Why paying customers are the only people worth talking to
There’s a good reason savvy investors want to know if you have paying customers. They want to know if real money has changed hands.
When I read reviews of restaurants and hotels, I give little credence to the review if the writer has not paid out of their own pocket. Sure I can enjoy the writing and the pictures but if no money changed hands, their opinion about its value for money is totally meaningless. The review is not a true reflection of the commercial exchange that took place.
As a researcher, I do the same. Anyone’s opinion about a product or service, anyone making comments or endorsements about how great it is – management, product champions, investors, focus groups, quant research, market experts and commentators – get largely discounted (but not ignored) from our sampling. What we look for is real customers who invested time and money into the process of evaluating and buying one product or service at the expense of another. That’s the only truth worth understanding – everything else is subjective noise.
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