“We purchased ACT! a few years ago and it’s just not working for us.  No one is using it.  We’d like to switch to ABC_CRM.  They gave us a really great demo and I think it’s exactly what we need.”

My advice is that rather than investing in more CRM software they need to invest a little time and money in their own database first.

Unfortunately, all too often I see a company purchase a software solution and then “assume” that once it’s installed everyone can ride off into the happy sunset.  To me, that’s like assuming that once you purchase a scalpel you’ll know how to use it.  Bad assumption!

Want to get up and running with ACT! – or any other CRM solution for that matter?  Here are my Five CRM Commandments:

• Thou shalt get with the program. Literally. Consider telling your staff, “if it’s not in ACT!, it doesn’t exist.”  You’ve invested in your software to save you time which means you should not have to be looking at numerous spreadsheets, reports and legal pads to keep track of what’s going on in your company.
• He who teaches himself is taught by a fool. Maybe I’m prejudiced because I’ve written 7 books on ACT!, have created training videos on all of ACT!’s core functionality and spend a great deal of my time showing people how to use ACT! .  Trust me, you’re not going to learn my osmosis.
• Garbage in, garbage out. Many people grumble that their database is “full of junk.”  Stress to your employees the importance of accurate data.  Take the time to enter information correctly the first time, and modify incorrect information as you stumble on it.
• De-dupe you dope. ACT! comes with a neat utility to merge duplicate records together.  If you don’t know how to merge your duplicates, take the time to learn!
• Keep your eye on the prize. If you’re goal is to have a rather pricey electronic Rolodex system, that’s fine.  However, if you’re looking to use your database for a specific purpose such creating a marketing campaign that will entice specific prospects to start buying your products you’ll need to put a bit of thought into segmenting your database so that you can reach out to customers and prospects by their area of interest.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was your database.  However, if you stick to my 5 simple Commandments you’ll soon be reaping the benefits of an effective CRM solution!

Karen Fredricks
Tech Benders

As most of you know, I’m probably one of the biggest ACT! cheerleaders around.  However, sometimes I run across an ACT! feature that makes me slap my head and wonder “what were they thinking??”  A case in point is the Documents tab.  I love the ability to create shortcuts to my documents so that I can easily access them from the contact’s Document tab rather than grappling around searching for files while talking to a client.  However, what I’d really like to do in some cases is get to an entire folder of information at the click of a button.  Unfortunately, this is not an option in ACT! – or so I thought before speaking to  two long-time ACT! Consultants, Chuck Cutler and Rita Kogstad.  They provided me with what turned out to be a very simple solution to a bothersome problem.

Follow these steps to create a link on the contact record to a data folder:

1. In ACT!, create a new URL field and place it in your contact layout.
2. Launch Windows Explorer (or My Computer).
3. Navigate to the folder you wish to link.
4. Right-click the folder, choose Properties from the contextual window and copy the folder’s location into the Windows clipboard
5. Type file:// in the new URL field and then paste in the contents of the clipboard.  For example, to navigate to my own documents folder I’d place file://C:\Users\Karen Fredricks\Documents into my ACT! field.

The next time you want to quickly get to the folder simply click it; the folder will pop open in seconds.

I like that little trick but there’s also a way to get a folder to show up on the Documents tab as well that ACT! Consultant Art Russ shared with me that and doesn’t necessitate the need to create a new field:

1. Launch Windows Explorer (or My Computer).
2. Navigate to the folder you wish to link.
3. Right-click the folder and choose Create Shortcut from the contextual menu.  You will now be on a shortcut file.
4. Use your mouse to drag and drop the shortcut file to the contact’s Documents tab.
5. Double-click the shortcut in the Documents tab to view the contents of the linked folder.

There are lots of cool shortcuts in ACT! that users take advantage of every day to make ACT! even more powerful than it already is.  If you have discovered other shortcuts that you’d like to share please let me know!

I truly believe that even the best of us procrastinate at least once in a while especially when it comes to doing routine tasks or things we don’t have fun doing.  Most of us aren’t going to jump out of bed early on a Saturday to shovel snow or rake the lawn.  Nor are most companies very proactive about writing thank you notes or sending holiday cards.

I love ACT! because it helps take some of the pain out of those routine tasks that we all dread.  For example, it’s easy to create a query based on your recently closed business and use that as the basis for thank you notes.  Or you might add a “mailing” field and use that to generate a list for your holiday cards.  And of course you can send those cards electronically if you want.

