Feelings Are Real, but They Aren't Reality

Feelings are real, but they aren't reality. This comes up constantly in B2B marketing, partly because we usually can't do much external testing. So people's feelings and opinions get treated as truth, and in the absence of testing it often comes down to how much power or how elevated someone's title is.

Keep in mind that their feelings aren't reality. Your feelings aren't reality either. There's usually some way to test, some metric or heuristic you can get your arms around. If testing means going live with your best shot, then do that, and remember your job: make sure people feel understood, because they have to feel understood before they try to understand you. By people I mean prospects, but it applies to the people inside your company too.

The head of finance can think your campaign is garbage. The head of finance isn't on the hook if it fails, and if it works, they won't remember they were against it. Revenue will just be a big deal for them.

Ultimately, if you're in marketing or sales, revenue is what validates your decisions. You either have a feel for your market or you don't. Either way, write this down somewhere: feelings are real, but they aren't reality.