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Marketing to Seniors

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How to Market Products and Services for Seniors:
Overcoming Denial and Guilt

I. The Consumer Challenge: Denial

If you sell products and services for seniors you have a distinct challenge. Whether you’re selling mobility scooters, hearing aids, home care, assisted living, a retirement community, or remodeling services that enable a senior to age in place, you likely encounter this road block: denial.

i. Denial

There are seniors who need what you offer and it seems like it should be easy to sell a product or service to someone who needs it. After all, there are plenty of products sold that no one needs, people simply want them—think luxury cruise or sports car. The problem is that they don’t want to admit they need it. So they deny that it could help them.

According to David Stephen, PhD, “Denial is a kind of self-imposed ignorance, a defense mechanism that helps block a feeling or intellectual realization because admitting the feeling as reality is painful. Elders often deny they need assistance or that their abilities are diminishing. It is difficult to admit that one needs help, because that may be perceived as indicating a loss of independence and a loss of self worth.”

Paul Susic, MA Licensed Psychologist explains that denial serves a purpose. “Denial for a short period of time may help you to accept reality gradually, but continued denial may be risky, eventually jeopardizing your health and safety,” he says.

Seniors who don’t admit that they need something that could help them are trying to make believe the problem doesn’t even exist. They might even be able to pretend for a while they are not getting older.

The problem of denial doesn’t stop with the senior. Family members who love the senior, and have depended on their strength for many years, may also have difficulty admitting that times are changing, roles are reversing, and they need additional help for their loved one. In addition, for some care decisions, such as moving Mom or Dad into an assisted living facility, feelings of guilt are piled on top of denial.

i. How I Diffused Denial …….Without Trying

How do you help a senior who needs your products or services when they won’t admit to their need? How do you overcome the emotional turmoil felt by their adult children who could influence a positive decision?

To discover the answers, download your FREE 13-page, detailed report:

How to Market Products and Services for Seniors: Overcoming Denial and Guilt.

How to Market Products and Services for Seniors

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