Episodes

Across industries, growth stalls when companies rely on reactive demand, word-of-mouth, or what we call “random acts” of marketing and sales. In markets where competitors can quickly copy features, pricing, and even talent, sustainable advantage doesn’t come from doing more activity. It comes from making deliberate strategic choices and then aligning the organization to deliver on those choices consistently. Real differentiation is not a slogan or a tagline. It is the outcome of deciding who yo...

You’re probably experiencing what so many of our customers do. Data pouring in from every direction. Transactions, digital behavior, product usage, customer feedback, and more. As organizations have amassed more information, the real challenge has gone from data collection to translating data into actionable insights and business intelligence. At VisionEdge Marketing, we’ve found that a data-driven culture is a foundational capability for sustained growth and customer-centricity. (See Why a Data...

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 Mulle...

Today’s conversation explores how a lean process improvement initiative, originally launched to address patient complaints about long wait times, evolved into something much more: a deeply embedded customer-centric culture grounded in customer value and customer-centricy, and a move away from random acts of efficiency toward a systematic, measurable approach to customer experience. Stephanie Collins, CEO of Austin Retina, a practice that has been serving patients since 1979, joins us today as ou...

In this episode, we’re joined by Stacie Feller, President of Kanga Roof. Stacie’s journey is a powerful illustration of how the absence, or presence, of customer data can dramatically impact business decisions. We’ll go behind the scenes to explore how a lack of customer insights created missed opportunities, and how a renewed focus on data has since transformed her decision-making. Today’s conversation takes us from instinct to insight and ultimately to impact by exploring how data transforms b...

In this episode of What’s Your Edge? we’re focusing on a foundational driver of sustainable growth: innovation. Research from McKinsey suggests that companies that prioritize innovation generate significantly higher growth than their peers. In one study, “innovation leaders” achieved 2.4 times higher total shareholder returns than laggards over a 10-year period, underscoring that innovation is not a “nice to have,” but a core driver of long-term value. As everyone listening knows, true innovati...

In this episode of What’s Your Edge? we’re joined by Doug Norton, Chief Marketing Officer of Inspire Semiconductor, a company founded in the early days of the pandemic that’s now launching its groundbreaking Thunderbird “supercomputer cluster-on-a-chip.” Doug is a veteran in the semiconductor space. With Doug’s help, we’re going behind the scenes of a Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy and talk about what it really takes to bring a new product to market, and how mapping the right ecosystem, focusing on...

Victor Gichun, Vice President of Business Development at Excess Logic, a nationwide leader in surplus equipment and electronics liquidation, offers businesses a seamless way to manage excess and obsolete inventory. What sets Excess Logic apart is its ability to create value through a robust ecosystem of providers and a laser focus on customer experience and competitive differentiation. In this episode, Victor shares how Excess Logic has engineered its customer-centric processes and ecosystem str...

Most of us operate within a hyper-competitive marketplace. A compelling value proposition is a critical business asset and one of the most effective competitive differentiators. Companies that succeed in attracting and retaining customers are those that focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences and creating measurable customer value. In this episode of What’s Your Edge?, we explore how Rebecca Woan, founder of Chartwell Insurance Services, a boutique property and casualty insurance pr...

Christina Porter, the President of Stallergenes Greer Canada and Vice President of Strategy for Stallergenes Greer North America. The company provides therapies to help improve life for people who suffer from allergies. In 2017, Stallergenes Greer acquired a successful family-owned Canadian company to create a fully integrated Canadian operation. The company encountered several challenges during the transition that required them to take some steps back and re-engineer customer-centric processes,...

Mark L. Vincent brings a wealth of expertise in driving customer-centric strategies at the C-Suite and board level. What I admire about Mark is his commitment to bridge the gap between executive leadership and boardroom strategy. In this episode of What’s Your Edge?, Mark and I discuss how boards of directors (BOD) and C-Suite (CXO) members can collaborate effectively to align goals and accelerate growth through customer-centricity by using data and performance management to support governance a...

Aligning your business strategies with customer expectations is essential for fostering loyalty, differentiation, and long-term success. In this episode of What’s Your Edge?, Karen Norheim, President and CEO of American Crane, discusses how data-driven insights, innovation, and a customer-centric mindset can overcome challenges and deliver exceptional business and customer value. From navigating leadership transitions to leveraging smart technologies, recount the actionable strategies used to re...

