The Most Important Investment I Made This Year Wasn’t in My Business.Over the past three decades, Proactive Worldwide has weathered more than its share of storms. We’ve navigated the 2008-2009 financial crisis, recessions, COVID, market disruptions, and countless shifts over the past 30 years in how companies buy intelligence and consulting services. Like many small businesses, we’ve learned that resilience isn’t a slogan. It’s a requirement.…
When a Pricing Signal Has a Different CausePreviously, I wrote about the importance of distinguishing between pricing patterns that are real and those that are simply noise. Validating a pattern is an important step in pricing intelligence. The next question may be even more important: Why is the pattern happening? A few years ago, we worked with a client in the trucking…
AI Knows What’s Been Written. Who’s Discovering What’s Next?A client recently asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks: “If AI can analyze everything that’s already known, who’s discovering what’s next?” I haven’t stopped thinking about that question since. Over the past few years, AI has transformed how organizations gather and analyze information. It can summarize reports, review earnings calls, analyze…
When Pricing Patterns Are Real and When They Are NoiseA few years ago, I worked with a manufacturer that became convinced a competitor was aggressively lowering prices in one of their core product categories. The concern didn’t come from a single quote. The pattern appeared repeatedly across recent opportunities. Sales teams were hearing the same message from customers. Competitive examples kept surfacing. Leadership began…
Before They Cut You!Last week, my friend and long-time professional colleague August Jackson, MBA shared the recent article where Shopify’s CEO says, “Staffers need to prove their jobs can’t be done by AI before asking for more headcount.” He then posted something that hit a nerve: “I am hearing from corporate CI leaders they are also being asked…
Why “Red Flag” Prices Often Mislead Pricing TeamsSome of the most expensive pricing mistakes start with a pattern that feels obvious. A sales team begins hearing the same message from the field: competitors are coming in lower, deals are getting harder to win, and customers are pushing back. The signal feels consistent. It feels credible. Then the team turns to the data.…
The Benefits of SWOT AnalysisDon’t Overlook the Benefits of SWOT Analysis While a SWOT analysis is not a novel concept, many companies do not perform this type of analysis as often as needed. A traditional SWOT (sometimes also known as TOWS) helps increase awareness and planning to help fine tune any company’s business strategies and create situational awareness. This…
Turning VoC Insights into Actionable Growth StrategiesMost Voice of Customer (VoC) programs fail. Not because the insights are wrong, but because they never change a decision. Companies run surveys, conduct interviews, analyze feedback, and produce detailed reports. Yet too often, the insights stop there. The research becomes informative but not transformative. For me, the real value of VoC is not simply…
Why Averages Are Dangerous in Pricing AnalysisAverages make people feel safe. When pricing discussions become tense, someone inevitably says, “What’s the average competitor price?” The assumption is that the average represents the market. The assumption is that it gives clarity. In pricing intelligence, averages often create the illusion of clarity while hiding the real story. Here’s why. Several years ago, I…
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