One of my favorite Saturday activities is window-shopping in Target. I’m pathologically responsible, so I don’t go on real shopping sprees very often, but at least a couple of times a month, I buy an iced latte at Starbucks and walk around Target—stopping to try on shoes I won’t purchase and smell candles I won’t buy. I leave the store knowing I spent only $4 but got all the benefits of some serious retail therapy.

You could call me a passive shopper because I look without any intent to buy. If you think this makes me a worthless shopper, however, you’d be missing my future potential. Because when I need to buy, I’ve already done an incredible amount of homework.

The same can be said of physician candidates...

As a physician recruiter, you want to reach both actively job-seeking physician candidates (active shoppers) and passive candidates (window shoppers).

If you focus solely on the candidates who are in the market for a new job right now, you miss the opportunity to talk to candidates who have the potential to be in the market later on. These passive candidates are valuable too—both because some opportunities are too enticing to resist and because situations change.

Take my own situation as an example

I got engaged recently and, when a friend wanted to throw a shower, I realized I needed to create a wedding registry. Any number of stores allow me to register: Macy’s; Bed, Bath and Beyond; Pottery Barn; the list goes on. But where did I go first? Target, of course. Because that’s where I’d “shopped” before I was really looking. And because all the time I’d spent in their store served as a chance for them to market to me, to lay the groundwork for me to do some major purchasing later on (or have my friends do some major purchasing on my behalf—perks of getting married).

So when you’re evaluating physician candidate databases or selecting your marketing channels, don’t undervalue the importance of reaching passive candidates.

Yes, the response rate will be greater among active candidates. They’re the shoppers who go into Target with lists in their hands and come out with bags in their hands. But passive candidates also have enormous potential. If you include them in your marketing efforts now, they’ll recognize your name when they decide to make a job change later on.

And as Target can also teach us, sometimes we’re in the market for things we didn’t even realize we were in the market for. Sometimes I go in with every intention of just window shopping and come out with a blanket—because blankets were 50% off, of course!

Similarly, sometimes a happily-employed physician browses jobs just to see what’s out there and ends up signing a contract a few weeks later. For this reason, it’s important to reach both types of candidates with your physician recruitment and marketing.

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