Referrals work great for lawyers, real estate agents, mechanics, even Mary Kay consultants. There’s a lot of referral systems out there. A LOT. Here’s a partial list of some good resources:

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In the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, there’s a story about an experiment. Subjects were giving songs to tap out by hand, such as “Happy Birthday” and “The Star Spangled Banner.” It’s somewhat like playing a piano when the piano doesn’t make noise.
The subjects thought the guessers would get [...]

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(I’ve been doing password protected posts on Fridays, but today I’m going to do something different. I’ll password protect this next week to keep this exclusive for my readers.)
I’ve been reading Bob Burg’s “Endless Referrals.” Most of it is about getting people to do you a favor by referring. This isn’t my [...]

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You can spend hundreds of dollars having a nice logo created for you, but it won’t help your marketing much. A logo is mainly for mass market brands that can afford to “get their name out there” over and over again.
That doesn’t sound like you or me, does it?
I’ve also seen really [...]

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The underlying principles in Never Market Again all center around relationships and education. That’s what makes possible “marketing without marketing”.
I just found THE best summary I’ve ever read of the kind of marketing for acupuncture that I teach. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t write it myself:
When communication is poorly and [...]

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Dan Clements over at AlternativeHealthPractice.com writes great material on practice building for acupuncturists and other alternative medical practitioners. It’s so good it’s actually very annoying - how am I supposed to pick what to tell you about to help promote your practice? So I’ve been putting off mentioning AlternativeHealthPractice.com until now.
Finally figured out [...]

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I’ve done a lot of research looking up acupuncture studies. If you want to do the same, I suggest taking a memory stick to a teaching hospital and visiting their library. You’ll be able to get articles galore. Also Google Scholar is awesome but incomplete unless used in the library. Usually [...]

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Some people are worried about the recession. The established definition of a recession is a contraction in the GDP (gross domestic product) for at least 6 months. Basically, it means less money is exchanging hands - people change their spending habits. They still spend, but not as often. This means less value [...]

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The Community Acupuncture Network (CAN) model is a VERY interesting business model for acupuncture clinics. It is based on a group treatment room. Usually there are a bunch of reclining chairs in a single room. The payment is sliding scale, so patients pay as much as they’re able – usually $15 to [...]

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On Tuesday I wrote about the Sanborn Maxim. It states that:
“Those who are willing to pay the least will demand the most.”
Some of the many comments about it made me think a lot of people read this as:

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Lately I’ve been asked by a lot of people to take a look at their website and see why it’s not getting more acupuncture patients. Here’s some common problems I’m seeing (make sure you don’t have them too.):

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There was a lot of discussion when I first wrote about offering a free first visit as a marketing tactic to get new acupuncture patients. Many readers gave good feedback.
I do agree that if you’re not careful, a free first visit can cheapen the perceived value of your services. Frankly, people who don’t [...]

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I asked “What Stops You?” from marketing your acupuncture and oriental medicine clinic, and have been following up on the initial comments. Here are the previous articles in the series that we’re finishing today:

What Stops You? (with 17 comments)
What Stops You? Part 2 (on confidence)
Time Management (What Stops You? part 3)

Two hangups seem to [...]

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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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There were 17 total comments on “What Stops You?”, where I asked what stops you from marketing acupuncture. My favorite comment was from Therese:
It’s not that any one thing stops me - it’s the multitude of choices that has this staccato effect on my actions. Oh - my website must be perfect, but [...]

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