The concept of diminished value is easily understood with this hypothetical scenario: You’re in the market for a used car and can choose between two identical vehicles, one that has been repaired after being in an accident and one that has never been in a crash. Would you pay as much for the repaired vehicle as you would the car that has never been in an accident? “Diminished value is the difference between the prices that the two cars can fetch in the marketplace,” says Quddus.

In the event of an accident, the insurance company of the at-fault driver is usually liable for the diminished value of the vehicle not at fault. That doesn’t mean, however, that insurance companies are eager to pay out diminished value claims. Indeed, carriers place the responsibility of proving diminished value on the consumer – something that most people are ill equipped to handle. “It’s like burdening the victim of a car accident with the part-time job of substantiating their claim,” says Quddus.

As a result, consumers often turn to online companies that – for fees ranging from $29 to $500 – will generate a report stating the vehicle’s diminished value or perform a full vehicle inspection. But the onus is still on the consumer to convince the insurance company to pay the claim. The result? “People spend their time, energy, and money fighting insurance companies that are determined to refuse or deny a claim,” says Quddus. “Even if a company agrees to settle, chances are that the consumer will accept a lowball offer.”

In contrast, Advocate Auto Claims uses its industry expertise to negotiate on behalf of its diminished value claim clients – and does so on a contingency basis. “When consumers use our services, they know that we will initiate the claim, substantiate the claim, process the claim, negotiate the claim, and settle the claim – and that they won’t have to pay a dime until we achieve a settlement,” says Quddus. “That’s a far cry from paying top dollar for a report and then never seeing a dime from the insurance company.”

Quddus attributes Advocate Auto Claims’ success to the ten years of experience their affiliate company has in settling diminished value claims for fleet owners and car rental agencies. “We have licensed public adjusters who understand that every insurance company in every state handles claims differently,” says Quddus. “They know the loopholes and the need for substantiation, but more importantly, they have answers for every type of request, requirement, and denial that an insurance company can throw at them.” In addition, with access to past cases where a given insurance company has paid a claim, Advocate Auto Claim’s adjusters are well positioned to cite previous settlements in order to pave the way for successful negotiations.

The bottom line? When it comes to diminished value claims, it simply doesn’t pay to do it yourself. “There’s no sense in paying out of pocket for an online report when the insurance industry is set up to avoid paying you,” says Quddus. “Instead, you can leave it to the experts and be assured that you’ll receive the best settlement possible.”

Winter Park, FL (PRWEB) June 18, 2008 — In response to consumer demand, on June 2, 2008, Advocate Auto Claims ramped up personnel and expanded its daily hours of operation. The company, which opened its doors to the public in April 2008, can now be reached Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EDT, and around the clock at www.advocateautoclaims.com. “Through our affiliate company, we had been providing services exclusively to fleet owners and car rental companies, but we recognized the need to educate consumers about their rights and expand our operations,” said Omar Quddus, President and Co-Founder of Advocate Auto Claims, LLC. “Consumer response to this service has been phenomenal.”

Advocate Auto Claims specializes in what are called diminished value claims. “If you’ve ever sold a car that’s been in an accident, you know from experience that it’s simply not worth as much as the same car with an accident-free history,” said Quddus. This phenomenon is called “diminished value,” and the at-fault or third party’s insurance company has an obligation to compensate the driver who was not at fault for this difference in market price. “Unfortunately, most consumers aren’t aware that they are entitled to diminished value compensation - and insurance companies don’t volunteer that information,” said Quddus.

Few would argue that the concept of diminished value is intuitive. “It’s commonplace - and common sense - for used car buyers to check a vehicle’s accident and repair history using an online service like CARFAX or AutoCheck,” said Quddus.

Yet insurance companies fight tooth and nail to keep from paying these diminished value claims, often putting even knowledgeable consumers in an untenable position. “Each insurance company has its own internal procedures, and there is a maze of regulations and legal loopholes that vary from state to state,” said Quddus. “The burden of proving diminished value is always on consumers, and they simply don’t have the experience to get the compensation they deserve.”

