Customer Curiosity: When Your Customer Has to Make the Case

I’ve been thinking about a type of buying decision that doesn’t get talked about enough in marketing.

Not the “I’m browsing online and I’ll buy it if I like it” kind.

The other kind.

The kind where your customer has to take what they’ve found, walk it into a room (sometimes literally), and sell the decision internally.

I see this a lot with my clients. An example is a premium e-commerce business I work with. My main point of contact is their marketing manager. She’s the one who found me, and she’s also the one who had to convince the company’s owners that bringing me in was the right move.

That’s the bit I find fascinating.

Because she wasn’t just choosing a supplier. She was choosing a decision she could stand behind - and explain - to the people who ultimately sign things off.

Recently, I’ve been reading Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), and it’s got me thinking about how often buying decisions at work aren’t private decisions at all. They’re decisions you have to present to other people, in a way that lands.

And if Goffman was sitting in the room while my contact was pitching the idea internally, I don’t think he’d start with the PPC details. I think he’d start with the situation.

Who’s in the room? What’s the vibe? What’s at stake? What does this person need to protect or maintain in that moment?

Because there’s a difference between making a decision quietly at your laptop… and presenting that decision out loud to someone who might challenge it.

That’s where I think a lot of marketing decisions actually live.

There’s the private side:

• “Does this make sense?”
• “Do I trust this?”
• “Is this good value?”
• “Will this work?”

And then there’s the public side:

• “Can I justify this?”
• “Can I explain it without sounding like I’ve been sold to?”
• “What if it doesn’t work?”
• “Will this make me look naïve… or competent?”

Even if nobody says those things directly, they can still sit under the surface.

And it makes me wonder how often our marketing only speaks to the private decision - the rational bits - and forgets the public reality: this person may need to repeat your message internally, in their own words, to someone else.

So yes, the features matter. The benefits matter. The numbers matter.

But I’m curious about the other layer: the role your customer is in, and what they need in order to do that role well.

If you’re the marketing manager in that situation, you might be doing a few jobs at once:

• finding a solution
• reducing risk
• protecting budget
• protecting credibility
• building a simple story the owners will accept
• staying calm while someone else is sceptical

And suddenly, the buying decision isn’t just “what am I buying?” It’s also “what am I going to have to say about this afterwards?”

Which leads me to a handful of questions I’m genuinely sat with:

• When your customer is reading your website or your ads, who else is “in the room” with them (even if they’re physically alone)?
• What does your buyer need to be able to say internally for this to get approved?
• What would make them feel confident presenting the decision to someone sceptical?
• What’s the risk they’re trying to avoid - wasting money, losing credibility, being judged, looking naïve?
• Are they buying your service… or buying a decision they can stand behind?
• What would make this choice feel “safe” in their world?
• What proof counts most in that room - numbers, examples, process, reputation, clarity?
• How often do we assume the buyer is the only audience… when they’re actually a messenger?

I don’t have a tidy conclusion to wrap this up (yet). I’m mostly just noticing how much of buying at work is wrapped up in roles, credibility, and what you can confidently say out loud.

And I’m curious what happens when we start writing marketing messages with that in mind - not just “will this convert?” but “will this help someone sell the decision internally?”

If you’ve ever had to make a case for a marketing decision - or you’ve watched someone else have to do it - I’d genuinely love to hear what you noticed. What made it easier? What made it harder?

Reading note: This post was sparked by Erving Goffman’s ideas on everyday social interaction in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959). I’m not applying it academically here - just borrowing the lens to think out loud about modern marketing situations.