Does Cost Predict Performance?

Does Cost Predict Performance?

It’s a scary question. No one wants to invest in something that won’t get the job done. But there’s an even scarier question worth asking:

Does the performance reflect the cost?

There are so many examples out there of expensive things that don’t live up to their performance expectation. This is certainly true when it comes to products, tangible items. The phrase “durable goods” doesn’t mean what it used to. Things can be made more cheaply and they are, to the detriment of durability and very often, performance.

When it comes to products, sometimes you get what you pay for. Sometimes you don’t.

It’s true in the service industry as well. Services may be a bit more difficult to ethically cost slash…but we all know this is a global economy. Money in one country means something else in another. Outsourcing happens. And along the way a reminder has been experienced.

Sometimes you get what you pay for. Sometimes you don’t.

In my career experience I’ve seen some things go on that make me boil. Here are a few:

Expensive websites that are so cluttered and cumbersome to load that traffic clicks away before the page finishes.
Expensive websites that have broken code, no anayltics and no optmization. Which means, all the continued and ongoing resource the site owner pours into the site won’t mean squat.
Cheap writing that was generated by a machine; a paragraphed assembly of irrational keywords that aimlessly stab in the search engine dark.
Cheap writing that was created by someone with poor language proficiency, which saved the owner a few bucks and makes their business look really bad.
Stories from business owners who were sold on services and products that don’t effectively help them achieve their goals and target their unique audience.
Stories from business owners who do things because they are sure they need to…but can’t really explain why. It’s a sure fire red flag of either a random approach or a bad sale.

I believe business owners, no matter the size of their company and the strength of the current economy, care about where they spend their resources. Most of those I’ve worked with value investment over expenditure. With an investment, performance surpasses cost.

With a defined vision, a planned content structure, quality products and services, and ongoing analytics and performance reports, that will happen.