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. 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?

Let’s begin by framing the fire protection industry. The U.S. Fire Protection System Market 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.

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 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.

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 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. 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

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 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.

One of the things I know you invested heavily in was sales training and playbooks. 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. 

In industries like yours, there is ever-present risk of 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 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.

Shawn, let’s talk about one of my favorite topics, performance management 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.

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 about how to move beyond commoditization and operationalize sustainable growth.

(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.