The purpose of using groupon for a launch is to get as many people as possible to come in, get a result and experience what you offer. At this point you can offer a special fee to complete a full package of LipoLaser treatments now that they see it works. And now you won't have to split that full package with groupon either. This all allows for a much higher conversion count by getting more in for a reasonable fee and service them into bigger packages once they know and trust in your service.

Now the second reason to use Groupon is when you have had a service for a while and it is not performing as well as you hoped. Not because of the service or you, but because you have not been able to market it in a way that reached enough people. So this can be like a second chance. A way to promote something that people did not know existed in their community. This can be a real shot in the arm and breathe new life into this service that has just been sitting on the shelf.

And the third good reason to use Groupon is if your secondary service has seasonal peaks and valleys.

I found out that in my state of Michigan, all cosmetic type services drop in the summer months. So, my wife decided to launch a Groupon campaign for her LipoLaser business in the "dead" of the summer. Wow did it serve us well!

She was able to stay extremely busy and bring in more than 875 new clients that never new of this service. She kept her staff busy and it also created opportunity to figure out how to handle and take care of that many people. So it also became an incredible learning experience in efficiency and high volume production needs. During the slower summer months my wife was also able to temporarily discontinue all other forms of advertising while she served the needs of these 875 clients which allowed her to bank that money for future promotions when they will be more effective. Capturing this opportunity in a typical valley is a great way to keep momentum and build great clients out of such a large sampling of interested people.

Business Rush

With all of these ways to get the most out of a Groupon type promotion you have to always be prepared for this rush of business. And if you are not prepared it can be very overwhelming and if you can't deliver your services or you upset these people because you were not prepared for this, it can definitely hurt your business and reputation. So you must anticipate the rush. You will need to make sure you have enough equipment and or product to perform the service. You will need to have enough trained staff to support the demand of hundreds of phone calls, voice mails and scheduling gymnastics. You should definitely consider expanding your hours and days to accommodate this rush of business even if it's a temporary change until things settle back to normal levels. But hey, those are good situations to have for a change!

I also recommend that you make sure your website is up to date and can capture leads because your web traffic will go dramatically up as potential groupon buyers check you out. So your web presence needs to look modern and must relate to this specific service. If you don't have a specific website for this niche business (which I suggest), make sure the website address they provide on the groupon offer is directed to the exact webpage of this service within your pages. Don't make them hunt it down and try to find it. They will need to see you have this thought out and that you are a legitimate business providing this service. You also want to study and know all the groupon logistics and make sure everyone that takes calls knows what to do and what to do when they check in.

When the Groupon clients come into our office, we first offer what I coined as a: "Groupon Add-on" Certificate. On this Groupon Add-on we offer them an opportunity to purchase the full LipoLaser Package for a special price only available through their last visit. Or it's taken off the table. We also include other Add-on's like: A reduced price for one micro-current facial session, or a free Spinal examination.

You should know that if your Groupon clients are coming in for a product or service that is unrelated to chiropractic, like lipolaser, the percentage that will convert to chiropractic patients will be smaller than you might like. But, if the Groupon offer is for related services, like nutrition, weight loss, etc, you will probably see a higher percentage become chiropractic patients. Either way, you increase your ancillary business and introduce more people to chiropractic.

How to Negotiate with Groupon

You can negotiate a better than 50/50 split in most cases. And I think you should because you still have to perform all the services and pay your overhead. I was able to negotiate a 70/30 split after the first 100 bought. It all depends on the local office and how bad they want to promote your unique service.

You can also get the 2.5% credit card fee waived in most cases just by asking. You can limit the number of deals you offer so that you control the volume. Or in our case, you can shut it down when you realize 875 clients is enough and letting it run for another day will be too much to serve all those people well and prevent full paying new clients from getting a spot in our fully booked schedule. You also don't have to wait 90 days for your check if you ask. I was able to get 50% of what was due to us in 5 days, 40% in two weeks, and the remaining 10% in 30 days.

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Dr Joseph Mannella is the founder of Neck orthotic, The Disc Institute, Decompression Flight School and DC Business Blueprints. For more information, visit www.dcBusinessBlueprints.com or .