This is precisely why Advocate Auto Claims has opened its doors to consumers. While drivers can pay out of pocket for a vehicle inspection or a diminished value report, Quddus’ company specializes in handling every aspect of diminished value claims - and does so on a contingency basis. Advocate Auto Claims is able to do this because their affiliate company has a 10-year track record of success in working with diminished value claims on behalf of fleet owners and rental car agencies.

It’s likely that, each year, millions of consumers don’t file the diminished value claims to which they’re entitled. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that police officers reported close to six million traffic crashes in 2006 (the latest year for which statistics are available). “Although car owners routinely file insurance claims for car repairs and injuries, they almost always overlook the long-term impact that an accident will have on their vehicle’s value,” said Quddus.

Although drivers not at fault are usually in the dark about their rights, Quddus is determined to shine a light on diminished value claims, and Advocate Auto Claims stands ready to insist that consumers get the compensation they deserve. “The process of establishing diminished value and then negotiating the proper compensation is both an art and a science,” Quddus says. “We’re committed to supporting each and every consumer whose vehicle suffers from diminished value after an accident.”

About Advocate Auto Claims, LLC:
Advocate Auto Claims, LLC is the industry leader in processing diminished value claims on behalf of the public. With expert knowledge of state-by-state and federal caselaw, legislation, and regulatory rulings - as well as insurance company procedures - Advocate Auto Claims is uniquely positioned to successfully pursue diminished value claims throughout the U.S. For more information, please visit http://www.advocateautoclaims.com.

For more information, contact:
Laura Betterly
Media Spokesperson
(866) 596-6011

###

Advocate Auto Claims
Laura Betterly
866-596-6011
E-mail Information: pr@advocateautoclaims.com

If you passed him walking down the street you wouldn’t guess this man had set up what was at one time one of the largest hedge funds in the US which peaked at over a billion dollars. Sitting in a Florida office wearing shorts and a t-shirt, Ron Pollack (http://www.ronpollack.net) talked about his career as a hedge fund manger and short seller, his family, the charity groups he’s helped and why he’s decided to return to fund management after a six-year hiatus. “Short selling is what I do and I need to get back to doing it.”

Ron Pollack graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale and went on to get both an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. After graduate school, Pollack went to Wall Street where he became an investment banker and later honed his skills as a hedge fund manager. Ron was trained as a short seller by industry pioneers, the Feshbach Brothers.

Both Yale and Harvard seem to have a penchant for turning out successful investors: Jim Chanos (widely credited with exposing Enron as a fraud, and who Ron got to know back in the 1980s when they were both short First Executive Life), Zoe Cruz (a brilliant commodity trader who rose to the co-presidency of Morgan Stanley, a sectionmate of Ron’s at HBS), Jamie Dinan (CEO of JP Morgan Chase, who Ron used to play pick-up basketball with at HBS), Strauss Zelnick (media wunderkind and Chairman of ZelnickMedia and Take-Two Interactive, Ron’s roommate at Harvard), Scott Schoen and Scott Sperling (co-presidents of leveraged buyout giant THL, and friends of Ron from Harvard), Steve Pagliuca and John Bekenstein (of Bain Capital, friends of Ron from HBS and Yale respectively), Glenn Hutchins (of Silverlake Partners, also a Harvard classmate), to name just a few. Pollack, both a Yale and Harvard graduate, is no exception. After leaving Feshbach in the early 1990s, Pollack built a highly successful family of hedge funds, the most well-known of which was his short fund, appropriately named Dancing Bear. But towards the end of 2001, Pollack started to a look how he could spend more time with his growing family and helping charities.

“After the terrorist attack on 9/11, I was moved by what happened and I really wanted to help,” said Pollack. For the months following the attack, the financial markets were in turmoil and Ron began to feel the pull of loyalties between his investment business and the needs of his growing family. In November of that year, Ron was at a family vacation with his expectant wife and three children. Sitting with his laptop on a hotel room watching the markets, he told his wife that he had to go back to the office because the markets were just too crazy.

