Sarah’s $2,000 Haircut: Why “When” Beats “Why” in Marketing Every Time

Summary

Podcast Summary: Brain Driven Brands

Episode: Sarah’s $2,000 Haircut: Why “When” Beats “Why” in Marketing Every Time

Host: Sarah Levinger (with Nate)
Date: October 21, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Sarah Levinger unpacks a personal story—her ill-fated $2,000 hair extension journey—to illustrate a powerful marketing insight: understanding the “when” in a customer’s buying journey is more crucial than obsessing over their “why.” Drawing on real-life experience and neuromarketing lessons from top brands, Sarah and co-host Nate explore the micro-decisions, emotional triggers, and missteps brands make that cause consumers to bail out before ever purchasing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Anecdote: Bad Haircut → Extension Quest

• Sarah’s Trigger Event: Sarah’s short haircut left her feeling disconnected from her personal identity, spurring a weeks-long quest for hair extensions—a journey illustrative of a broader consumer decision-making process.

  • “The haircut doesn't look great on me...I cut my hair shorter than I wanted because at that point in the month, I was real stressed out…I went down this interesting journey that shows exactly why ‘when’ in a customer journey is more important than ‘why.’” (02:20–03:27, Sarah)

• Self-perception & Brand Identity: Sarah reflects on how hair serves as a key identity marker, especially for women, similar to the way watches may be for men.

  • “Watches are to men as hair is to women. It’s the same. Same thing.” (05:28, Sarah)

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2. The Many Micro-Decisions Before a Purchase

• Progressive Decision-Making: Sarah dissects the series of micro-decisions leading to her (potential) purchase:

  • Am I the type of person who would use this?
  • Is this problem big enough to warrant the cost?
  • What is a reasonable budget for this solution?
  • Can I justify the purchase to others and myself?

• Critical Marketing Lesson:
  Sarah points out that brands often hyper-focus on conversion metrics without recognizing that customers are making “when” decisions (timing, readiness, triggers) at every step, not just “why” decisions (motivation).

  • “The only reason I'm relaying this story is I want everybody listening to realize how many ‘whens’ have to line up in the exact right order for your customers to go from ’I don't even know anything about this’ to purchase.” (09:27–09:43, Sarah)

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3. Failures in the Customer Journey

• Anchoring & Informational Gaps: Sarah sets a mental budget based on a friend’s advice ($300), only to discover the service costs $2,000—leading to immediate disqualification.

  • “She tells me because of the thickness of my hair, she has to get two packs of whatever the hair is. It’s gonna cost me close to $2,000... I was like, I gotta go. My phone’s... we're out.” (16:02–16:48, Sarah)

• Jargon and Consumer Confusion: The stylist uses industry jargon ("packs") that Sarah is unfamiliar with, highlighting the gap between consumer research and actual sales conversations.

  • “So she says packs. I’m like, okay, what’s a fricket pack? What’s a pack?...Your customers also have informational gaps in their journeys that it’s your responsibility to make sure they have that information before you start just jargoning the shit out of them.” (14:14–15:09, Sarah)

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4. The Fragility of “Why”—and the Power of “When”

• Instantaneous Mindset Flip: The excessive price and cold sales approach instantly flipped Sarah’s mindset from “I deserve this for my self-esteem” to “it’ll grow, it’s fine.”
  • “She made me flip to absolutely not within two seconds.” (15:39, Sarah)
  • “The ‘why’ changed very quickly...the why is such a fragile thing in marketing...it didn’t freaking matter because the ‘whens’ lined up just in the wrong order.” (17:10, Sarah)

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5. Missed Marketing Opportunities

• No Relevant Ads Despite Clear Signals: Despite weeks of clear behavioral cues (searches, content consumption), Sarah saw zero targeted ads for extensions on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook.

  • “Why was I not served an ad at any point in this journey? It's crazy...I'm a little disappointed.” (18:55–22:45, Sarah)

• Lack of Downsell or Alternative Offers: The stylist did not attempt a downsell or offer transitional products (e.g., supplements for hair growth, clip-ins). This all-or-nothing approach mirrors common e-commerce (DTC) mistakes.

  • “The price is always 67.99...it's that or nothing. And I'm just like, I don't think that's a good way to sell.” (19:36–19:48, Sarah)

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6. Practical Takeaways for Brands

• Serve Content According to Trigger Moments:
  Brands should deploy messaging that intercepts specific emotional triggers and journey stages (e.g., “Hate your haircut? Fix it this weekend!”).

