offerings, processes, and communications to better serve customer needs—ultimately fueling innovation and loyalty. Q4: Why is customer retention a leading indicator of business health? A4: Customer retention signals product-market fit, operational discipline, and customer satisfaction. High retention rates lower acquisition costs, increase predictability, and foster advocacy. Organizations that prioritize retention typically enjoy more sustainable, profitable growth than those focused solely on new business. Q5: How do process discipline and data-driven decision-making support scalable success? A5: Process discipline ensures consistency, quality, and efficiency across the organization. Data-driven decision-making allows leaders to objectively assess performance, identify bottlenecks, and allocate resources to the most impactful areas. Together, they reduce risk, support customer focus, and drive repeatable, scalable growth. Q6: What are the risks of overextending services or chasing every opportunity? A6: Overextending dilutes expertise, increases operational complexity, and often leads to inconsistent quality or missed expectations. Chasing every opportunity can exhaust teams, erode margins, and distract from building a sustainable, differentiated value proposition. Q7: How can organizations measure whether they are growing “well” rather than just growing “fast”? A7: Growing well means tracking metrics such as fit score of the backlog, quote-to-close ratios for core services, customer effort scores, and retention rates. These indicators reveal whether growth is aligned with strategy, sustainable, and delivering real value—not just top-line expansion.

3. 

   3 Mar 2026

   Breaking Through Stagnant Growth with a Customer-Centric, Process-Driven Approach | WYE?