On the drive back, he started on a plan of action that would allow him to have more time with his family as well as be able to help charity organizations. In 2002, Ron merged his hedge fund business into the Monitor Group, based in Cambridge, MA in order to have more time for his outside activities, in particular, volunteer work and being a dad. He then successfully set up fund-raisers for sick firefighters, police, sanitation workers, etc. of New York working with Vail Valley Foundation, the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Foundation and others.

As part of his fund-raising activities, he would occasionally end up in the offices of fund managers. This would invariably pull at his heart strings as he had stopped trading after his decision to become a full-time dad and volunteer. In fact, during his time as a volunteer, Pollack only traded once.

At a charity auction in Vail, Pollack had bid for a day of trading and instruction with a local stockbroker, “just for fun.” Little did this broker know who had won the bid. Needless to say, he was shocked to find out the depth of knowledge that his visitor had. Within the first 15 minutes, Pollack had completed a successful short sale and knew that he “still had it.”

Although the broker hadn’t recognized him when he first came to the office, there are many others that know he had built one of the largest successful hedge funds in the US. When Russ Ramsey, Chairman and CEO of Ramsey Asset Management, wanted to set up a hedge fund specializing in short selling, he called in Pollack as a short sell guru for advice. During this time, Pollack did some research into the current markets and what other fund managers were doing. He figured that by this time, other managers would have saturated the short sale space. They hadn’t.

“I was amazed. Nothing in short selling had changed in the years of my absence. They were still using the same techniques that we were using back in the 1980s” exclaimed Pollack. “I had already moved on to a newer short-selling model with Dancing Bear back in the mid-1990s I thought for sure others would have followed suit, and that by now short-selling would be over-crowded, just like most other hedge fund categories.” Not only was the space not crowded, he found out that only a handful were doing well. Although it was still not the right time to get back into this field, he realized then that this truly was what he wanted to do and would eventually come back to it.

In late 2007, Pollack decided that it was now time to get back to being a fund manager. He realized that although he enjoyed working with the charities, he could actually contribute more by making and donating money than through hands-on hours. His children were growing up and although he had enjoyed his break from the sometimes turbulent and often stressful world of hedge funds, it was also his passion. It was in his blood.

To put it simply, “I needed this time away to be with my family and really enjoyed working with my charity groups but I realize it’s now time to come back. I loved the challenge of investing; especially shorting stocks, and I missed it dearly.”

In talking to a lot of people who have their own businesses I often hear I know everything about my business, but the phone isn’t ringing. What’s wrong?

It’s a problem that almost everyone in business that isn’t a marketing expert faces. You can be the best plumber, tax accountant, or doctor in the world, but if you don’t know how to get the word out–how to market your product or service–there’s no way you can get the customers you need.

Here are six essential steps to follow to get great marketing that doesn’t cost a fortune.

1. Define your market.

Decide who your main customers are. Find out all you can about them. Look at your past sales and see any commonality and don’t be afraid to ask them questions to find out more about what you can do to help them and find similar prospects.

2. Find out what media your target market uses.

Is it TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines or the Internet?

3. Limit the media you use to what you can afford to use consistently.

The key to effective marketing is consistency. You have to hit the audience with your message again, and again, and again.

Don’t blow your entire marketing budget on a one-shot try. Choose a less expensive type of media that you can afford to use week after week. That’s how you get marketing success.

4. Sell the main benefit of your product or service. Make your marketing geared to your clients.

How does your product or service improve your customer’s life? Talk to your customer from their own perspective.

5. If you don’t have a big budget, use FREE mediums such as Social Networks. If you have a good public interest piece or newsworthy, call your local news editor and try to get them to interview you.

6. You have information that is unique to you and your business. Give some of it away as newsletters or white papers. This will let people know you are real and knowledgeable. Even if they won’t buy from you today, they’ll remember you tomorrow.

As always, please contact me if we can be of any help to you in your marketing efforts.

Best,
Laura Betterly
President
Yada Yada Marketing, Inc.

www.yadayadamarketing.com

727-442-5888

Yada Yada In the News:
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10417905/1/six-tips-for-marketing-to-parents.html

We’re quoted on page two of this article.