  • “First thing they should have done is serve me an ad that said, ‘Do you hate your haircut? You can fix it this weekend.’” (25:12, Sarah)

• Sequence Education & Expectation Setting:

  • Week 1: Confirm identity and emotional resonance with the customer (“You deserve hair that makes you feel like you again”).
  • Week 2–3: Educate on industry price ranges and help potential buyers anchor to realistic budgets.

• Control What You Can—The “When”

  • “You can't control why people want something...You can control when they feel safe. You get to control when and how they feel safe. You can control how informed they are. And when that information comes into the cycle.” (27:58–28:53, Sarah)

• Full-Funnel Advertising Is Essential:

  • “I tell people all the time, you gotta run full funnel ads. You have to run trigger, exploration, evaluation, and purchase ads all at the same time. They're not all going to be making you money hand over fist...but there's a reason for each one of those to be in place.” (28:05–28:53, Sarah)

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Memorable Quotes

• On Emotional Timing:
  “The why is such a fragile thing in marketing...it didn't freaking matter because the whens lined up just in the wrong order.” (17:10, Sarah)

• On Consumer Research:
  “All the micro decisions someone has to make before they get to the purchasing decision...am I the type of person that would use or interact with or wear this product?” (07:29–07:46, Nate, summarized)

• On Losing a Sale:
  “It just took this one bad salesman or whatever, hairdresser girl to completely turn you off for this. And I would bet you will never get extensions for the rest of your life.” (26:46, Nate)

• On Marketing Messaging Gaps:
  “Because people are having like identity crisis on the other end of this email. And your email is like, ‘Hey, welcome to the club. Here's 10 off. We started this brand in 2012. We hope you like it.’” (23:02–23:46, Nate)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:20–02:18 — Host Update & Job Announcement
• 02:20–06:41 — Sarah’s Haircut Story: Emotional Triggers and Decision to Seek Extensions
• 06:41–11:12 — Exploration and Research: Budgeting, Consumer Biases, and Industry Discovery
• 11:12–16:49 — Salon Visit: The Sales Process Breakdown and Immediate Disqualification
• 17:09–21:01 — Psychological Shift: Logic Flip and the Fragility of Motivation
• 21:01–24:13 — Marketing Misses & Lack of Behavioral Ad Targeting
• 24:13–29:23 — Solution Sequence: Improving the Customer Journey, Education, and Safe Timings
• 29:23–30:21 — Key Lessons Recap & Final Thoughts

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Actionable Lessons for Marketers

• Target the timing of customer decisions, not just their motivation (“why”).
• Understand and map out all micro-decisions your customer makes—don’t expect a linear or logical path.
• Sequence messaging and content according to the emotional and informational needs arising at each “when.”
• Don’t disqualify buyers with rigid all-or-nothing offers or industry jargon; provide ramps, alternatives, and education.
• Always run full-funnel ads, not just bottom-of-funnel conversion pushes—someone is always at a different “when.”
• Be hyper-aware: the wrong message or a single bad interaction can lose a customer forever.

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This episode is a must-listen for marketers looking to shift from “why aren’t they buying?” to “when do they bail—and how do I stop it?”

Transcript

[A]

Welcome back to Brain Driven Brands, hosted by Sara and Nate, Sponsored by Other side. If you guys haven't checked that other side, go check out the other side.

[B]

Yes, the other side. I've been checking in with him to see, like, is any of our listeners going over there? And he said he's got a few people that chatted with him. So I was like, oh, good.

[A]

By the way, when does this episode come out? Can I go Job announcement real quick?

[B]

I think you should. This one comes out next week, so this will be next Tuesday. Is that good? Oh, okay. Everybody who's been waiting. For those of you who, like, actually listen to our show, Nate has been not telling anybody about this job that he just got. And it's been hard for me because I'm like, I want you to test this in your new job. So go ahead. Big celebration.

[A]

Yeah. So for the record, I got intro to this job six minutes after I sent out the tweet that I quit.

[B]

As you should. That's amazing.

[A]

And then I found out that the founder of this company actually asked a peer in the industry about me specifically, like, a couple months before I quit. Without me knowing about it.

[B]

Oh, dang. You got vetted.

