Information without context is useless

I made an investment in 2014 to sponsor an industry event where I had the opportunity to speak to several hundred small business owners.

So last week, I received a question from a business owner who was considering sponsoring this year’s event. This person had several questions about whether I realized a strong ROI from the investment of time and money.

Maybe my reply was a bit snarky. I was irritated by the request to respond to a “quick, semi-urgent” question.

Here’s what I wrote:

“I did speak at the event, yet I am not going to answer your questions.

It would be a gross disservice to you to try to respond without understanding your bigger context.

Here’s why:

Whether or not it was a good ROI for me in terms of time and money is a completely different question as to whether it will be a good ROI for you, which I think is what you are really trying to determine. The answer to that question — your potential ROI — depends on the alignment of many factors including your overall goals, target audience, strategy, stage of your business, the specific marketing and sales approach you are pursuing, and how you will be positioned at the event.

Without the opportunity to understand those issues, I cannot really help you effectively.”

Let’s take it a bit deeper:

What if I said my ROI from the event was huge? What would you conclude about that as it pertains to YOU?

What if I said my ROI was negative? What would you conclude about that as it pertains to YOU?

The ROI for my business would depend on my context and how I’m evaluating the investment — which is very different from the criteria you might use.

Get the point?

Context creates the framework by which to evaluate what information actually means.

Context is so critical, which is the main reason why I stopped doing short sessions. My client work sessions now range from several hours to several days, depending on the nature of the opportunity.

Quick advice is not only useless, it is destructive if it lacks context.

Get out of the office and spend some focused energy creating context.

Then you will be clear on what to do.

P.S. The individual actually thanked me for the reply and said “it was really quite helpful.”
You’re welcome!