The RAW program is an innovative publishing concept that allows buyers to download each chapter as completed by the author before full editing has taken place. When the book has been completed and is ready for printing, the buyer can download the final version of the eBook. Buyers of RAW books can also pre-order the printed version and receive discounts as part of the RAW bundled offer.

RAW books are particularly appropriate for new software releases because users need immediate solutions to their problems and cannot wait the approximately nine months required for traditional books to come to market. It’s an ideal method of presenting ACT! because each new version includes lots of major enhancements and ACT users want to learn about them immediately.

You can learn more about the two ACT Cookbooks at https://www.packtpub.com/authors/profiles/karen-fredricks.  Just remember though – they’re still a bit RAW!

In my personal life I’m thankful that I live in Florida, the weather is absolutely perfect, and for the first time in years I’m not responsible for “the” dinner.  I’m thankful that my daughter has inherited my “shopping” gene and will actually accompany me to the mall on Friday and that I have lots of great activities planned for the weekend.

In my business life I’m thankful that business is great, I work with a lot of really neat clients, I’m on the home stretch of my latest two books on ACT! and I continue to use ACT! to make me super efficient – which means I have more time to enjoy my personal life!

In the ACT! realm I’m happy that Sage just released ACT! 2011 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Most of us are already familiar with the term “bug.” The official definition of bug is “an error or defect in software or hardware that causes a program to malfunction. Unofficially a bug is what causes computer users everywhere to pull out their hair and threaten to take a hammer to their hardware.

Software developers release “service patches” or “hot fixes” aimed at fixing bugs. Over a period of time the developer may release several “patches” and also a few enhancements to make the software even better.  All these goodies are rolled into a “service pack.”

The bottom line to you, the consumer, is that when you buy a piece of software the “patches and packs” come to you free of charge – and will hopefully kill, maim and destroy any bugs that might be in the software.

If you’re using ACT! 2011 you’ll want to download and install Service Pack 1.  It fixes a number of small but annoying bugs such as the inability to click the Create Lookup button in the keyword search dialog box or include a checkbox field in the Contact List.  It also add a couple of nice enhancements including more Smart Task timing options and improved Outlook synchronization performance.

You can click here for the download site and installation instructions and to read about all the fixes and enhancements.  If you’re running ACT on a shared environment you’ll want to apply the Service Pack to the server first and update the database prior to updating the individual work stations.

Best wishes for a wonderful “bug free” Thanksgiving Day!

Let me digress.  I was one of the 12 consultants nationwide that had been chosen to run an ACT 6 launch event.  I was given 6 weeks to secure a location, make audio/visual arrangements and run a trade show of ACT addon vendors.  Attendees were invited based on a circle of Fort Lauderdale; the “powers that be” didn’t realize that the only attendees coming from the east, west or south would be sporting fins so I scrambled to create my own invitation list.  August is probably the worst month to hold an event in Florida as almost everyone is on vacation somewhere escaping the blistering heat.

I had told the caterers to expect 500 people.  After a few lightening strikes literally rattled the windows of the Westin where the event was being held I figured my kids would be eating finger foods for the next week!

The doors to the trade show were scheduled to open at 5 PM.  At 3 PM as I was scrambling around the room in jeans literally running wires when a member of the hotel staff sought me out; he didn’t look happy.  Apparently folks started arriving early for the event.  So many people in fact that a line had begun to snake around the entire lobby.

By 5 o’clock when we opened the doors the place was packed.  We ended up having over a 90% attendance rate; the few “no-shows” were quickly replaced by the dozens of people who showed up without a reservation.  Needless to say, the event was a success!

I have to admit that the event was truly one of the highlights of my life.  It was amazing to see so many ACT “FanACTics”  clamoring for a sneak peak of the new ACT product. After all, it had been nearly 4 years since the last ACT release and users were clamoring to see the new changes.

I’ve often wondered if I could have pulled off an event of that magnitude for any other product launch.  QuickBooks?  Excel?  Outlook? I think not.

I am thrilled to announce that after 8 years I am once again holding an ACT event.  This time it’s part of Sage Software’s “ACT Road Show” initiative.  Sage is sending down a number of their executives to show ACT FanACTics some of the new ACT 2011  features as well as to answer their questions on anything from usability to future product enhancements.

I know I won’t have 500 attendees this time; I’m limiting the event to a mere 200.  But I’m really looking forward to once again seeing the loyal ACT followers “raising a glass” to the latest ACT version!

If you’d like to attend please go to http://actroadshow.eventbrite.com to register.