Yada Yada Results:
On a head to head comparison to Reach Local our campaign created 5X the leads and calls for one of our clients.

Web Statistics — Are they for geeks only? Nope, they are essential if you are going to market your product successfully.

Which ones are important? Well, at the very minimum if you are using Pay Per Click, you’d want to know your CTR (click thru percentage) and you’d want to know which keywords actually converted into leads and sales.

You might find when analyzing your results, that you got a ton of traffic on a particular word and find out that word just doesn’t convert for you.

Another stat — conversions. This will tell you for the traffic sent to your site or page, how many people actually did something, like fill in a lead or buy. Be careful to add in all the calls that came from the website to this number or you will have a false picture.

Now, you’re going to have to be honest with yourself on this one. If you get a lot of traffic and it isn’t converting, your website or landing page is in need of some reworking and optimization.

Many people take their web presence personally. You shouldn’t. The only time I’ve gotten in trouble with clients is when I went with how they “felt” about a web page. The effectiveness of the website is all that counts. I’ve been surprised on how many ugly sites convert. I’m not saying you have to have an ugly site, but what I am saying, is your prospective customers behavior is the only measure of if it’s good or not.

Here are some resources to gather stats. Google Analytics is free. Some people don’t like Google having so much personal and business information on us and refuse to use it.

We use Hitslink. I think you get a free trial if you use that link. You should also check with your webmaster who can tell you if you have any analytics installed for your website.

Please feel free to contact me if we can be of any help!

Till next week.

Best,

Laura Betterly
President
Yada Yada Marketing
Phone: 727-442-5888

Here’s another recommendation:

I had the pleasure to first meet Laura while I was at Live365 while she was running PC DJ. I loved the software and thought she did a great job getting the message out about the product and company. After she left PC DJ, Laura took her marketing skills and put them to use starting her own operations. She has a solid grasp of the Internet, how to reach an audience and is never afraid to try something new. She is a solid marketer and a wonderful person to have in your corner - especially when you need results oriented marketing.
A. W.

Hope you are all doing well.

I thought I’d spend a few minutes going over an interesting discovery with regarding website conversions.

As you probably know, we almost always suggest putting a lead form on all websites. We also suggest that a phone number is prominently displayed on the site.

In addition, we add statistic tracking to the site so we can see what specific keywords brought the person to the site and which of those keywords were the most effective for gaining a lead or sale.

Now, most of you know how paid search works. You do some research on how people are searching and what competitors are doing, place some ads and if your research and ad are done right, you will get a percentage of the people clicking on to the target website.

That is the first threshold of what needs to be cracked so to speak in order to get an efficient campaign.

Now, what if you’re getting traffic and you are not getting leads or sales?

There are a few potential reasons for this:

–Your website is not designed for conversions. Some sites, although aesthetic, are really designed for PR purposes, not to sell.

–There wasn’t enough market research done in the first place so that certain elements such as price point are not right.

–There was no optimization done (split testing, and work done on these specific pages designed to make them convert.)

–There is no market for your product (which would have been known if market research was indeed done.)

–The site is really is converting and you didn’t know it…Huh? How could that be? You might be thinking, I have my tracking set up correctly, so how could I be missing conversions? Simple, when you omit the phone calls that came in as a result of your web promotion, you are painting a false picture on your conversion tracking.

This is not hard to see when you realize that your most interested people will CALL and not fill out a lead form. So, how do you figure out which calls are a result of your web promotion? Well, you could ask everyone who calls religiously where they found out about you, but in reality, not many organizations will do that when really busy.

We found a great resource for doing this, an online telephone center that gives you a toll free number. Not only does it give you reports of who called and when, it gives you the ability to forward to any phone (including your cell) in essence creating a virtual office.

When we started to add this to our conversions we found out we were way more successful than we realized. In some cases as much as eight calls to one lead form.

So, the lesson for today, is to really monitor your conversions, you need to make sure that the calls in are accounted for.

