Survey - Choose One

Check this one out ... I ran this poll on Twitter last month.

You can only choose one of the following two outcomes for your business.

Outcome #1:  A customer purchases, and spends $100, and is not "engaged" with your business.

Outcome #2:  A customer chooses to not purchase, but is highly "engaged" with your business.

How would you vote?

I received twenty-one responses.

• 10 responses (48%) voted for Outcome #1.
• 11 responses (52%) voted for Outcome #2.

Here's the interesting thing about the poll:

• Those who wanted an unengaged customer spending $100 cash today thought that the other audience were complete idiots.
• Those who wanted an engaged customer who didn't buy anything thought that the other audience were ... wait for it ... wait for it ... COMPLETE IDIOTS!

The individuals who chose Outcome #1:

• Executives.
• Individuals With 20+ Years of Business Experience.
• Established Companies.

The individuals who chose Outcome #2:

• Professionals < Age 30.
• Startups and Companies < $10,000,000 in Annual Sales.

One Executive said:

• "You don't pay the bills with engagement."

And another (much younger) individual said to me:

• "Kevin, I hope you chose Outcome #2, because your entire business model is based on thousands of highly engaged individuals who never purchase from your business."

Another young professional said ...

• "Everybody knows you build your brand on Instagram. That whole channel is nothing but engagement. So it's obvious. The answer is engagement."

The three responses are the key that unlocks the question.

The type of business you operate determines the Outcome you wish to obtain.

A $100,000,000 catalog brand catering to a 65 year old customer in Maine makes no money on engagement. None.

An $8,000,000 online startup catering to a 34 year old woman in Santa Clara? The story might be different.

Agree? Disagree? Send me a message and say why you feel the way you feel (kevinh@minethatdata.com).

P.S.: I asked Twitter followers to "prove" that engagement is better. That didn't go over well. We have all the metrics and numbers and data points we could ever want, and we know less than we knew when we were blind.