What people say vs what people actually do
Last updated: October 2025
Survey 200 people. 80% say they'd "definitely buy" at $49/month. Expected: 160 customers. Launch reality: 6 actually paid. That's $294 in revenue, not the $95,000 you projected.
People aren't lying—they're just bad at predicting their own future behavior. Research shows survey respondents overstate purchase intent by 30-40% because hypothetical scenarios don't trigger the same decision-making as real purchases.
| SurveyMonkey | BuyerIQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Cost | $25-$75/month | $39/month |
| Respondent Cost | $1-$10 per response ($100-$1K total) | $0 (no respondents needed) |
| Timeline | 1-4 weeks per survey | 30 seconds |
| Sample Size | 50-200 (limited by budget) | 100+ segments |
| Iteration Speed | 1-2 weeks per variation | 30 seconds (5/day) |
| Accuracy | 30-40% overstatement bias | 90% correlation (validated) |
SurveyMonkey is great for surveying existing customers. But for validating new products, surveys are systematically unreliable. The stated preference problem isn't a bug—it's fundamental to how humans answer hypothetical questions. BuyerIQ predicts revealed preferences based on 9,300 real purchase decisions.
Validate with Revealed Preferences →