Thursday, September 18, 2008

09/18/08 - Your Customers, Best Lead Source

 
Vitamin Lawyer Update eMemo: September 18, 2008

This issue:

0. News & Practice Notes
1. Mining for Leads: Your Customers are Your Best Source
2. Web Ring and Wiki for Advanced Health Care – closer and closer
3. Professional Practice Record Keeping SOP Available
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0. VL Blog News and Practice Notes; Fee Increase

Blog: http:// vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom .blogspot .com
Dennis Kuchinich: Defending Our Right to Know – GMOs
vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot .com/2008/09/dennis-kuchinich-defending-peoples.html

Weaponized Avian Flu: Current Estimate of Situation.3
Healthfreedomusa .org/index.php?p=965

URGENT! DIETITIANS MONOPOLY BILL IN NJ WILL STOP ALL ALTERNATIVES: vote on 09/25/08. Tell your state and national legislators to oppose all restrictions on Nutritional Free Speech: HealthFreedomUSA .org/index.php?p=1030
salsa.democracyinaction .org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25929

Vitamin Lawyer.com Consultancy fees are increasing due to continuing dollar value declines. The new basic fee, starting September 1, 2008, will be $325/hr. Prepaid clients will receive the balance of their time at the original rates. Current clients receive the old rate until October 1st. Regular monthly retainer clients will be charged at $275/hr. and will continue to be permitted to use the Vitamin Lawyer Oversight Seal: http:// tinyurl. com/2cfoyb

“The value of the US and European natural (excluding organic) food and drinks market was worth $11.7bn in 2005 and it is expected to reach $19.2bn by 2010.” (from a Nutraingredients .com email)

“Ninety per cent of the 11,000 athletes in attendance at the Games of the 29th Olympiad used dietary supplements of some kind, according to the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA). There was not a single supplement contamination case… So perhaps Beijing marks a turning point for the industry. Just as the Chinese capital’s hosting of the event boosted China’s public image (at least while it was on), so too has the supplements industry been given a lift by its clean Games performance….”

Nutraingredients .com/Industry/Dietary-supplements-win-Olympic-gold/?c=gbrnO2ewSG2xbUKNPtVBZw%3D%3D

“Companies that take advantage of the growing health and wellness market often don't do enough to tell consumers how to benefit from their products, says a brand-growth expert. Consumers are ‘looking for specific solutions that fit within the overall context of their lives’…"

Mediapost .com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=89814&Nid=46820&p=925781

[Please note: all URL web page links in this email are incomplete, with the “http://” and/or “www.” removed and an extra space before the .com or .org, to avoid this message being treated as “spam” by AOL or other services.]

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1. Mining for Leads: Your Customers are Your Best Source
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http://www.entireweb.com/newsletter/archive/2008/PRINT471.html
Excerpts: Entireweb Newsletter * September 2, 2008 * ISSUE #471

The Most Valuable Source for Leads

“…The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council has just completed a study... The results of the surveys may not surprise you, but the contrasts of the responses provide a shocking insight into the sheer volume of missed opportunities. This is good news for you, because missed opportunities by others can create new opportunities for you…According to the survey results… most valued source of leads is from customer referrals.

54% Customer Referrals
14% E-Mail or Direct Marketing
8% Internet
7% Events
7% Leads from Vendors
3% Third Party Lead Generation Organizations
8% Other

Would you agree that the best leads come from the referrals of satisfied customers? Is it surprising that customer referrals were ranked as four times more powerful and valuable than E-Mail or Direct Marketing campaigns? Customer referrals were ranked nearly seven times more likely to result in sales and new business than leads derived the Internet…

With all of this insight, how did the same channel executives, distributors, resellers, and channel representatives respond to the survey by Chief Marketing Officer Council with regards to tactics for generating new leads in the coming year?