If you’ve been sitting in the Stone Age and are still clinging to your tried and true version of ACT 6, you might want to take a look at the features that you missed by not upgrading previously.  If you have a more recent version of ACT you might also want to take a look at that list to see what you missed in the last version or two.

With my apologies to David Letterman, here’s my list of the Top 10 best new features in ACT 2011:

1. Your version of ACT will now be compatible with Office 2010.
2. Your version of ACT will now be compatible with Windows 7.
3. You can synchronize your Outlook contacts to ACT.
4. You can synchronize your ACT contacts to Outlook.
5. You can synchronize your Outlook calendar to ACT.
6. You can synchronize your ACT calendar to Outlook.
7. You can set up Smart Tasks to automatically schedule a follow-up call to any customer that you haven’t heard from in 60 days.
8. You can set up Smart Tasks to automatically send out several emails to each new prospect that you add to your database.
9. Automatically link ACT to your Hoover’s account.
10. You can take advantage of the best possible pricing during the pre-release sale.

If you’d like to see what the new version of ACT looks like, or have a question about upgrading, you can view my  ACT 2011 webinar.  And, should you purchase ACT 2011 from me, don’t forget that you’ll be eligible to attend a free class on the new features.

I no sooner got off the phone with that prospect when another client called; he was trying to install ACT 2008 with Windows 7 and was running into all sorts of problems.

Unfortunately I couldn’t help either person add new functionality without upgrading to a newer version of ACT.

It always surprises me when a business owner refuses to spend money on technology.  His home computer no doubt puts his office computer to shame and he probably doesn’t think twice about buying the latest HD television for himself or an I Phone for his kid.

Technology upgrades should be considered a necessary, recurring cost of doing business.  You can’t run your business without a telephone and office supplies, and you shouldn’t be running a business with outdated technology. Ironically, technology is the single best way to lower the overhead of a business.

In most cases the price of an upgrade is outweighed by the decrease in general operating expenses that proper use of technology will provide.  The cost of running a business is a fraction of what it was 10 years ago.

Here are some of the ways that you should be leveraging modern technology with ACT to reduce your overhead:

• VOIP (voice over IP):  Most VOIP business solutions include an “auto attendant” which means you can save on support staff salaries and decrease your phone bills.
• Automating Processes: I like to tell people I’m either very lazy or very smart.  In either case I hate to have to do the same work over and over again.  A case in point is reaching out to existing customers and prospects.  Traditional ACT users set up “reminders” for each and every follow-up.  “Turbo-charged” ACT users set up drip marketing campaigns or will use ACT 2011’s new Smart Tasks feature to speed up the process and insure that no contact is left untouched.
• E-Marketing: E-blasts have replaced more traditional marketing campaigns.  They’re quicker, easier and cheaper. However, even snail mail blasts are much easier and consequently less expensive to run with ACT.
• Telecommuting: ACT’s remote access options can eliminate the need for office space and equipment for your sales staff and other key personnel.  And the opportunity reports and dashboards will allow you to maintain complete accountability on their productivity.

I’ll be running a free webinar on ACT 2011 on Wednesday, August 11 at 6 PM EST.  Click here to register.  The webinar will be recorded and all registrants will receive a copy of the recording.

Oh, alarms – how do I hate thee?  Let me count the ways.  First of all, too many of you routinely snooze your alarms.  Secondly with all those alarms going off none of them really stands out so that the really important stuff is mixed in with the not so important stuff.  Finally, what happens if you forget to set an alarm or an activity?  The floodgates open and a deluge of information is lost forever.

Don’t believe me?  Research shows that at least 25% of the average database is dead wood.  And part of the reason for that dead wood is that we let too much important information fall through the cracks in our database.

Fortunately, the use of ACT’s dynamic group function provides a simple solution for plugging those holes.  A dynamic group will work automatically and require less time on your part than the more traditional method of scheduling tasks.  The contents of a dynamic group change dynamically when the information in your database changes.  For example, you might create a dynamic group for each of your sales people.  When you assign contacts the sales force they will automatically appear in the appropriate group; if you reassign contacts the groups will realign automatically.

Here’s what you’ll need to do to create those dynamic groups:

1. Determine the purpose of your existing alarms.  My solution will work for activities such as following up with new prospects or reaching out to customers that you haven’t spoken to in the last two months.
2. Create a group in ACT by going to the Groups Detail View, clicking the Groups menu, selecting New Group and giving the group a name.
3. Right-click the new group from the list of groups on the left side of the Groups Detail View, select Group Membership, choose Add/Remove Contacts and then click the Edit Criteria button.

