Validation and Evidence

Compliments are interest. Commitments are evidence.

Everybody loved it and zero people bought it. Those two facts fit together, and treating them as a contradiction is what sends people back to build more of something that is failing to sell.

Why the answers were still honest

Asking someone what they would do puts them in a social situation, where analysis takes a back seat. The polite answer is the easy answer, and the person giving it means well. They are being kind about a hypothetical that is free for them either way.

Asking what they have already done removes the hypothetical. It is a question about the past, and the past has receipts.

The better question

Stop asking would you buy this.

Ask what they did the last time they had this problem, and what it cost them. Money, hours, a person they hired, a thing they gave up. If the answer is that they let it slide, that is a real answer and it is worth more than enthusiasm.

Why this is well trodden ground

This is the core of how customer interviewing is taught. Past behaviour is data. Future intention is a guess wearing a nice outfit. Knowing that is the easy part. The discipline is in holding the line during a conversation where the other person is being generous and you very much want to believe them.

Source: Approach: the Mom Test, Fitzpatrick, 2013.