My Work:
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Candid Thought:
"The thing I have noticed is when the anecdotes and the data disagree, the anecdotes are usually right. There's something wrong with the way you are measuring it."
-Jeff Bezos
When I hear that a sales decision, idea, or method is “based on data” my mind wants to equate it with the same validity as scientific studies. [1]
But that isn’t true.
CRM data isn’t always perfectly clean.
Sales Managers aren’t academic researchers using perfect methodologies.
Hypergrowth SaaS companies aren’t easy places to do controlled studies.
And even small errors in data cleanliness or methodology can give a completely false impression.
Interpreting anything “based on data” as absolute truth puts you at a high risk of having a high degree of confidence in a lot of bad ideas. [2]
When you hear “based on data” it might be better to translate it to “based on non-scientific research” in your head.
Non-scientific research can still be helpful. But don’t ignore your instincts when something “based on data” seems off.
You instincts might be better.
[1] Actually, even scientific studies often don’t even get it right. Look into the replication crisis if you haven’t heard of it 😳
[2] You probably encounter bad ideas that are “based on data” a lot because they are much more likely to be shared. This is even true in academia. An interesting part of the replication crisis is that non-replicable research is shared more than ones that replicate. Actually 153 times more often according to this analysis.