[A]

So, yeah, a lot of things were in the works that me even knowing about it. So love that. But certain on Monday, I'm going to be the CMO of Adapt Naturals.

[B]

Yay.

[A]

Supplement brand. It's be to going the killer product. Has a solid marketing team already, and I'm excited to get in there and and help them continue to grow.

[B]

I've been holding this in for so long. I'm stoked on this. Not just because I think you're going to be so perfect for this role, but also because this is like brand new territory.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

For you and I to do all kinds of weird tests in supplements. Supplements. Not easy. Like, it's a very interesting industry and there's a lot of people in it. I don't know that I would stick you this particular brand in supplements, per se, because you guys solve a lot more than that. You got a lot of really interesting products that I've already gone down the rabbit hole a little bit.

[A]

So we already hired Sarah and I think she's already done some work for us before I started. Right. Yeah.

[B]

Which, oh, we've got so much to talk about. So I'm so excited that you've made this announcement because now we could finally be like, all right, how are we going to apply this to Adapt? Because great team, really good brand, solid founder. Like, oh, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. All right, you ready to dive into today's topic?

[A]

Anyways, that's not the topic of today's episode.

[B]

What say, okay, so I got a bad haircut. And I wouldn't say she did a bad job. It just, like, the haircut doesn't look great on me. And I understand you're seeing my YouTube. You're like, Sarah, there's nothing wrong with your hair. Calm down. It doesn't look like me. And I think you cut your hair off. What was that a couple weeks ago? It. I, like, you chopped off your whole mullet, and both of us were sitting here being like, I hate my hair.

[A]

Yeah. Did I tell you, like, I went to someone else to get it fixed?

[B]

You did. I'm doing that today, and I'm still.

[A]

Like, not pumped with it. For the record.

[B]

See, that's. Oh, haircuts are a real deal. And this is the interesting part about the brain. We're not going to go too deep down this red hole, but the way you see yourself in the mirror is really interesting because it's not the way most humans see you. Right. So you reflected back to yourself. You not at all how people see your face. But I cut my hair shorter than I wanted because at that point in the month, I was real stressed out and I was like, oh, just get. I'm trying to release all this pressure. So cut it off. Way too freaking short. So in. In an attempt to try and go solve this problem, I went down this interesting journey that shows exactly why when in a customer journey is more important than why. So I was like, we need to talk about this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because this is. I want to do another when episode. So anybody who's been waiting for another one episode, here we go, down the rabbit hole. Sarah's when. So when I cut my hair, I had this big issue because I was like, this doesn't feel like me. It doesn't look like Sarah. I feel like my hair is kind of a part of my personal brand because it used to be, like, down in my freaking back, and now it's like, basically shoulder length. So I decided to go look into extinct extensions.

[A]

Here we go.

[B]

Don't let me. Okay, this is. This is a very interesting story. It turned into kind of this weird four week kind of behavioral case study on basically every when that went wrong in this situation. So first thing I did was I went and looked online to try and figure out should. Should I even get what is an extension Never in my life have I ever thought I would go get extensions. Because in my brain I'm like, if you wear extensions, you're not the same type of girl as me.

[A]

Yeah, you're fake.

[B]

Yeah. Which is horrible to think. Those women are not fake. They are lovely people. I have been down this rabbit hole now and I have Sarah says, you guys shallow. I 100 do not. Women are shallow. There is some really interesting. And we're gonna have to talk a lot about this industry because the hair industry is bonkers. So these women, right. I have this preconceived bias that like, if you put hair on your head that's not your own hair, I feel weird about that. And maybe that's like a little shout. But now I'm in this situation where I'm being presented with a version of myself that I don't necessarily like. And so I'm running down this rabbit hole of should I become this type of person to solve the issue of basically low self esteem. That's what we're trying to solve. Interesting. When. So that's the first one that we kind of run into is like trigger event, basically.

[A]

Quick little side note here. Is hair is a. Is hair for women, like what watches are to guys?