14% Plan to use Direct Marketing and E-mail campaigns
13% Plan to use Sales Brochures and collateral
10% Plan to focus on Tradeshows for lead generation
8% Will use Seminars to generate leads
7% Will rely on Print Advertising
7% Plan to use Public Relations and Article Placement
7% Plan to use the Internet and Online Advertising
6% Will revert to Telemarketing
6% Plan to invest in Internet Search Engine Marketing
5% Plan to engage customers in User Group Gatherings
4% Plan to rely on Yellow Page Advertising
4% Will experiment on the Internet with Blogs and Social Networking
3% Will use Online Directories
3% Will create Webcasts
1% Plan to use Content Syndication
2% Will try something completely different

The results of the survey regarding lead generation tactics for new business acquisition are hardly surprising. Very little has changed in the planning and tactics as conveyed by the survey response, and yet, the contrast in comparison to the most effective and valued leads is staggering. Even though 54% of respondents acknowledged that the most valued leads are based on customer referrals, the first mention of leveraging this goldmine occurs in the 4% of respondents that plan to engage customers in user group gatherings…. The Internet provides an exciting vehicle to be creative, showcase the brand, and communicate to a very large audience. However, is it targeting the most valuable audience by engaging the most valuable leads that come from customer referrals?

…So, how do you encourage and empower customers to grow this incredible pipeline of valued referrals? You ask them, of course. However, before you make such a bold request, your customers must know that you are fully engaged and obligated to their aspirations. When customers are assured that you are a trusted advocate, committed to customer satisfaction, they have the confidence to share referrals and recommendations. Once customer confidence is established and the relationship is mutually rewarding, then it is just a matter of creating the appropriate opportunity for referrals to occur. This can be as simple as asking for referrals… by engaging individuals in group gathering or discussions, leveraging the Internet or Advertising, or by collecting a powerful collage of testimonials… Actively and effectively mining the most valuable source for leads will give you an advantage over 95% of your competition.”

John Mehrmann is author of The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success with Authenticity and Integrity.

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2. Web Ring and Wiki for Advanced Health Care Update
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It is certainly the “Doldrums of Summer…” -- there were some continuing “glitches” since the last updates, but we now expect the Web Ring sign-up page to go live during late September. Below is a special link for The Vitamin Lawyer.com Consultancy clients and contacts. I know you will want to sign-up for this important new Internet feature. I will also be sending a special Vitamin Lawyer Update eMemo in the next week or so which will have many more details about the Web Ring. Please watch for it.

You can get a sneak preview at: http:// healthcare-aware .com (for the Web Ring) and www .advancedhealthwiki .com (for the Wiki). In previous issues of this Update eMemo I discussed the powerful search engine value of the Web Ring. In the near future I will be providing you with a detailed explanation about how the Web Ring can help your Online presence. I’ve been working on this project since last November, as some of you know. The wait will be worth it!

Here is what one Web Ring company says about the benefits:

“WebRing offers a unique and effective means of searching, locating and navigating between web sites with similar themes. WebRing allows web site owners to group their sites together into ring communities, and provides a navigation tool that links web sites together called a NavBar. Linked sites not only eliminate the necessity of repetitive searches, but the NavBar also accumulates hits from all of the sites so that a hit to one site is a hit to all sites. Additionally, the NavBar acts as a link so your web site is linked to every other site in the community. So now your site is benefiting from higher search engine results because it has more hits and more links.”

If you are ready to sign-up, the beta form is here:
healthcare-aware .com/subscribe/go.php?r=1&i=l0

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3. Professional Practice SOPs
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The Vitamin Lawyer .com Consultancy offers standardized formats for various Standard Operating Procedures – for companies in the nutritional and natural products industry, as well as for advanced health care “CAM” practitioners. The Professional Practice Record Keeping SOP describes record keeping standards for the practitioner who provides nutrients and natural remedies to his or her clients. The SOP has been amended to include the latest regulations regarding accepting credit cards for payments.

You can see a list of the topics covered by the SOP at: http:// tinyurl. com/2eu6yj

If you would like a copy of the Professional Practice SOP, please send me an email with “PP-SOP” in the subject line; I charge ½ hour for this service. The SOP is being revised to reflect the new Data Security requirement of “a written policy for protecting the security of your customer…”

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Ralph Fucetola JD
www .vitaminlawyer .com
http:// vitaminlawyerarchives .blogspot .com