Here's the true story…

The "Killer Ads" program came about from an idea that I had in back in January of 1999. After having an unsuccessful practice for three years, one that barely made ends meet, I was fed up.

That's when I got the thought in my head, "If advertising works everywhere else, why doesn't it work in chiropractic?" So, I set out to explore the answer. I did my research.

Things turned around when I started using my first Killer Ad that I called, "Why Do I Use this Photo in My Ad?… It worked. It got me 45 new patients. I was astounded.

My ads continued to be so effective for me that I lent them to a few pals to try. They also had great success with them. In fact, the ads were so effective that I literally thought that the phenomenon was a "fluke." It wasn't. I kept doing my homework, and created more ads that followed the tested Secrets of Marketing. But, I knew something else that only chiropractors know…I knew what prospective patients feared about us.

I copyrighted and registered my ads with the U.S. Copyright Office, and started marketing the ads to the profession. The effort became The KILLER ADS, Inc., an "S Corporation." I owe a lot of the inspiration and encouragement to my friend Dr. Tony Palermo. Tony is a truly honest practice consultant, and one heck of a great guy. He recognized the potential of Killer Ads in their infancy. He taught me something that has helped the company grow beyond anything I ever imagined….he said, "Give people more than they expect." I try my best to follow that advice.

Killer Ads grew very fast, and I found tremendous joy in helping my colleagues. The ads were pulling guys out of some very deep holes. One fellow in particular was my incentive to push forward and make the program better and better. He was literally on the verge of losing it all, and his practice was pitiful. After using my ads, and getting some coaching from Tony, he now collects $35,000 a month, all cash. Not bad. Another guy wrote me just a few weeks ago. He was actually destitute, and he and his family were living in a relative's basement, dependent on the generosity of others to keep going. Killer Ads got him to 60 patients a day in a few short weeks, and he is a proud doctor again.

His story is not unique. In fact, my assistant, Kellie, keeps a huge testimonial book from doctors all around the world. These are people who wanted to tell us how Killer Ads helped them recreate their lives. Many were literally ready to give it all up before the Killer Ads program.

Running Killer Ads is a challenge. We literally run a "balancing act" between seeing a lot of patients, and helping doctors with their questions on advertising. I can remember one day when we saw 124 patients, did 22 new patients exams, returned 17 e-mails from Killer Ad doctors, returned six phone calls from doctors with questions, and re-wrote one ad for a fellow having a problem. That's one doctor, and one very good CA.

Since the beginning, the fee for the Killer Ads program has been low. I've been called a "fool" by one of the most well known consultants for doing this. In a way, he's right. But, we have a mission. We want to get as many people to honest chiropractors as we can, so that they (both patient and doctor) can benefit. We could triple our fee, and get it, because the value is there.

With few exceptions, the professionals who have invested in my program have been the best. They refer their pals, they write in testimonials; they send gifts ($100 bills, barbequed ribs, trips on sailboats, and beautiful letters). These people actually protect me. They call when a doctor they are not familiar with puts out one of my ads. And, we have developed a way of stopping that legally, immediately, and forever.

The consultants who refer their clients to me have also been great. I remember the time I did a taping with Greg Stanley of Whitehall Management in Phoenix. When I was leaving, we shook hands, and I thanked him. He said, "No, thank you, I can't tell you how much you've helped my doctors." Some of these consultants (you may not know this, but it's true) literally bust their humps to help their clients, not just so they can make money, but also because they have a burning desire to help.

There are those few who have stolen my material. When I hear about a colleague who has done this, it is upsetting.

This brings me to the most important point of my essay. About nine months after I started the Killer Ads Program, I got an e-mail from a guy (not a chiropractor, let's call him George). His friend, (let's call him Dan), a chiropractor, let him 'borrow' my program. George told me that he planned to do a similar program, but that I "beat him to it." He congratulated me on how good my material was, and offered to do "joint ventures" with me. He asked for a healthy percentage of the sales of people he referred to me (that part is not unethical).

Some time later this knucklehead wrote me again and said that he had produced a manual for chiropractors, and he wanted give me one. He asked me to refer people to him if I liked it (and he's give me a percentage of those sales). I told him that I didn't want the gift, I wanted to pay for one, so I'd have no bias.

When the manual came, Kellie and I looked it over, and we literally were shocked. This guy had taken his very generalized knowledge of marketing, and added much of my book to it. Some pages were word for word from my book, and much just paraphrased. There was even a list from my book that appeared in his. There is no way on God's Earth that this was an "accident." Even one of my headlines, almost word for word, was in his book. He gave not one bit of credit to me, in fact, not one bit of credit to any author.

And this guy wanted me to refer his book to people! Think about it, he stole my material, and then wanted me to refer him chiropractors (people I bust my butt for, every day). I was infuriated! I literally wanted to get on a plane, fly to Southern California, rent a car, drive to his house, ring the door bell, and say, "Hi, I'm Bob Manna," and then knock him out on his front steps. Then, I'd drive back to John Wayne Airport, return the car, tip my hat to the John Wayne statue in the terminal, and fly home…sleeping peacefully all the way back to Atlanta.

Now, this guy has now taken to re-writing my ads, in a sort of "paraphrased" way, and selling them as his (again, giving no credit to me, or anyone else). His material is seriously flawed, but I'm not about to put in print why that is. More than once I've had a very angry client of his call me, expressing their disgust at how a man could do such a thing.

When I called this guy to tell him that I had an intellectual property lawyer who wanted the case, and asked him to remove parts of his book or at least give the source, he claims that he didn't take my material, and that he believes in "freedom of the press." I also believe in freedom of the "press." That's the pressing weight of Universal Law. We chiropractors know what that is. So, I don't worry too much about this guy, he'll get what's coming. What I do worry about are chiropractors, especially troubled ones, who are often duped by slick marketers like him claiming that he'll have new patients "lining up outside their doors."

Killer Ads has been around. It is the most successful program of it's kind. And, we back it up, 100%. When you have a question, Kellie or I will help you with it. I'm a chiropractor, and she's one of the best CA's that I know of (which is why she makes about twice the normal salary of a CA). We are in the trenches, every day, not only with a chiropractic practice, but also helping doctors using the Killer Ads Program.

Of 3,100 people who've bought the Killer Ads program, only 19 have returned it. Only two doctors returned it after implementing it, (the rest didn't think it was 'for them'). When the two boys who did use it with poor results showed me their ads, they had not followed the rules I laid out for them. There are a few guys out there that did follow the rules, and did poorly. But, those people are very, very few. That's why our return rate is an amazing .007%. I do not know of any other program of its kind that enjoys that kind of success.

So, when you consider a program to help you in your marketing, we want you to know where we "come from." We want you to know that we've done, and we'll continue to do our best for you. We want you to know that we'll give you, as my friend Tony put it, "more than you expect."

Yours in Success,
Bob Manna, D.C.