[B]

I think it is, yes. Okay, so this is the reason why I'm like, change your minds, marketers. If you have a stereotype or a bias in your head that you think this person is this way because of xyz, it's almost always wrong. Watches are two men as hair is to women. It's the same. Same thing. And I'm like, okay, so that was trigger. Then probably about like two weeks into this, I kind of like got this like little thought in my head as I was like scrolling through all these tiktoks and like watching all these installs of all these different like, extensions of things, trying to figure out which one I wanted to go look into. Teeny tiny thought of. I'm a freaking adult. It was one thought that happened about two weeks in. Because up until now I've had this like, hairstyle many times. Like, I've chopped my hair to this length a couple times. And every time I'm like, eh, I don't love it, but I'll grow it out. I don't ask me why. I've gotten this one multiple times and hated it. Multiple times. Whatever. So here we go. I have this little thought in my head that goes, okay, I am an adult and I can solve this with extensions. I don't have to just Deal with it. So now I'm gonna go down.

[A]

You're like, I've got some money. We can. No, but like, I have to realize that for myself sometimes. Like, wait a second, I can fix this.

[B]

Like, yes, I can fix it. I can fix this for myself. So I was like, okay, I have the cash. I'm looking up the price ranges, and they're ranging wildly so on tick tock. Because I'm trying to figure out which one of these I want to get. It ranges anywhere from 200 to 2,000. Whoa. I'm not kidding, people.

[A]

They really are watches, huh?

[B]

This is what I'm saying. You have no idea what is regular in the industry, what's normalized. Right now I have a budget in my head of, like, what I want to spend on these extensions, but I haven't really come to terms with am I going to actually spend that kind of cash. So this is two weeks in we. Now this is really interesting too, because you notice the first week I hadn't really done any research. It was literally just, is this something that is a part of me? Do I want to become this person? Is literally the first thought that I had. That was the first kind of when this is.

[A]

So this goes. I don't know if you listen to the podcast I put out yesterday, but I talked about how, like, all the micro decisions that someone has to make before they get to the purchasing decision. Oh, my God. And one of the examples I gave was like, am I the type of person that would use or interact with or wear this product?

[B]

I love this person. I'm like, oh. Which is so interesting because for this particular journey, I 100% did not align with this type of person at all. Because I had this preconceived notion that this, this woman is this person. I do not believe that anymore. Ladies. You freaking put it on your head. Whatever you want on your head, you put it on there. Because as long as it aligns with, like, what you're trying to get in life, I don't even care anyways. Trigger event secondary when research phase. So now we're in expiration. If you've heard Sarah talk about, like, teep and how those particular customer journeys work, trigger event always follows by. It is always followed by geez, exploration event. So I'm exploring TikTok, trying to figure out what I want. We're now into, like, research phase. So I'm tr. I'm down already. Within a span of three weeks, I went from never get extensions on my head all the way to Evaluation phase where I'm trying to figure out which extension, how much do I want to spend? Where am I going to go to get this? So I already saw these extensions range from this like 200 to 2000. But I was like, there's no way. There's no way people are paying $2,000 to get hair. Like you'd be surprised on their head. So my brain anchors to my budget, which is hilarious because this is another when that was critical. We've got two wins that happen now. Third one that happened was I talked to Casey about it and consumer Casey was like, ain't no way in hell you should spend anything over like $300 maybe.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

For this experience. So I anchored my brain, said $300. Okay, that's my budget. Like I've only. I think the most expensive haircut I ever got was like 180 bucks, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And because women's haircuts are just stupidly.

[A]

Expensive, I was about to complain about the cost of my two haircuts at the top of this episode. I won't now.

[B]

Okay. The only reason I'm relaying this story is I want everybody listening to realize how many wins have to line up in the exact right order for your customers to go from. I don't even know anything about this to purchase, by the way. So many of them.

[A]

Let me bring this back to like the marketer at the extensions company brand right now. They're looking at like their last seven day return on ad spend. Like, why aren't more people buying? This is what's going on in your customers heads all the time.

[B]

Oh my God. Especially for brand new customers. Net new. If you're complaining about meta not being able to find top of funnel customers.

[A]

This is why if you are not messaging to this throughout your ads and your welcome flows, then you are missing all of the decisions required to buy from you.

[B]

All of it. And okay, and we'll talk about this a little at the end because I, I'm going to show you a when sequence. Had they had some of these experiences been flipped around 100, I would have converted hundred percent. Okay, so we're down to like evaluative phase, right? We've had the, the triggering event, bad haircut. We had the kind of exploration phase which had more to do with like, all right, am I this type of person? Am I gonna be this type of person? Yes, I have committed to being this type of person. Look at how much confirmation biases in here. It's ridiculous. Third one is now, all right, I'm researching. I see the price ranges are between 200 and 2000. Where is my budget? Okay, 300. That's cat. I'm not going to which anybody who has extensions that is listening to this. You're probably laughing at me right now. I am very naive. No idea that this was even going to happen. Okay. So now we've gotten to like week four. It's a very short process. I'm finally to kind of confrontation moment. Are you going to do this or not? Right. I've chosen the type of extension that I think is going to work for my hair type. Granted I have.