   Today’s episode explores the transformation of a legacy business in the fire protection industry, a sector that is highly regulated, fiercely competitive, and faces ongoing price pressure and low barriers to entry. Perhaps some of you can relate. This is also an industry where many companies experience long periods of stagnant growth or workflow. It’s not because demand disappears, but because differentiation erodes and internal complexity quietly increases. Our conversation is with Shawn Mullen, President and Chief Energy Officer at Protex Central (https://www.protexcentral.org/). The company has been serving mission-critical facilities for 60 years. When Shawn took the helm in 2017, the company’s revenue trajectory was flat. Essentially, a parked car in an industry where standing still means falling behind. What’s especially interesting is that the market itself was growing; yet Protex Central wasn’t. That gap between market opportunity and company performance became the catalyst for change. Fast forward to 2025: revenues have doubled, margins are up, and project overruns are down. Let’s find out how Shawn accomplished these results. Shawn, welcome to What’s Your Edge? Industry Challenge: Why Growth Stalls in Mature Markets Let’s begin by framing the fire protection industry. The U.S. Fire Protection System Market (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-fire-protection-system-market-152700130.html) is set to grow from USD 25.94 billion in 2024 to USD 32.26 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 3.60%. Even so, it is considered an established industry marked by intense competition, thin margins, and constant regulatory scrutiny. This combination often creates a false sense of momentum, where the market grows, but individual companies struggle to translate that growth into improved performance. Shawn, when you took over Protex Central in 2017, what did you see as the biggest challenges? Was there a specific moment or insight that made you realize the company needed a fundamentally new approach? Laura, thanks for the opportunity to visit with you and your listeners today.  It truly is an honor.  When I bought the majority interest from my dad, I had been with the company for over 32 years. We all knew our single biggest challenge was sales.  But no one on the leadership team, at that time, had a solution to move us forward.  For too long, our corporate mindset was “we wanted what we got” instead of “going and getting what we wanted.” At that time, I didn’t know how I was going reverse that mindset, but I knew this:  I must get outside of my current echo-chamber and expose myself to other business professionals. So I joined an executive coaching and peer-to-peer advisory group.  I threw myself into all it had to offer – great business speakers, other local business owners, and a talented business coach. The cumulative effect of being a part of that group was an understanding that it was me – the Chief Energy Officer of Protex Central – who had to change first before I could ask our team to change.  It didn’t happen overnight – in fact, it took me about four years to really get in the groove of working with my coach and asking myself the hard questions that I knew had to be asked and wrestling with the answers. The Value of Customer Segmentation: Profiling for Profitable Growth One of your first moves was to analyze the attributes of successful versus non-successful customers. This kind of customer segmentation is essential for sustainable growth. We often work with our customers to help them profile their best customers (https://visionedgemarketing.com/improve-marketing-performance-with-more-actionable-customer-profiles/) and use those insights to shape acquisition and retention strategies. Many organizations believe growth means more customers, when in reality it often means the right customers and the discipline to say no to the wrong ones. You concluded that to grow, Protex Central needed more of the right customers and a better process to acquire them. Can you share how you approached this analysis? Other than revenue, what are some of the key attributes of a successful customer? Was there anything in the data that surprised you or challenged long-held assumptions about who your “best” customers really were? Wow, great observation, Laura.  You’re spot on.  We did have to “triage” our customer base and determine the qualities of our best customers. What we found was that our best customers were not necessarily our largest revenue volume customers, but rather, they had attributes that were common across all verticals, systems, and services. Things like longevity of relationship, a trusted communication style between their team and ours, a designated internal champion for fire/security related systems and services, as well as an expressed progressive corporate recognition of keeping their employees, properties, and processes safe.  Lastly, we had to determine if our value proposition fit within their budget and their expectation.  Again, this didn’t happen overnight, and it hasn’t stopped.  In fact, that discipline continues. Oh, and plus, the good customers always pay on time. Process Mapping Created the Roadmap for Strong Performance Gains I imagine there were a lot of implications to the company once you identified the customers you wanted to serve, including how to market and sell to them. Process mapping (https://visionedgemarketing.com/process-mapping-optimizes-performance-operational-excellence/) provides clarity, uncovers inefficiencies, and enables organizations to optimize for performance and operational excellence. In our experience, unclear or inconsistent processes often show up as margin leakage, project overruns, and frustrated teams—long before leaders recognize process as the root cause (https://visionedgemarketing.com/revealing-the-why-behind-poor-customer-experience/). What were the most significant changes you made to your business processes? How did process mapping help you drive measurable improvements? Wow, another keen observation, Laura.  To be fair, our process mapping at the time was more like Crayola Crayons and Big Chief Tablet paper rather than ChatGPT or GROK.  It was old school for sure. The key benefit was that we were able to see gaps not only in our sales process but also in our engineering, sales ordering, and pre-engineering/installation processes.  Those gaps are now eliminated, but the mindset – and yes, I keep coming back to that – the mindset has changed for every touchpoint in our organization, and that is this: “am what I’m doing helping us want what we get or are we going out to get what we get?” I believe my role as a leader is to reinforce, champion, and recognize that mindset at every opportunity. Download the CC Worksheet (https://live.visionedgemarketing.com/customer-centricity-wokrsheet) Align the Brand and Customer Value to Boost Messaging As you transformed your customer base and operations, you also recrafted your marketing messaging. Consistency and clarity are critical. From our experience, we have found that a well-articulated positioning and messaging strategy (https://visionedgemarketing.com/positioning-messaging-strategy-improves-growth-competitive-advantage/) elevates growth and competitive advantage by ensuring every touchpoint communicates value.  Messaging isn’t only about external communication. It’s a strategic alignment tool that influences sales conversations, customer expectations, and internal decision-making. Shawn, how did you approach this messaging overhaul? What changes made the biggest impact on how Protex Central is perceived today? Laura, this question keeps me up at night.  Are we as Protex Central really consistent across all of our touchpoints with a consistent message?  I fancy myself as one who has articulated at any number of inflection points within our company that I sense that we’re delivering on the consistency of execution and message, but without a sterile and objective measuring tool, I can’t be sure. Maybe it’s part faith and part hope, but given that we have such a very low attrition rate compared to our industry, my sense is we’re making it happen. The Direct Impact of Playbooks on Sales Performance One of the things I know you invested heavily in was sales training and playbooks (https://visionedgemarketing.com/make-your-sales-playbook-powerful-alignment-tool/). We often say that a powerful sales playbook is more than a script. It’s an alignment tool that ensures everyone is clear on the process, the value proposition, and the customer journey. For many sales teams, adopting a playbook requires unlearning habits that once worked but no longer support growth. Can you briefly walk us through how you built and implemented your sales playbook? What were the most important elements, and how did it change your team’s performance? What was the most difficult shift for the sales team to make? Laura, our playbook is always in flux.  