Don’t hesitate to contact me if we can be of help to you in your marketing needs.

Till next week.

Best,

Laura Betterly
President
www.yadayadamarketing.com
727-442-5888

Here’s another bit of shameless self promotion:
I had the pleasure to first meet Laura while I was at Live365 while she was running PC DJ. I loved the software and thought she did a great job getting the message out about the product and company. After she left PC DJ, Laura took her marketing skills and put them to use starting her own operations. She has a solid grasp of the Internet, how to reach an audience and is never afraid to try something new. She is a solid marketer and a wonderful person to have in your corner - especially when you need results oriented marketing.
A. W.

In 1992, after eleven years in my dental practice, I was asking myself this very question. My practice was in a strip mall and the supermarket moved out. The foot traffic left with it. New patients crashed to fewer than 10 per month and collections were down by 25%. Over the eleven years prior to this I spent tens of thousands of dollars on consultants to teach me how to have a great staff meeting, run my schedule, etc. But, after all of this consulting, I was still left with no solution to my lowered income and new patients. I was frustrated. I began investigating PPO and HMO plans as a solution.

Perhaps you to are or have look at managed care (HMOs and PPOs) either as a source of new patients or how to get out of it. As the topic of managed care is one that I get asked about on a regular basis, I thought it would be a good idea to look at A) why people join up and B) What it really takes to get out. If you are involved with any HMOs, PPOs, discount plans or just want to know how to stay out of them, this article is for you.

In looking at an exit strategy, we should first examine what prompts dentists to join these plans. Common answers I hear from colleagues are:

1. I needed to be busier. It is better to fill that empty chair time with a patient (even at a reduced fee) than to have it empty.
2. I wanted to join the plan before I got “locked out”
3. A lot of my patients switched over to this plan.
4. I needed to improve my cash flow.
5. I needed more new patients.

You may find that the reasons you joined or are thinking of joining are similar. While these are all valid reasons, let me pose this question: If I were to ask if you would prefer to be paid your usual full fee for work you are doing, what would be your answer? (I am assuming it would be “yes.”) The obvious problem with these plans is you are doing the same amount and quality of work at a reduced fee. This would work if your lab, suppliers, landlord and staff were willing to perform their services at a commensurately reduced fee - but we know that this is not going to happen! Generally, the write off percentage begins at 15-25% and go as high as 60% with some plans. You are reducing your income for a procedure, but not expense. At best you are cutting your profit; in severe cases may find yourself with a busy office having a difficult time paying bills.

What problem is managed care solving? You join a plan, you get more patients. Well, this begs the question: Why not go and just get more new patients without joining a plan? Think about it: If you knew how to attract enough fee-for-service new patients for practice to be successful - what would be the point of signing up for any plan?

This brings us to the first requirement of getting out of managed care - the ability to attract fee-for-service new patients.

I find that when most doctors look at how to get new patients, they a) can see that they need more b) have trouble making a decision about what to do because they are not educated in the areas of promotion and marketing and c) wish someone or something else would do it for them! The problem with this operating basis is it puts you in a position where you are not in control of the area - rather you are at the mercy of who ever you hire to do it or the “hope” that some marketing idea will work for you, knowing little to nothing about it.

Well, how do you go about increasing your ability in an area such as marketing and new patients? The answer is simple: get trained on the subject so you can handle it yourself and be confident enough to act. Like it or not, you ARE an EXECUTIVE, by virtue of the fact you own a business. You can try to get around this fact, but it is what it is. An executive needs to know how to handle (competently) any area of his or her organization.

So, hurdle number one to overcome when looking to get out of managed care is having the ability to attract an adequate volume of fee-for-service new patients. Hurdle number two believe it or not is case acceptance.

In another article I wrote, I detailed the relationship between low collections, case acceptance and of all things referrals. Without going into great detail again, I’ll point out that an inability to “sell” full treatment plans, can convince a doctor that the reason for his or her low collections is not enough new patients. In other words, “to increase my collections, I need to more new patients coming in.” It is true that an abundance of new patients is healthy for a practice and should be maintained. But look at it this way: If you have three patients each with a $6000 treatment plan, only accepting a third of needed treatment presented (i.e. each do $2000 worth of treatment), this is the same from a collections standpoint of one patient accepting their full plan of $6000. That one patient who accepts their full plan will also be healthier and more likely to refer!