[A]

How long is your hair grown during this process? Are we good?

[B]

Literally like, like a good. Because my hair grows incredibly fast. I don't know. Again, Sarah's got low self esteem issues just like everybody else. Don't, don't let anybody tell you that they're overly confident. Okay. Nobody's full confident in every area of their life. There's always somewhere that's like they're a little bit wishy washy about it. Okay, so we are now into. I'm going to go commit to this and see if I can get this done. So I book an appointment with an extensions expert and I like ready to go. Right. I even blocked off the calendar at work. I was like this is a deep enough issue for Sarah that I'm going to go actually like prep time and energy towards this and see if I can get this done. Walk into the salon. Very cute, very blonde, very young. She's probably 21. 22 year old is my like extensions expert. And it just again says I'm trying so hard to just like be open minded about this experience. Let's pause for just a minute.

[A]

Prospecting on Meta in 2025 has been a huge pain. Reaching net new people is getting harder and harder and harder and the only thing Meta seems to care about is rolling out more AI slot features that take away a lot of our controls as advertisers. So brands have been looking for another side and they're turning to otherside. Other side is an agency that figured out how to turn programmatic advertising into performance marketing channel. They're able to advertise outside the meta ecosystem, show clear and accurate attribution and they have the ability to prospect and retarget across platforms so you're able to unlock huge new audiences that aren't like us. They're not chronically on Meta and Instagram. For brain driven brands listeners, they're running a crazy offer right now. They'll run your Ads for free for two months to prove to you it works. Then you can either part ways or continue at their normal affordable retainer. But they're making this risk free and it's a no brainer for you to try. So go to join the other side.com and let them know we sent you.

[B]

And now back to the show. If you guys didn't read my newsletter this week, read it because her, her response to me was part of the reason why I didn't convert. Because her face told me.

[A]

That's so funny.

[B]

And this happens in every single industry and it also comes out in your ads. I'm not just talking about salespeople. That's an important part of the process. Yeah, but your facial expression comes out in your copy people. So we'll, we'll talk about that. Anyways, she sets me down. She has this look that's like, okay. Then I tell her I'm a frickin extension newbie. I just got a haircut. I don't love it. Like it doesn't feel like me. I'm trying to X, Y, Z. She walks me through the process. She's already disqualifying me in her sales process. She didn't take me to a chair, she didn't sit me down. She's not touching my hair. She's not like encouraging at all. She was literally just like, well you have a lot of hair was the first thing she said in that tone.

[A]

I know exactly who this girl is, by the way, based on her description and the first impression of her.

[B]

Just like, is her name Ashley? I don't know. I didn't ask. I was just like, please be kind to me, all right? I'm a mom of 37 trying to keep my mojo. Stop. Just don't judge me. So she was like, you have a lot of hair and it's probably going to take two, at least two packs of hair. Not, I'm thinking packs. Packs. Okay, Reference all the research you did for the last four weeks. What's a pack? I didn't hear that anywhere in my research. So again, everybody listen. Your customers also have informational gaps in their journeys that it's your responsibility to make sure they have that information before you start just jargoning the shit out of them. So she says packs. I'm like, okay, what's a fricket pack? What's a pack? And she goes, just so you know, my install fee is $800. 800. And I was like. And I'm sure she saw it on my face because I can't keep anything on my face.

[A]

I was like, she thinks you're porn out too. So funny.

