A sentence heard often in marketing meetings: "I don't like this colour," or "I don't like this style."
The question that should follow: are you the customer? Because in most cases the owner is not the person buying the product, and is not the same age, does not share the same interests, and does not spend time in the same places.
Why is your opinion biased?
Not because you are wrong, but because you sit in a completely different position from the customer:
- You see the product from the inside. You know its details, its history and its effort; the customer sees only the surface.
- You have seen the design twenty times. So it feels stale to you while it is still new to everyone else.
- You are not in the buying moment. You are assessing while focused; the customer sees it while busy with a thousand other things.
- Your taste formed in a different context. Your experience, age and circle make your preferences unrepresentative of the market.
The alternative is not to abandon the decision
None of this means the owner should have no opinion. Your opinion matters enormously in the things you know best: the values you will not compromise, the promises you can keep, and the reputation you are building.
But there are things where the decision is not taste, it is a test: which message brings more enquiries? Which image stops people? Which price sells more? Those answers are not found by discussion.
Turn opinion into a question
When an opinion arrives in a meeting, convert it into a testable question. Instead of "this ad isn't good," ask: "what do we expect from it? And if it runs for a week, what number tells us it is working?"
That question shifts the discussion from taste to decision. And it turns every opinion in the room into a hypothesis to test, instead of the loudest voice winning.
Testing is cheaper than arguing
In most cases, the cost of trying two options is lower than the cost of two meetings arguing about them.
Try two versions of the same ad on a small budget, or change a page headline for a week, or ask ten customers their view of both. The result settles the discussion in days, and more importantly teaches you something about your customer.
Better sources than your opinion
- Customers' literal words. Messages, calls, complaints. This is the most accurate material available.
- The numbers. What sells, what people ask about, and where they come from.
- Whoever deals with the customer daily. The cashier, the rep, whoever answers messages. They hold information no report contains.
- Small tests. The cheapest way to know instead of assume.
Beware the small sample
Against the error of relying on your own opinion sits a second error: taking three customers' views as absolute truth.
People say things in surveys and do other things in practice. It is more accurate to look at behaviour: who actually bought, who asked and did not continue, and who came back. Behaviour speaks more honestly than opinions.
And when do you rely on instinct?
Instinct is not the enemy. It is very useful for choosing which hypotheses are worth testing, for decisions where no data exists, and in situations that need speed.
The difference is that instinct should start the decision, not end it. Begin with your instinct, test, and adjust to the result. The problem arises when instinct becomes the final judge that nobody may contradict.
How do you test cheaply?
Not every test needs a budget. There are very cheap methods that settle many arguments:
- Ask ten existing customers. A short call each, more accurate than any long survey.
- Change one thing for a week. A headline, an image, or the first line of your reply, and compare.
- Show both to people outside the company. Not your friends — people of your customer's type.
- Watch what actually happens. Which product gets asked about most, which image stops people.
The only condition is changing one thing at a time so you know the cause. Change five things together and the result teaches you nothing.
A repeated customer opinion is not an opinion, it is data
If the same observation comes from five different customers, those are not individual opinions, that is a pattern. And patterns are more valuable than any market research you could buy.
Which is why there should be somewhere customer observations get recorded — even a simple file. What is not written down is lost, and a year later you rediscover the same problem from scratch.
Let your team disagree
If every decision returns to the owner's taste, the team will stop bringing ideas before long. They will not argue with you, they will simply agree — and you will lose your most important source of improvement.
Have a stated rule: every opinion has to become a testable hypothesis, and every test result decides. That rule protects the work from bias and protects the team from frustration.
In short
Your opinion on design, message and price is not a reference, because you are not the customer. Let your opinion start a hypothesis, test it as cheaply as possible, and let numbers and customer language decide.
As for your views on values, promises and reputation — those are your responsibility and nobody will take them from you.
This is part of a series on marketing, sales and customers — which also covers talking honestly with your customer, and what actually brings customers.