With all of the above in mind, there is a basic formula that ANY business follows:

1. Sell their product or service.
2. Deliver their product or service.
3. Get new people to sell and deliver their product or service to.

“Management” coordinates and holds the organization together so that it will continue to sell and deliver more services or goods to the public (which means expansion). However, if there is ineffective marketing and sales then there isn’t enough activity in the business to have something to manage.

Dental school and continuing education trains you how to “deliver the product.” Where most practitioners fail is in 1 and 3 above - selling and getting new people to sell and deliver to. The reason for this failure is not hard to see - you will be successful in areas where you are effectively trained. Areas in which you are not trained in or know little to nothing about will be troublesome. You will also have a hard time making decisions about these areas. And let me make clear that by effective training - I mean learning techniques that actually get a desirable result!

Having difficulty in sales and marketing due to no training, it is easy to see how Managed Care Plans can appear to be a solution. While they will make you busier, they in fact breed other problems when it comes to overhead and profitability.

The solution to this problem is simple, learn how to properly market and sell in your office. With that ability, you will then have the confidence to start getting off the plans.

To finish my story above, at the same time in 1992 that I was investigating managed care plans, I heard about the MGE New Patient Workshop (http://www.mgeonline.com). I found out more about it and decided to give it a shot. What attracted me to it was the idea that MGE was going to train me to fix the problem myself and that there was no risk involved (money back guarantee). So, with the managed care contracts on my desk, I signed for the MGE New Patient Workshop. I did the New Patient Workshop and was able to handle my new patient problem on my own - without having to join any plans. From there, I did more sales and executive training with MGE, built a very successful practice and in 1994 sold it and became a partner in the company to help other doctors like me.

So, when I tell you that learning how to do it yourself is a solution - I am not saying this from some detached viewpoint - I lived this experience myself and saw the benefit!

So, my advice to you - make this the best year you have had in practice. Get started by increasing your ABILTY with the MGE New Patient Workshop (http://www.mgeonline.com). I look forward to meeting you and tracking your success!

First of all, a word of thanks to all of you who filled out my survey last week. I found out quite a few things, including your dislike for the courier font I was using in our last few newsletters. I hope this one is better for all concerned. I personally liked the courier font; it felt a bit old school, like the manual typewriters I learned to type on in the year of the flood (the 1970’s for those who don’t remember the good old days), but being a marketing professional and knowing this newsletter is designed for what you need and want, have changed it to this nifty Arial font. I guess I should have known better. I don’t wear polyester anymore either. Let me know if this is better for you.

As far as the newsletter goes, some of you wanted more basic information; some of you wanted more in depth information.   At this point I’m going to keep the newsletter somewhat basic, but those of you who are interested in a more technical newsletter, please e-mail me and if there is enough of a need, I will start writing one. I also found out that you guys are interested in marketing thru video, mobile devices and blogs as well as any insider tips I can give you to do better. I plan on doing that in the coming weeks, but today, I want to go over what I found out from the research we did last week and my personal realizations from analyzing the information.

Now, I hope you do get a bit excited about that information, maybe not as much as I did, because I’m not only a marketing Goddess, but a geek deep down.

First of all, I don’t know if you realize this or not, but I had a tough time getting more than 30 responses when I was doing this at In Touch. I knew if I was really going to get a real understanding for my own marketing needs, I needed to get more than 30 responses.

So, I used my linkedin.com network as well as posting it to the questions area of linkedin.com. What I got was almost 200 responses between you guys and them. The information was great, especially since we had responses from all types of businesses and budget categories. One of the things I found most surprising, was the various ways people were marketing and their relative success.

Here you can see a sampling of people with budgets of $2,500.00 a month or less

Now, here are the results for those with a monthly budget of more than $5,000.00.