[B]

Like, I know we started this conversation of like, oh, my God, Sarah's gonna talk about her hair extensions. But I'm showing you all of the places where I had a preconceived idea of what was gonna happen and then this happened and it was automatically disqualification. Like, yeah. Immediately went from, I'm going to treat myself. I'm going to, you know, this is for my self esteem. I'm logicing myself into this purchase. I want to purchase extensions. She made me flip to absolutely not within two seconds.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

And this is not just her. I see this with E Commerce brands every single day where you send somebody from an ad that talks about like, are you going to be this type of person? You're doing a great job in trigger and exploration and you get to evaluation and purchase and you go straight in with like, you got to be able to be this. You have to do this. You're going to have to have this, this, this. You're disqualifying people who want to purchase from you because your purchase conversation requires them to have a very specific set of parameters, which is the reason why people aren't saying, I'm. I can't even like, oh, I'm okay to fit into. Sorry. So we get through this and she tells me because of the thickness of my hair, she has to get two packs of whatever the hair is. It's gonna cost me close to $2,000 to get extensions in my hair and that. I, I was like, I gotta go. My phone's. I, my. Someone's calling me like, we're out, we're out. And maybe it's just because I'm 37, I got kids and I have a mortgage and like, crushing responsibility, But I'm like, $2,000 is as much as the tires on my truck lady.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And those will get me to and from places.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

A lot. You want me. Oh, no. Absolutely not. So after that, my realization flipped. My justification for what I was in there for changed from. I'm. I need to be this person. I want longer hair. I'm doing this for myself. Immediately the logic flipped over to like, it'll grow, it's fine.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'll just deal with it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So the why changed very quickly through this. Like, the why that I had was really interesting because it didn't even matter. The why is such a fragile thing in marketing. It doesn't matter why I went into this process. It was Actually a very deep emotional why? But it didn't freaking matter because the whens lined up just in the wrong order that it. At the end I was like, screw it. Okay. So that's just.

[A]

You go back to rationalizing it the way you did before all this.

[B]

That's. No. So because I went down this rabbit hole. TikTok is really interesting because sometimes when you go like, look at all this stuff. It'll serve you different types of content that are in the same realm. So it started to be serving me to pay content, which I thought was like really fascinating because I'm like, very clearly. I. That's not really what I'm looking for. It's kind of an extensions. But okay. I think men have kind of the same mentality around their hair that women do. But it's not okay for women to solve it. It's okay for men to go solve it, but it's not okay for women to solve it the way that they want to. So a lot of the, the videos that I was being served are women who are like, if you actually look at their hair, they don't have a whole lot left. Like, you can see scalp in lots of different places. I saw women with alopecia getting extensions. I saw women who had pregnancy related patchiness getting extensions. I saw women who are literally just like, I just. It doesn't feel like me to have short hair getting extensions. So did 100, 180. I'm like, I don't judge any of you. Like, you 100% should get extensions if you want them, if you can afford them. By the way, from a sales perspective, she could have done a lot better about softening that $2,000 blow.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If there was a lot more upfront. Because TikTok knows I'm looking for extensions. Why was I not served an ad at any point in this journey? It's crazy about extensions. Yeah. I don't remember seeing any. Otherwise I would have saved it. Trust me.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because I was like studying this heavily. This is the interesting part is because there's a lot of societal things that come into play when it comes to purchasing processes. But for one thing. Yeah. I think a lot of it comes down to, am I this person? And this is why I'm like, now we can kind of break down what should have happened. Because it's. The cost wasn't really what shocked me. It was more the fact that it was $2,000 or nothing.

[A]

Yeah. That's kind of crazy.

[B]

Or nothing. And this is. This happens on every landing Page ever.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

The price is always 67.99. Or it's always 214. Like it, it's that or nothing. And I'm just like, I don't think that's a good way to sell.

[A]

Yeah. The fact that there's no downsell or cross sell even to some, like, hey, like this supplement pack will help your own hair grow faster.

[B]

Thank you. Like, thank you.

[A]

There's so many opportunities to sell to someone with that pain point without making it two grand or nothing.

[B]

Yes. And I mean, we can break these down one by one. Because I actually went through with chat. I was like, all right, chat, give me a when sequence that might have worked for me because I know exactly the pieces that I was holding on to. Cost was a part of it. How fast I could get it was a part of it. And then obviously, like, is this difficult to get? I don't know. Like, I don't know anything about this. Education lack of was an issue. Here's a better way that probably would have worked for me, at least right after I cut this, I started looking at extension, like content. TikTok should have picked that up immediately. Why are you looking for extensions? And it wasn't just TikTok. I looked on Instagram, I looked on Facebook, I looked on Google. I was like, just exploring. Right. That's what I was doing after that trigger event. I should have seen ads immediately that said, do you hate your haircut? You could fix this weekend. And this is for everybody who's listening to this.

[A]

Yes, yes, yes.