At this juncture you’re ready to create a simple query to automatically find the contacts that match your criteria.  I particularly like to build my queries based on a date field so that I can automatically find customers with expiring maintenance contracts, or orders that are still waiting to be shipped.

You might find it helpful to see the new prospects that have been added to your database in the last two days to insure that they don’t “fall through the cracks”.  Here’s what that query looks like:

Once you get the hang of creating dynamic groups the sky’s the limit.  Just think – the only alarm you’ll have to be snoozing is the one next to your bed!

• ID/Status: Although I hate the name, I love the field.  Think of this as the main category that a contact record belongs to.  You’ll need this field to easily reach various segments within your database.  Out of the box, the ID/Status drop-down list is a bit long so you’ll want to pare it down to 8-12 items.  Typical choices consist of Customer, Prospect, Vendor and Personal but you can modify the drop-down as needed.  The entire database of a blood lab I work with consists of patients so their ID/Status options refer to insurance type such as Aetna, Humana and Blue Cross.  The Easter egg here is that you can easily tie the ID/Status field to the contents of a dynamic ACT group; for example, you might create a group that automatically displays all of your .customers that you haven’t contacted in over a month.
• Referred By: If your business is booming and you have no desire to see it grow, or if you’re not worried about the ROI of your marketing efforts, then you don’t need to use this field.  And, if you’ve opted to create your own “Lead Source” or other similar field you’re missing the boat to some very powerful functionality.  The Easter egg here is that the data in this field flows directly into the Source of Referrals report.  For example, you could create a Lookup of your top customers, run the Source of Referrals report and see where all those folks came from; alternatively you could query one of your recent marketing campaigns, run the report, and get a feel for how many new customers you attracted.
• Last Results: Most marketing analysts agree that you need to contact a cold prospect an average of ten to twelve times before they convert to a customer.  Statistically 50% of sales people give up after one attempt, and a whopping 90% give up after two.  Yikes!  All too often sales teams make a half-hearted effort to contact prospects, or zealously attack a new prospect list for only a very short period of time.  The Last Results field is a great way to set up an organized plan of attack.  I like to number the drop-down list items to include entries such as “1 – Sent introductory e-mail” and “8 – No Interest at this time.”  The hidden benefit here is that this field automatically creates a time-stamped entry on the History tab that reflects the date of your last action.
• Record Manager: Quite simply, the Record Manager is the person in your organization who is responsible for a contact.  Sure you could create a “sales person” or “rep” field but then you’ll be missing the chance to find another Easter egg.  The benefit here is that any of the reports that measure the activities of your sales people include filters based on the Record Manager.

Enjoy your Easter eggs!

• I did a bit of research
• I developed a plan that consisted of a small number of baby steps
• I stayed with the program

My system worked and it got me to thinking how I could apply the same concept to removing some of the “dead weight” often found in the databases.  Although I work with a variety of CRM solutions I find that my clients deal with the exact same issues.  Here are a few of my solutions:

• Learn your software. Every CRM solution contains a category field; in ACT it’s called ID/Status.  This field usually contains values such as Customer, Prospect, or Vendor.  This will help you pinpoint the exact portion of your database that you need to market to.  Learn how to add another choice like “Dead Lead” so you’re sales folks won’t spin their wheels calling companies that aren’t a good fit for your business.
• Have an easy way to find the data that needs updating. You can’t lose 10 pounds – or slim down your database – in a day.  As you work through your database using baby steps, it’s imperative that you have a quick bookmark to find the contacts you haven’t as yet had a chance to work on.   I set up Dynamic Groups in ACT to keep track of all my contacts that are missing contact information; as I fill in the blanks – or add a new, incomplete contact – my group changes accordingly.
• Have a system for dealing with your duplicates on a timely basis. Unfortunately, computers aren’t bright enough to understand that William, Bill and Billy are all the same person, and that ABC Co and ABC Company are one and the same.   ACT has the cool Copy/Move Contact Data feature that allows you to merge duplicates as you run across them.  A search on the Internet will help you find addon solutions that will “deal with the dupes” for other CRM products.
• Fill in the blanks. Sometimes it’s not what you know but what you don’t know that can kill you.    I recently looked over my own database and found that I was missing the e-mail addresses for nearly 10% of my prospects.  I found a free solution for finding contact information that worked so well that I was soon able to cut that number in half.  Once I had e-mail addresses I was able to use ACT’s e-marketing tool to send out an e-mail requesting corrected contact information; I then sat back as the replies automatically updated my missing contact information in ACT.
• Link to your accounting software. I compare this ability to lifting weight in the gym.  Your existing customers are without a doubt the best source of future revenue.  You need to reach out to the folks who spent lots of money with you three years ago, but haven’t called you since.  The ability to query on your accounting information in your CRM solution is crucial.  I’m running a free webinar if you’d like to see how I’ve linked ACT to my QuickBooks information.
• Eliminate unnecessary notes and histories. I’m a firm believer in keeping accurate notes about my contacts.  However, over a period of time too much information is, well, too much information.   I have a great tool that lets me selectively pick and choose the history data I want to purge from my database.  For example, I recently removed just the histories from 2007 and 2008 showing that I had sent out e-newsletters; that alone eliminated over 50,000 history records from my database!

