Quality or Quantity: Why You Need Both?

Not a debate, but a decision

The topic, quality or quantity, is not strange to anyone. It has been one of the greatest debates in certain areas. And we often heard that people prefer to stick with quality rather than quantity.

The reason for that is obvious.

It is always better to sharpen the saw rather than having many saws that don’t do the work.

That is true for any products or services. In business, the better the products or services, the better the customer satisfaction. And so the customers are more willing to be loyal to your brand.

However, quality and quantity is not a debate, but a decision.

Depends on the situation, sometimes one is better than the other. Ideally, both of them should coexist.

First, let’s define quality and quantity.

Quality refers to the features or characteristics of a matter, while quantity indicates the matter as a numerical value. It is clearly shown that quality and quantity are referring to different areas of an matter.

Therefore, it is not logical to compare them and say one is better than the other. This is like comparing a sports car to an off-road truck. A sports car excels at the speed, while an off-road truck excels at the driving capability on different terrain.

In terms of quantity, we often focus on the drawbacks but forget about its benefits. This is the result of cognitive bias.

However, the fact is that every matter contain two sides. And there are no good or bad for a matter. Whether the matter is good or not, it is actually based on your priority under certain conditions.

In other words, your priority directs your decision.

In order to have a clearer idea, let’s have a quick look at some notes on quality and quantity in business. Is it possible to tell which option is better?

Focus on Quality

Better customer experience
Better loyalty
Difficult to understand the market expectation
Difficult to develop

Focus on Quantity

Better outreach
Better awareness
Fewer resources required
Easy to be replaced

As you can see, there are both pros and cons in each option. It is hard to tell which option is better or not.

If you want to produce a distinctive product and give an edge to your competitors, then you should focus on quality.

On the contrary, if you have limited capital, then you should focus on quantity.

Therefore, your priority is the key to make your decision.

Why do we have priorities? The fact is that we only have limited time. Time is the most valuable resource where we could not acquire. We do not have sufficient time to complete everything that we want to achieve. So, it is difficult to focus on both quality and quantity at the same time.

Time is the constraint to our priorities, and priorities affect our decisions

However, if we could identify the timeline, evaluate the situation, find out our priorities. Accordingly, we could decide whether to focus on quality or quantity.

Let’s say we are going to develop a brand new product. During the initial stage, it is better to focus on quantity and gain more awareness in the market.

When there are more awareness in the market, there are higher chance that the customers will interest in our product.

Then we could have a better understanding on the market requirement.

Based on the requirement, our strategy should switch to focus on quality. The features of the product should satisfy our customer expectations. So, they will stay loyal to our brand and become our long term customers. Ideally, focusing on both quality and quantity would lead you to an even better business.

In every aspect of life, we need both quality and quantity. Although it is difficult to stay focus on both at the same time, depends on the situation, we could stay flexible.

If you just start going to the gym, it is better to focus on the number of times that you have gone to the gym and turn it into a habit.

If you are a competitive swimmer, it is better to focus on improving your posture and building a better practice routine.

Quality and quantity is not a debate, but a decision.