Threshold Resistance Elimination Strategy

"Identify the forces and factors keeping your customers from com¬ ing over your threshold. Be honest. Brutally honest. If you’re operat¬ ing a restaurant, consider the quality of the food as well as its price and presentation. Does your menu appeal to your clientele? Analyze the comfort and character of your premises. Does the music playing in the background set the proper mood? Is your location convenient for your target customers? What about your waitstaff? A,re they dressed appropriately, and focused on service and responsiveness? What restaurant options are in your immediate trade area, and what makes them popular?"

"From now on, Sotheby’s was going to embrace a service mental¬ ity and treat everyone with respect. We were going to introduce the auction experience to a broader audience of consumers around the world and encourage the development of new collectors and con¬ noisseurs. Together we were going to open up and make more trans¬ parent what had been traditionally a closed and unnecessarily intimidating business. In short, we were going to break down the threshold resistance that had been holding us back and stifling the art market for as long as I could remember."

"Here’s where serial vision came in. We didn’t simply want to make existing auctions better. We wanted to change the nature of a hide¬ bound and inefficient business, and make it better. Without turning off our critical dealer customers, we wanted to add some competi¬ tion in the salesroom. After all, just as was the case in our centers, Sotheby’s primary responsibility was to the person selling the goods. It was our job to create the most vibrant and exciting market possible in which they could showcase their merchandise. Passionate individ¬ ual buyers would drive higher auction results and make it more diffi¬ cult for dealers to control the process."