[B]

Trigger events are not just about, did you do something drastically big? It could also just be like, do you hate what you just did this week?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Be that small. Right.

[A]

Well, and like, I think capitalizing on that pain early too matters so much.

[B]

Like, early in the process. Yes.

[A]

To. To give the. The quick story of my haircut. I went from like super long mullet to short. Hated it.

[B]

Hey.

[A]

I went to a new barber the next day. She. She fixed it kind of. And like, if I had gone to her originally and this was a haircut I got, I would have been annoyed. But because it was an improvement over like my awful haircut from the day prior.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I, like, way overpaid her. And I'm gonna go back and be like, all right, cool, let's try this again. Like, let's figure it out. But again, like, if that was the first one, I, I would have been pissed about it.

[B]

Yes. Oh, 100%. And that's the interesting part is like, I, I didn't look into any other way to fix it other than extensions because it's the length that bothers me. So I don't care if you're selling shoes or supplements or watches or pet food, parents, like whatever. Whatever your is you're selling. Figure out exactly how many different doors do people come in and then run some ads specifically towards the feeling of that specific experience. Because it really was. I just hated the haircut.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That was more than anything else. It's not the haircut looks bad.

[A]

It's just you. You at some point should have gotten an ad at the very least for like a self help book on like how to feel confident in your own skin no matter what.

[B]

Like yeah, this is why I'm like TikTok. I'm a little disappointed. Yeah, very. I have never looked for extensions in my life. Very clearly this was a behavioral shift that just happened within the span of four weeks. The algorithms should have picked up on that and I'm shocked. Not Instagram, not Facebook. Nobody sent me an ad for extensions. I'm really mad.

[A]

I wonder if it's one of those things where like because to get them like in implanted installed. I don't know. Like it's all local installed.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Hair dressers and, and stuff. Like there's probably not brands that are like okay, crushing the D2C world.

[B]

That was just. It is. There's multiple types of extensions and there's one that's a clip in. It's an at home application that you do yourself where it's just a little snap basically on your head. No ads for that either. Yeah. I was like there's multiple ways. What is going on with its dumb algorithm?

[A]

And again like this is what I think people so overlook when it comes to marketing. And they're like, oh, like, you know, why isn't our welcome flow doing better? Because people are having like identity crisis on the other end of this email. And your email is like, hey, welcome to the club. Here's 10 off. We started this brand in 2012. We hope you like it.

[B]

I, I can't. I can't.

[A]

What are you talking about?

[B]

I, what are you talking about?

[A]

The way she.

[B]

Yes. I don't like the Tampa.

[A]

We do it for everything. Like I put Pirelli tires on my car because I'm a Formula one fan and Pirelli makes the formul tires. And I'm sure it's like completely different departments of the company that make the, the, the, the, the tires and they don't learn anything from each other. But I'm like, no, you know, sure, they're good.

[B]

No, but I'm saying though, it's like.

[A]

This is where I think. This is where like, I think AI agentic commerce needs to fill the gap that algorithms can't. Because the truth is like, you cannot write a welcome email flow for every single Persona and use case that's coming into your your brand. But this is where I think AI needs to fill the gap. Someone should be able to message and big, hey, I'm freaking out. I just got a haircut. I also just turned 37, by the way. And I'm sure that's playing into this.

[B]

Ow. But not wrong.

[A]

I mean, I'm just saying this is.

[B]

What'S happening in my head this week.

[A]

Like, I need a solution and I need it fast.

[B]

I need it now.

[A]

I'm freaking out. And like, that's. That needs to be marketed to so much. So specifically.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Any other Persona coming in. And now some. Some company missed out on two grand because I bet if they sold you the right way, you would have been like, all right, I'll do it.

