A good CRM implementation should be making you more efficient and saving you a lot of time.  After all, time is money. A common question I’m asked is whether there is an easy way to add the incoming leads you receive from a website form directly into an ACT! database.  My answer is a resounding YES. Many ACT! users don’t realize that the ACT! E-Marketing functionality does a whole lot more than... 

Absolutely the best part of being an ACT! consultant is that I work with a wide variety of industries. “Out of the box” ACT! is suitable for just about any business you can think of; with a bit of customizing you can create your own unique database at a fraction of the cost of buying an industry specific solution. This week alone I worked with the manufacturer of medical supplies, a commercial... 

If you’re any kind of sports fan then you heard about the marathon John Isner/Nicolas Mahut match at Wimbledon this year.  The match broke many records including longest match (11 hours, 5 minutes), longest set (8 hours, 11 minutes) and number of games (183).  As a tennis player that groans just thinking about a third set, I can’t even imagine the mind-set and determination that both the... 

Today’s post is by guest blogger, Deborah Shane of Train with Shane.  Deborah is an empowerment expert who specializes in career transitioning for women and provides sales, marketing and branding consulting.  She can be heard on her weekly on Blog Talk Radio. Take it away, Deborah! It’s amazing what you can do online, for free, in terms of connecting with your potential and existing customers... 

Pardon me for being a bit off key but I just have to start humming my favorite summertime songs.  After one of the coldest winters in recorded history followed by one of the rainiest springs, summer has arrived none too soon.  Although summer doesn’t officially begin for another few weeks, for many of us Memorial Day is the start of the summer season.  Traditionally the picnic gear comes out and,... 

I just returned from two weeks in beautiful Ventura, California, where I was recording new training videos for lynda.com on Outlook 2010.  In addition to beautiful weather, California is the home to the In-N-Out hamburger chain. For those of you unfamiliar with the In-N-Out chain, they have approximately 250 locations sprinkled throughout the Southwest.  Compare that to McDonald’s who has over... 

I was doing some research the other day for my lynda.com Outlook 2010 training videos and came across a pretty interesting story.  In 2007 employees of the United States Department of Homeland Security used large CC: lists in place of a distribution list to broadcast messages to several hundred users. Many of the recipients in turn used “reply to all”  to respond, causing the number of... 

A few years back I worked with a large cruise line company.  Although the cruise line spared no expensive when it came to onboard amenities, the CEO flatly refused to spend money on an ESP (e-mail service provider) to help send out his e-marketing campaign to his very large user base.  Within a very short period of time, he managed to get his entire company domain black-listed to the point where... 

One of my clients recently sent me a one of his proposed e-marketing templates for my review.  He had spent quite a bit of time developing his message and was understandably quite proud of it.  What he had in mind was for me to review it, make a few suggestions and fix any typos I might find.  He was no doubt expecting a few words of praise, or, at the very least, a large smiley face.  What he... 

If you’re reading this blog you’re probably an ACT user – or about to become one. One of the most frequent comments I hear from ACT users is that they “aren’t using ACT to its full potential.” On the simplest of levels, ACT is an electronic Rolodex. You can take ACT to the next level by making use of the Notes, History and Activity options. Throw in Sales Opportunities...