Many of us at the helm of our companies are often faced with implementing changes to remain competitive and relevant to our customers, and to create more customer and business value to achieve long-term sustainable growth. This was the case for Kelly Van Winkle, President and CEO of King of Texas Roofing Company, when she took the reins of the third-generation company. In this episode of “What’s Your Edge?“, Kelly tells us how small incremental changes helped strengthen customer retention, accel...

For this episode of “What’s Your Edge?” I’m thrilled to welcome Heather Valentine to the conversation. Heather is a seasoned growth executive with over 25 years of experience leading high-performing teams in the SaaS-based healthcare and life sciences technology sectors. Her career spans the entire innovation lifecycle, making her a perfect fit for our Barriers to Revenue Growth discussion today and strategies to overcome these. I’ve had the privilege of working with Heather over the years and k...

Bringing a new B2B product and/or service (solution) to market is a multifaceted process. At the very minimum it requires a solid understanding of the customer, a compelling value proposition and associated positioning and messaging, an excellent go-to-market (GTM) strategy, and a keen awareness of the competition. Each phase of this process is crucial. Missteps in the process from development to launch to adoption can result in the product being obliterated in a competitive market. If you’ve ev...

Imagine standing at the edge of a vast forest, where every towering tree, each lush canopy, and the dense undergrowth beneath represents decades, even centuries, of growth. This forest didn’t spring up overnight; it was cultivated with a long-term vision, nurtured with care, and sustained through continuous adaptation. Now, let’s translate this imagery into the world of business. Creating a customer-centric business that grows long-term value is much like intentionally growing a forest. And fore...

In their book, Geeks and Geezers: Leading and Learning for a Lifetime, Warren G. Bennis and Robert Thomas refer to defining moments as “crucibles.” These crucibles represent transformative periods of testing from which leaders can emerge either hopelessly broken or powerfully emboldened. It’s been decades since this book on leadership came out but the metaphor of a crucible is fitting for any company and its leaders who emerge stronger and more resilient after enduring severe challenges. Many co...

Do you ever feel like capturing customer behavior is akin to chasing the flickering lights of fireflies, with each fleeting glow marking the lightning bug’s path? Every customer’s behavior provides a moment of insight into their journey, preferences, and needs. Just as fireflies illuminate the darkness, capturing and analyzing customer behavior—how they act—is an essential part of being a customer-centric company. Insights from customer behavior data illuminate the path to growth and success for...

Most of us would agree a customer-centric value proposition (value prop) is prime material to construct the bridge between your business and customers to achieve long-term sustainable success. But how do you measure and determine its worth? That is the focus of this What’s Your Edge? In this episode, we’ll use the metaphor of building bridges to connect your business with your customers and explore three measures to help determine the impact of your customer-centric value prop. Your Value Prop:...

Successful positioning and messaging are the ingredients for writing and telling your business’s story, so it engages customers, evokes emotions, and drives action. A successful story demands more than creative flair—it requires rigorous research, customer-centricity, and validation. We can take a lesson from the book of skilled authors, who frequently rely on feedback to refine their story. Business too can harness the power of validation research, a form of feedback and testing, to ensure key ...

Do you ever feel like you’re swimming against the current? As we produce this episode of What’s Your Edge?, The World Economic Forum expects the global economy to remain uncertain, citing that over half of chief economists anticipate it to weaken this year. The report mentioned that while many companies have been reengineering, supply chain disruptions will persist and the costs for raw materials will remain inflated throughout the year; and that many businesses will continue to find themselves ...

Customer Success! Coined in the early 2000s, it’s more than a buzzword—it’s the essence of customer-centricity. Why has this concept expanded so rapidly across all industries? Because customer centricity isn’t just a growth strategy; it’s THE primary strategy for driving value and building lasting connections. In this episode What’s Your Edge? we’ll examine customer success’s link to customer-centricity and reveal the 4 pivotal board roles in guiding leadership to master this business model. Cu...

Creativity stands as a testament to the remarkable capabilities of the human mind. It’s been the driving force behind artistic endeavors, scientific breakthroughs, and societal advancements. As the field of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to explode, we find ourselves at an interesting crossroads between AI, creativity, and its application: innovation. A unique attribute of the human mind is imagination. While AI can process vast amounts of data and generate highly sophisticated outputs, ...

The concept of iteration is much like a masterful sculptor chiseling away at a block of stone to reveal a magnificent work of art. Just as a sculptor refines their creation through a series of careful, deliberate strokes, organizations can harness the power of iteration to sculpt their strategies, products, operations, and processes into something truly exceptional – achieving what we have termed “advantageous excellence.” What is advantageous excellence? Advantageous excellence means achieving...