[B]

And I would have justified it any which way to consumer, Casey. I would have been like, I needed it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

For my self esteem, honey. It's part of the brand. All right, so going back to this flow of sequencing the ones correctly, first thing they should have done is serve me an ad that said, do you hate your haircut? Yeah, you can fix it this weekend. Second thing they should have done is a week later, and I'm talking like just within the span of a very short period of time, they should have served me another ad that said something to the effect of you deserve hair that makes you feel like you again, talk to that identity within a short period of time. Yep, one week, maybe two, depending on how big the purchase cost is. This was a $2,000 purchase that I was considering. Now I anchored to 200, but it was a $2,000 opportunity. They should have started attaching to that identity crisis immediately. Third thing they should have done in here instead of like just seeing this random TikTok range of prices, which is what I was really struggling with. They should have served me content on why that's a thing in the industry.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Somebody should have served me an ad at week three that just said, here's why extensions range from like 200 to $2,000. And then we're going to tell you how to figure out which price range is right for you. They should have changed the anchor in Week 3Y so by the time I got to the salon, I might have been okay with $1,000 instead of 200. And if that's the case, she could have down sold me very quickly. Well, for your hair, I'm thinking it's probably going to be about $2,000, but I can probably get you a very, very nice blended hair. Whatever for 1500. Yeah, I would have come up to 1500.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

100. I'm not, I'm not afraid of that. Like, that's okay with me.

[A]

Do you know, I think it's super interesting too, how it just took this one bad salesman or whatever, hairdresser girl to like, completely turn you off for this. And I would bet you will never get extensions for the rest of your life.

[B]

Nope.

[A]

And I think about that when, like, people say that you should test every ad angle.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Test every concept. Or try some clickbaity hacky headlines. No, no. Because you are going to turn people off. Whereas, like, I'm sure there's 15 other salons in your city that might have been nicer to you and might have got you to do it, but now you're like, no, fuck that.

[B]

I don't now I'm not going to do it. Yeah. I mean, and I don't have that kind of time. Like, I'm not going to put five more weeks of research into trying to see if I could find somebody who's cheaper. No. Like, I'm done. That was as much effort as I had. They missed out on a sale. And again, it sounds weird because you're like, okay, this is a, like a real world situation, Sarah. But this is what's happening at scale, at volume, with your websites, with your emails, with your ads. I'm just like, they screw themselves royally. Okay, so lesson here, because we're. We're already been talking about this forever. You can't control why people want something.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You'll never be able to control that. Why you can't even control, really who they were when they found you.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Those two things you cannot control. You can control when they feel safe. You get to control when and how they feel safe. You can control how informed they are. And when that information comes into the cycle, you can also control, too, a little bit. Like how emotionally aligned you are with their buying process. Because you can run ads in a sequence. And this is the reason why I tell people. They think I'm ridiculous when I say this. I tell people all the time, you got to run full funnel ads. You have to run trigger, exploration, evaluation, and purchase ads all at the same time. They're not all going to be making you money hand over fist. It's not going to happen. But there's a reason for each one of those to be in place. You got to be so careful when you start to look at the entirety of the customer journey. You get to control when trust shows up, when the cost is revealed. You control when that happens and how it happens and how.

[A]

What context you give them before. I think that's the most important thing. I think like if someone was one on one pitching you the this, they could have been like, Sarah, you're an entrepreneur. You're on sales calls for your business. Don't you think if you were more confident this week you would close an extra $4,000 in revenue and you probably would have gone, yep, yep, yeah, yeah.

[B]

And then I probably would have said, yeah, yeah, yep, yeah.

[A]

Context on price is everything.

[B]

I think so. That was my hair extension story.

[A]

Damn, that was a good episode. I know. We okay on that. No, but I think there's gems in there and for all of you who don't sell hair extension there, just put your product in place of.

[B]

I was gonna say no.

[A]

And then by the way, you didn't drop everything and work on this for the last.

[B]

No.

[A]

You've still been running a business and everything. And like 100.

[B]

This is something I've been doing at like 8 o' clock at night when I'm exhausted and I. And I'm just scrolling like, yeah.

[A]

So you have like 10 minutes a day maybe to hit these people with the messages that they need. And right now you're like, hey, you left this in your cart. Come back. And it's like, what are we even talking about?

[B]

What are we even talking about? Yeah, so I mean, really, you shouldn't even be asking like, why are they buy. Like why aren't they buying? You should be asking like, when are they going to bail? When in this process? Process are they going to bail? And what is it about that that we can go and actually put some effort into anyway?

[A]

Damn. Into brain driven brains. See you next time.

[B]

Oh my God. Thank you so much for joining us on the show today. Appreciate you guys listening. If you want to follow me, I'm at Sarah Levenger. Anywhere you consume content. He is at Nate Lagos. If you like this show and if you like this episode, go ahead and like subscribe. Share with a friend. Drop us a review when you have a minute. We would appreciate it. Otherwise, have a great week. We'll see you next time.