Although I’m certainly not a weight-loss expert I’d be happy to share my dieting tips if you send me an e-mail. In the meantime, if you take a few baby steps at a time, you’ll find that your database is soon looking a lot sleeker and healthier.  Good luck with your weight loss program!

Perhaps the final nail in the publishing coffin will be delivered not by the purveyors of information but by the speed of the information itself.  Take a look at the ACT software; it took 18 years to develop the first 6 versions of ACT and only 5 years to develop the next 5.  More and more software is coming to us in the way of SaaS (software as a service) and can be modified at a moment’s notice.  Considering that it takes anywhere from 6-9 months to produce a book it becomes almost impossible for a publisher to keep up with the changes.

When I wrote the first of what would turn out to be 11 For Dummies books nearly 9 years ago, the publishing world looked quite a bit different than it does today.  Wiley Publishing had contacted me as the ACT Software Expert, we agreed on a table of contents, and I wrote the book.  When a new version of ACT came out a couple of years later, I expanded the table of contents slightly and wrote a new version.

Fast forward to 2009.  Publishers’ are facing a decline in revenues; consequently it is harder than ever to get a book published.  About this time I was contacted by lynda.com to create ACT training videos.  Lynda has been around for 10 year, mainly focusing on web and graphic software training.  Lynda advertises that they have courses in over 700 software titles.  Intrigued, I perused their offerings and found courses on subjects I had never heard of (Joomla! and Ruby come to mind) as well as on topics that I knew but needed to know better (WordPress and Twitter ).  And, like a book, each course is divided into chapters and each chapter contains a number of topics.  Viewing a topic can take anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes and, if a picture is worth a thousand words these are worth a million.

The team at lynda has the process down to rocket science and in a little more than a month’s time the ACT 2010 Essential Training videos  were up and running.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’ll continue to write – and read books.  I live in Florida and don’t want to drag a laptop to the beach or risk getting sand in my Kindle.  But if I need training on a rapidly changing site such as Facebook I’ll be using lynda where I know I’ll get the latest and greatest information.

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I began to wonder what prompted this I-Phone fixation by my friends.  The answer is quite simple – it pays to advertise.  After all, the harder “they” sell the more likely we are to buy. 

All too often CRM shoppers succumb to the same sales tactics that got my friends to buy I-Phones.  They’re told that one solution is “better” or “easier” than another when in reality most solutions offer pretty much the same standard set of features. 

A simple search on the Internet will provide you with hundreds of CRM solutions.  So how do you narrow the field?  Here are a few of my suggestions:

• Look for software with a proven track record; after all, there’s safety in numbers.  A large user install base means that the company has been able to keep lots of people happy – and stayed current with the latest advancements in technology.
• Avoid start ups.  Period.  Sure, they can promise you the moon but might lack the financing to stay solvent.   Where will you – and your database – be if the company goes belly up?
• Look for a variety of technical support options.  If you love to DIY you’ll want a large searchable knowledge base.  Look for books and online training videos from third-party vendors; those vendors will only create materials if there are enough folks out there to buy them.  Are there independent consultants available to help you and, if so, at what price?
• Understand the pricing structure before you sign on the dotted line.  Are you paying a one-time, monthly or annual fee?  Does the pricing include all of the software’s functionality or do you have to pay extra for adding additional features?  Will you be hit with an additional charge as your database grows?
• There is no such thing as a free lunch –avoid free software unless you have a very high tolerance for buggy software and advertising sidebars.
• A good CRM solution should be fairly effortless.  For example, if you want to send out a lot of letters make sure you can accomplish that task quickly and easily.  Have your sales person concentrate on the features that are the most important to you not the bells and whistles that you’ll never use.
• A good CRM solution should be easy to customize.  The goal is to help you become more efficient, organized and profitable.  Don’t be forced into changing your existing successful businesses practices to accommodate your software; a good CRM solution should be flexible. 

Hopefully these hints will prevent you from making a costly mistake both in terms of time and money.  And remember, if you’re one of those folks who avoid doing your due diligence, I have some prime Florida swamp land you might be interested in!