Why the Number 3 Is Magic in Pricing IntelligenceOne of the biggest mistakes I see companies make in pricing analysis is believing that a single price, or even two prices, tells them anything meaningful about a competitor’s strategy. It doesn’t. Pricing intelligence only starts to become reliable when you capture at least three price points. Three is where patterns begin to emerge. Three…
The Power of Storytelling in VoC: Turning Data into Actionable NarrativesOver the years, I have seen organizations make significant investments in Voice of Customer research, yet struggle to translate those insights into clear strategy, actionable plans, and sustained business impact.The problem is not the data.It is the story. Data informs.Stories move people. If we want Voice of Customer insights to drive real decisions—product pivots, pricing…
The Comfort TrapFor over 35 years, I’ve helped leadership teams anticipate competitors. New entrants. Pricing pressure. Product innovation. M&A threats. But the biggest risk rarely sits outside the building. It sits inside the executive conference room. It’s the comfort trap. Comfort feels earned. It feels rational. It feels stable. Strong results. Predictable growth. Solid margins. And slowly,…
Informing Is Nice. Influencing Wins.A few years ago, I was sitting in a conference room with a client, watching their intelligence team walk senior leadership through a beautifully crafted briefing. You know the kind. Tight storyline. Smart charts. Competitor moves clearly mapped. Opportunities highlighted. Risks flagged. Implications spelled out. At the end, one of the executives leaned back and…
How Voice of Customer Drives Emerging Trends, Innovation, and Strategic AdvantageOne question leaders raise consistently is how organizations can stay ahead when markets change so quickly. After years of working with leadership teams, one pattern is clear. The answer is rarely found in more dashboards or longer strategy decks. Those tools explain what has already happened. Staying ahead requires listening to customers in a structured…
30 Years. 30 Lessons.We recently celebrated Proactive Worldwide’s 30-year anniversary, and it made me pause in a way I haven’t in years. Milestones like this force you to look not just at what you built, but how you built it. I remembered the folding table that served as my first desk, the early years powered more by belief…
- The Sacrifice Paradox
What if the key to success isn’t doing more, but giving up the right things? We all live this paradox — making sacrifices without always thinking about or understanding which ones help us, which ones hurt us, and which might help or hurt others. I began working on my new book, The Sacrifice Paradox: How…
Early Warning Signals: What Customers Know Before the Market DoesThere’s a saying I’ve come to believe deeply: your customers feel market shifts before your analysts see them. Voice of Customer (VoC) isn’t just about satisfaction — it’s about foresight. Customers often sense competitive moves, pricing shifts, and unmet needs long before the data shows it. When we listen carefully, they become our earliest warning…
Why Fortune 1000 Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore Competitive IntelligenceAfter more than three decades of working with Fortune 1000 leaders, I’ve learned one truth that never fades: scale doesn’t guarantee safety. Even the most dominant players can be blindsided—by new entrants, shifting customer expectations, or technologies that rewrite the rules overnight. That’s where Competitive Intelligence (CI) comes in.CI isn’t about collecting random data or…
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