Threshold Resistance

Our next marketing lesson this week comes to us from one of Americas great inventions…the shopping mall.

Perhaps the first lesson in this weekly tip is that marketing is everywhere. I’m not reinventing the wheel, i’m just looking a little closer at what makes it spin. Look at successful businesses and emulate what they do, even if they aren’t dentists.

Now on to the tip…

Many stores in a shopping mall today are mall-based stores. These stores, like Foot Locker and Eddie Bauer don’t generate their own traffic, but merely pull in shoppers as they pass by.

The heads of marketing for these stores are always battling a very powerful force in the malls today, it’s called threshold resistance.

Threshold resistance is the power that keeps a person from crossing the threshold of the store and actually coming in. It is the reason all the sales signs are in the window, and all the best merchandise is displayed. These stores have it down to a science, and even “script” what will be displayed in the windows of every store in the U.S.

The key to eliminating threshold resistance is giving outside consumers a good view of what is inside, and making it seem like a valuable experience. This is the reason for the sales signs and big windows.

In your practice, however, it is hard for a prospective patient to see inside and see what a great value your services are, and how happy they will be with them without actually crossing the threshold.

This is why your marketing and front office staff have to build this value to new patients. Introductory offers, and benefit laden phone conversations (including testimonials) will serve greatly to decrease the resistance of making an appointment, getting them to step into your practice, and becoming a long term patient.

You have to be very transparent, not only in explaining what you will provide to your patients, but how happy you other patients are with your services afterward. From prices to procedures, if they need to hear it to feel comfortable with your practice and cross that threshold, you tell them.

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EMC Dental Marketing is a full-service Dental Practice Marketing, Dental Advertising, and Practice Management agency that focusses on solving a dentists top 2 problems - attracting new patients and retaining the patients they already have.