We have intentionally developed it to be a dynamic document that is responsive to changes in the marketplace, regulatory environment, and other outside dynamics. To your question about the difficult shift for our sales team, I would have to say that the emphasis on discipline of daily KPI’s was the biggest challenge.  As I often say, every crusade needs a crusader, and I saw it as my responsibility to be that crusader.   Phone calls, emails, text messages, and the like were and continue to be part of the effort to work “ON” the business rather than “IN” the business. Standing Out: Service Quality as a Differentiator In industries like yours, there is ever-present risk of becoming a commodity (https://visionedgemarketing.com/customer-service-avoid-becoming-a-commodity/) because it can be difficult for customers to distinguish your offering from others. In this situation, price often becomes the only differentiator, and the race to the bottom begins.  When that happens, growth slows, margins erode, and customer relationships become transactional rather than strategic. How did you ensure Protex Central avoided this trap? What role did customer service play in setting you apart? Once again, Laura, you’ve hit the nail on the head.  Creating the differentiation was a challenge. We had to really had unterstand our value proposition to the customer:  we’re local,  we’re thought leaders, and we are reliable.  In fact, as consolidation in our indstrutry as accellerated, we emphasized that we have local ownership that’s involved in the community.  We, as a company, want to see the entire community succeed and prosper.  That’s something that our new private equity owners can’t say. That was a terrific, pivotal move to have technical talent closer to customers.  We truly believe that service quality (https://visionedgemarketing.com/fanatical-service-quality-matters/) is not an afterthought. That it can serve as a key differentiator. We have found that organizations that empower their technical teams to engage directly with customers see faster problem resolution, deeper relationships, and greater loyalty. This kind of proximity often turns service interactions into opportunities for insight, trust-building, and long-term value creation. How has this shift impacted your customer relationships and service outcomes? First and foremost, it didn’t happen overnight.  It was an intentional effort on the part of every member of our team.  Yes, I had to articulate it, but secondarily, they had to live it out.  Often, that means getting up at 2 am to respond to a service call.   I mean, who wants to leave the comfort and warmth of their bed to head out to a service call at 0-dark-thirty?  But that’s what our team does when lives, property, or process are on the line. Here’s the lesson learned: our customers appreciate the effort it takes, and they value that effort and time to protect lives, property, and processes. A New Set of Metrics to Measure Performance Progress Shawn, let’s talk about one of my favorite topics, performance management (https://visionedgemarketing.com/improve-accountability-performance-management-csuite-bod-roles/) and metrics. Metrics shape behavior. What leaders choose to measure determines what teams prioritize, improve, and ultimately deliver. What are the key metrics you track today, and how do they differ from what you measured back in 2017? Which metrics have had the biggest impact on decision-making and behavior across the organization? Wow, again, this is a great question. As far as key metrics are concerned, we transitioned into a process that measured Key Performance Indicators such as:  number of prospecting calls made; number of targeted customer calls made; and further, number of post-service call follow-up calls made. We didn’t rely on a BOT to ask those questions; we established an internal tracking system through our CRM to assign a live human being to make those calls.  We believe that made the difference in establishing a long-term relationship. How Leadership Style Played a Key Role in Success One of the things our community appreciates is hearing about lessons learned. Shawn, what are the biggest lessons you’ve learned on this journey? Looking back, was there anything you initially underestimated or would approach differently today? And what advice would you offer to other leaders in established, highly competitive industries who want to drive meaningful change? To me, as a leader, the biggest lesson learned was that of being “present.”  In other words, you can’t just dictate a direction and expect it to happen.  You must be dedicated to seeing it through.  That means being there for your team – shoulder to shoulder – when they make the call or the follow-up call.  It means role-playing conversations and critiquing them before and after they occur. And finally, it means assuring your team that 24/7, you’re there for them to support and encourage them in their efforts to move the organization to the next level. Shawn, thank you for sharing your journey. Your story is a testament to the power of disciplined process, customer-centricity, and the courage to challenge the status quo. For those listening, growth doesn’t come from random acts—it comes from deliberate choices about customers, processes, and how value is delivered. For those listening, if you’re ready, let’s have a conversation (https://laurapatterson.co/contact-laura-patterson-stop-random-acts-start-smarter-growth-today/) about how to move beyond commoditization and operationalize sustainable growth. FAQ: (written by Penn of Sintra.ai) Q1: What are the most common reasons established companies experience stagnant growth, even in expanding markets? A: Stagnant growth often results from eroding differentiation, increased internal complexity, and a failure to adapt processes or value propositions to evolving customer needs—even when market demand is rising. Q2: How can a customer-centric approach accelerate growth in mature, competitive industries? A: Focusing on customer-centricity helps organizations identify and prioritize their most valuable customers, tailor their offerings, and drive loyalty. This approach shifts growth from acquiring “more” customers to acquiring the “right” customers, resulting in improved retention and profitability. Q3: Why is customer segmentation and profiling essential for sustainable business growth? A: Effective segmentation and profiling reveal which customers align best with your value proposition. By understanding attributes such as relationship longevity, communication style, and operational fit, companies can focus resources where they yield the greatest impact. Q4: How does process mapping drive operational excellence and profitability? A: Process mapping uncovers inefficiencies and bottlenecks across sales, service, and delivery. By optimizing workflows, organizations can reduce margin leakage, minimize project overruns, and create a culture of continuous improvement. Q5: What’s the role of messaging and positioning in differentiating a business? A: Clear, consistent messaging and strategic positioning ensure that every customer touchpoint communicates unique value. This strengthens brand perception, aligns internal teams, and supports competitive advantage—especially in crowded markets. Q6: How do sales playbooks and training support customer-centric growth? A: Dynamic sales playbooks align teams on best practices, value delivery, and the customer journey. Ongoing training and KPI discipline foster adaptability and ensure consistent execution, which is critical for scaling growth. Q7: Why is direct engagement between technical teams and customers important for service quality? A: Empowering technical teams to interact directly with customers leads to faster issue resolution, deeper relationships, and greater loyalty. Service quality becomes a key differentiator and a source of long-term value creation. Q8: What are the most effective metrics for managing performance and supporting growth? A: Metrics should track both activity (e.g., prospecting, follow-up calls) and outcomes (e.g., retention, revenue, margin improvement). The right KPIs shape behavior, support accountability, and drive continuous improvement across the organization. Q9: What leadership practices are essential for driving transformation in established organizations? A: Successful transformation requires leaders to be present, model desired behaviors, support their teams, and reinforce a culture of discipline and accountability. Change is sustained when leaders are hands-on and committed to seeing it through. Q10: How can organizations avoid commoditization and maintain pricing power? A: By differentiating through customer experience, operational excellence, and service quality, companies can shift the conversation away from price and foster strategic, long-term customer relationships.

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