I can’t claim that CRM software will help you get your holiday shopping done on a timelier basis but I can claim that it will help automate many of the office chores to make you much more productive and efficient.  And of course, all that extra productivity will give you a bit more time to go to the mall to buy those last minute gifts!

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!

You’ll find the Web Info tab in both the Contact and Company Detail views. The Web Info tab is actually a browser that displays information based on data in various fields on a contact or company record.  ACT! comes with a number of links to sites including Google Search, Google Maps and Weather.com so you can instantly scour the Net for more information or just see what the weather is like in your contact’s location.  You can also easily add new sites; for example, many of my clients like to create a link between their contacts and Twitter.

By far my favorite web link is the one to LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site mainly used for professional networking; as of the latest count LinkedIn had more than 80 million registered users. The beauty of sites like LinkedIn is that they offer you another way to stay in front of your contacts; any posts you make on your LinkedIn site are visible to all of your LinkedIn contacts.  And, in the event that a contact leaves his place of employment and changes his e-mail address, you’ll still be able to connect with him.

Here’s how you can start building your own LinkedIn network in 5 easy steps.

1. Start by logging in to your LinkedIn account.
2. Create a Lookup of the ACT! Contacts that you’d like to add to LinkedIn.
3. Click the Web Info tab on the Contacts Detail View and select the LinkedIn link that runs along the left-hand side of the Web Info tab.
4. LinkedIn will search its database for matches to the current contact record.  Click the Add to Network hyperlink on the Web Info tab to send a LinkedIn invitation to the current contact.
5. Advance to the next Contact record and repeat the process.

Many ACT! users start out by creating a Lookup of all their customers and connecting to them.  If you’ve recently joined a networking group or attended a trade show you might want to “link up” with those contacts. Eventually you might get into the habit of checking the status of any contact you’re currently working with.

Social networking is becoming an essential method of communication.  If you’re an ACT! user you can stay in touch with your important contacts at the touch of a button.

In traditional publishing, it takes at least 9 months for a new book to arrive on the shelves of your local book store.  The writing process takes less than half the time; editing, typesetting, printing and distribution adds months to the overall process. By that time many books are literally “old before their time” – especially if the topic is related to technology.

I was approached in May by a fairly new publisher, PactT Publishing.   The company’s business model involves “print on demand” publishing.  Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology in which new copies of a book are not printed until an order has been received. Print on Demand uses digital printing rather than the traditional letterpress or offset printing which means that edits can be made with each new printing. Digital printing also means that a book is available immediately in e-book and e-reader format; traditional printers generally wait until a book proves to be successful before they convert to “e-format.”

I am currently working on two new titles for PackT – ACT! By Sage 2011 Cook Book and ACT! by Sage Reports and Dashboards Cook Book.  I’m even more excited to announce that both books have been accepted into the new “RAW” (Read as we Write) program.  RAW is a cutting-edge new program that enables customers to access books while they are being written. The RAW program provides customers with downloadable chapters months before the full book is available and sends new updated chapters as they are written.

Buying a RAW book offers customers the opportunity to gain immediate access to content, share in the editorial process of producing a book and to receive a substantial discount on the final product. As soon as the author has written a new chapter, Packt will add it to the eBook and notify customers who can download it immediately. In addition to early access, customers have the opportunity to provide feedback and suggestions for future updates.

It’s still too early to tell if the RAW program will prove to be successful.  PactT is envisioning an online community of readers , other users and the author.

For more information please visit my website.

For those of you who might not be familiar with lynda.com I’d describe it as an online software school.  You can take out a monthly subscription for roughly $25 a month which give you access to all of the courses including my own courses on ACT 2010 and Outlook 2010.  For example, if you’re creating a blog you can take a Word Press course, or if you need to learn how to edit your photos you might want to check out a Photo Shop course.  The last time I looked there were over 800 available courses with new ones being added every day.

I actually created two courses on Outlook 2010.  The Outlook 2010 New Features course is aimed at Outlook users who are upgrading to 2010 and covers the “new stuff” such as the new Outlook Ribbon, Quick Steps and the Outlook Social Network connector.  The Outlook 2010 Essential Training course is for the new Outlook user who wants to learn everything from setting up an e-mail account and subscribing to blogs, to creating an address book and keeping a calendar.

Alternatively you can just purchase the course of your choice on DVD for $49 through Amazon.  My ACT 2010 Essential training DVD is currently available and the Outlook 2010 will be available shortly.

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!