Companies often describe themselves as innovative without checking whether customers use the same language.
Buyers decide for themselves whether a company is innovative, and they gather a lot of outside information first.
Gartner's 2026 survey of 645 B2B buyers found they consulted an average of seven information sources per purchase.
Nearly half, 45%, used generative AI mainly to research vendors and products.
A self-applied label carries little weight against this much independent scrutiny, and closing this gap is Carla Johnson's business.
Johnson is the founder of RE:Think Labs, an advisory firm that helps companies make innovation practical across teams and credible to customers.
“[Innovation] really starts to lose commercial value when the word becomes a commodity,” Johnson says.
And she tests the statement by placing another organization’s logo on it.
If the same customers could believe the same wording, the language has failed to explain why the business deserves consideration.
In Episode 145 of the DesignRush Podcast, Johnson explains how innovation claims are judged by what clients say, how teams operate, and what a trial proves before a contract is signed.
We pulled five moves from the conversation that make an innovation claim customers will actually believe in.
Watch the full episode now on YouTube or listen on Spotify.
Who Is Carla Johnson?
Carla is an innovation architect, author of "RE:Think Innovation," and global keynote speaker.
For more than 20 years, she has advised companies including Amazon, 3M, Intel, Hilton, and Emerson on applying creativity and customer insight to complex business problems.
1. Give Customers a Line They Can Repeat
The decision rarely gets made in the room where the pitch happens.
One person may need to explain the provider to finance, procurement, operations, product, and legal, but the full presentation rarely travels with them.
"Make it so simple and so sticky for our existing customers or our prospects so that they can speak on behalf of us," she shares.
A word such as "innovative" or "customer-first" gives an internal sponsor little material for the next discussion.
That sponsor needs a specific answer to one question. What changes if we choose this provider?
"If your innovation story only sounds true coming from the marketing department or a press release or, you know, a sales campaign, then it's just lip service. And really innovation is an outcome."
The claim, therefore, has to describe real work that a customer can repeat without the deck.
A defined brand position connects the company’s capabilities to the problem that clients need solved.
DesignRush outlines the process in its guide on how to build a brand.
2. Close the Gap Between Reputation and Reality
Johnson saw this gap play out at Emerson, the industrial technology and automation firm that had advanced capabilities and the record to prove them.
Its reputation kept the business associated with a narrower type of work.
"They already were a highly, highly innovative company and they had all the proof and evidence that they needed to show that.
It's just that the market didn't see it," she explains.
The reliability, price, and delivery that Emerson was trusted for won steady work.
But it also sent the bigger future-investment projects to competitors seen as more innovative.
"That gap is really expensive."
It is indeed costly because Emerson only got called in after the strategic work was already handed to a competitor.
"It was really about closing the gap between how we are perceived in the industry and the market, and what we actually do, that the market believes we say we do," Johnson shares.
Technical capability needs a clear place in the customer’s business plans, or it remains difficult to recall when budgets are set.
3. Define Innovation in Eight Words
Closing Emerson’s perception gap began inside the business.
Finance, product, marketing, sales, and operations needed one definition of innovation to guide daily decisions.
"Unless we can have alignment from the top down, what specifically does innovation look like? Then there's always going to be confusion," Johnson points out.
Emerson responded by connecting innovation to specific workplace behaviors and performance criteria.
This move gave employees a practical standard for project decisions and customer work.
And Johnson says they needed one, since the behavior is hard to picture on your own.
Her fix is a definition staff can recall without pulling up a presentation deck.
“I always say make that definition no more than eight words, 10 at the very max, because it has to be something that the regular everyday employee can remember.”
Remember that even eight words mean nothing until a company integrates them into how it runs performance management.
4. Ask If Customers Would Miss You
Johnson saw the same credibility problem hiding inside a healthy-looking dashboard.
A fintech provider reported a 97% customer retention rate and treated it as proof of loyalty and a durable revenue base.
"The ultimate question I ask them is, 'If your company went away today, would you be missed?'"
So she asked the customers directly, and their answer was one that the retention figure never captured.
"Across the board, the response was, hmm, not really much.
And in fact, if there was any competitor who offered what this company does, we'd switch in a heartbeat. It's just that we don't have any choice."
So the 97% actually measured a lack of alternatives, which is the main reason why customers stayed.
Every one of them would leave the moment a real competitor showed up.
"They were gonna fall off their chair, just horrified that this could be right in front of them and they never had any idea."
High retention only signals real customer loyalty once you confirm people are staying by choice.
The factors behind continued loyalty matter as much as the renewal figure itself.
DesignRush examines this connection in its guide on how trusted brands build loyalty.
5. Make the Trial Prove the Business Case
The trust test shows up one more time before anyone signs, during the trial itself.
Procurement teams and trial users need to see whether the promised outcome can occur inside their own operation.
"It really moves the proof, that burden of proof from the pitch, the sales pitch, to the actual experience that customers have," Johnson says.
So a trial needs a defined business question before access begins.
The team has to know the operational problem under review and the evidence the buyer expects to see.
"What specifically does success look like to that buyer? And how do you make sure that what you're demoing will actually deliver it?"
Skip these questions, and a feature tour eats the whole trial while the real problem stays open.
“It has to work in that customer's environment.”
The strongest product demo runs inside the buyer's own operation and proves the one outcome they came to check.
What to Audit in 30 Days
Johnson’s final recommendation takes the work out of the conference room.
The first week should be spent with customers, observing the job the product or service supports, and asking how they define a useful outcome.
This approach requires direct access to the people using the product, not another internal discussion about positioning.
A 30-day review should answer four questions:
- Can customers repeat the innovation position without prompting?
- What would they miss if the provider disappeared?
- Which outcome must a trial establish?
- Which customer records support the current position?
The supporting material may already exist in interviews, support tickets, account reviews, sales calls, and usage records.
"They're really sitting on proof that they've never properly packaged."
The review may confirm the wording, expose an operating problem, or identify an outcome the business has failed to communicate.
The innovation label holds up only when customers can describe the outcome in their own words.
The same claim depends on employees who know the behavior behind it and a trial that proves it in practice.
Thirty days with customers shows whether the position matches their experience and whether the evidence is ready for the next buying committee.
Real brand positioning is something a company earns in the room after it leaves, when customers repeat the claim on their own.
Thirty days can reveal whether the position matches customer experience and whether the evidence is ready for the next buying committee.
Catch the full interview on YouTube or subscribe to the podcast on Spotify.
