I got a call from a potential client the other day who wanted help in converting his existing databases into the latest version of ACT; he was a long-time ACT user and had accumulated over 20 databases.  He then went on to explain that unless I could match the $15/hour price quoted to him by the kid down the street he wasn’t interested in my services.  Shortly after that I received a call from another prospect that was looking to purchase cheap copies of ACT 2000 (circa 1998) for his sales staff because he didn’t want to pay to upgrade to a newer version. 

Maybe it was a full moon, or maybe it’s the economy that prompted those calls.  However, I’m always amazed that many companies are so unwilling to invest in their software solutions. 

For those of you not familiar with the term, an investment is a commitment of money or capital in order to gain a financial return.  If you really want to succeed in today’s business environment you’re going to have to invest some time – and money – into your technology.  And that investment now will result in profitable returns in the future.

Let’s take a look at the first caller.  Aside from the fact that he has created a maintenance nightmare, having so many databases is just plain inefficient.  For one thing, he has to access over 20 Task Lists and Calendars when scheduling appointments and follow-up activities.  He can’t obtain company-wide feedback on his marketing efforts.  He wastes time opening and closing databases.  Worst of all, he runs a huge risk of accidentally stumbling into the wrong database – or deleting it entirely.  And I doubt very seriously if that “kid down the street” is going to be able to help him out of his mess.

His investment in a bit of specialized training and support will result in a huge increase in productivity – and ultimately profitability.

The second caller is obviously quite happy with the status quo.  He certainly isn’t using social networking to expand his client base or e-marketing to promote his products.  His computers are probably 7-8 years old; when they eventually die he’ll have to scramble around at the last minute to replace them as well as all of his outdated software which is no longer compatible with the newer Operating Systems. 

His investment in a software upgrade now will result in an increase in sales and business later.  His investment will also prevent the chaos and down time that he’ll experience when he’s forced to replace his infrastructure at a moment’s notice.

Your parents probably taught you as a child to invest in your future.  Shouldn’t you also be investing in your business?

Karen Fredricks
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com/

Many years ago my husband and I attempted to wallpaper our dining room.  Of course it didn’t help that we began work on this DIY project two weeks before Thanksgiving and were under a time crunch.  I carefully set up a table in the garage where we applied the paste and carried the soggy paper through the house and into the dining room.  Needless to say by the end of the trip the paper was in shreds.  After we had pretty much mangled the project we called in a professional who just looked at us and shook his head.  He finally managed to ask why we hadn’t simply set up our table in the dining room.  Quite frankly the thought never occurred to either one of us, nor had the concept of purchasing pre-glued paper.

I consider myself a fairly smart person.  However, I also know my limitations, and know when I need to call in the experts.  I’ve learned over the years that money I spend on a consultant, book or course is well worth its price when I compare it to the time it might take me to eventually wave the white flag and concede defeat. 

To paraphrase Ben Franklin, “he who teaches himself is taught by a fool.” 

I run into folks all the time who prefer the DIY route when it comes to software.  I understand the desire to tinker with software; after all, I do it myself.  Unfortunately, many of those folks who teach themselves usually make the same mistake that I did when I tried my hand at wallpapering:   they didn’t keep it simple.  As I work to untangle the convoluted system that they created – which, by the way, doesn’t provide them with the functionality that they had initially hoped for – they often mutter something like, “Gee, that was easy!”  It’s amazing how simple tasks become when we actually know what we’re doing!

My suggestion is that if you really want to master a software title, learn from a pro.  There are a number of avenues available to you.  I write for Wiley Publishing who have created For Dummies titles on over 2,000 topics; they even have a book that covers wallpapering!  I recently created and recorded training videos for lynda.com; for a yearly subscription you have access to online learning courses on hundreds of software titles.  If you prefer that up close and personal approach hire a good consultant; just make sure that the consultant specializes in the specific area you need help with.  Don’t settle for a computer guy who “is really good;” it’s your time, your money and your business.  Get help from an expert who will be able to simplify the learning process.

Karen Fredricks
www.techbenders.com
blog@techbenders.com

I love my tennis buddies even if they are a bit technically challenged.  Take away their AOL accounts and they’d never be able to access e-mail; to them a browser is someone who’s not yet ready to make a purchase.  I found it quite interesting that lately many of them were switching cell phone carriers because they just “had to have” an I-Phone.  I know they’ll never use the device for anything other than the most basic features yet they were willing to pay the price for an I-Phone.

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!

Karen Fredricks
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com

I recently ran across a wonderful story in the Washington Post about two high school kids who stumbled across an abandoned baby on their way home from school 20 years ago.  The baby, only hours old when the kids found her, were ultimately turned over to authorities. The child was eventually adopted but not before the kids had a chance to visit her in the hospital and gift her with a teddy bear.  Fast forward 20 years.  The baby, now a college student, still had the teddy bear.  The rescuers continued to celebrate the occurrence every year and longed to know what had become of the baby they had saved.   The college student found the names of her rescuers on Facebook and hesitantly reached out to them.  They in turn were delighted to hear from her and have planned a reunion.

What made the story even more meaningful for me was that I actually knew one of those high-schoolers as well as his father; they were both former ACT consultants who I had met on numerous occasions.

 The above story struck me for two reasons.  First, those three incredible kids were reunited via a networking site, Facebook, which wasn’t even in existence 20 years ago.  And secondly, I gained a bit more insight into two of my business acquaintances.

You might feel that technology has served to make our world a bit less personal.  And, while I agree that Internet shopping lacks the warm and fuzzy feeling our parents might have encountered at their local store, I think that in many ways technology has made our world a much smaller place.  In fact, technology makes it even easier than ever to develop a personal connection with our business associates.

When I first started my consulting practice over ten years ago, I routinely hopped in my car and drove to my client’s location.  Now, I’m more likely to hop on their computer.  Although this has allowed me to expand the territory that I service, it’s also removed a great deal of that human touch.  Consequently, I make just a bit more of an effort to build a better relationship with my clients.  I’ll admit I cheat a bit by using ACT’s web info tab.  

I recently discovered that the Travel Channel had run a piece on a cool diner in one client’s small New Jersey town, and that another client has pretty much devoted his life to finding a cure for his special needs child.  If nothing else I can badger a client about a winter snowstorm when I reside in Florida, or discuss an event that might have occurred close to his location. 

For me, the world just keeps getting smaller, and folks a bit friendlier!

If you’d like to read the original story about the abandoned baby you can find it at by clicking here.   You might also want to take an online course at lynda.com; I particularly like their Facebook training. 

Karen Fredricks
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com

My twenty-three year old daughter was home for the holidays. Hard as it is to believe, my “baby” is now a college graduate. Of course the start of a new decade left me thinking about the technological changes that have occurred over the span of a decade – and how they’ve impacted her life and my business.

Alyssa was raised with a computer. She used to come with me to my computer school and help teach the children’s classes. We were the first house on the block to have Internet access and Alyssa took advantage of my expertise when it came to mastering Word, Excel and Power Point.

My two daughters are only four years apart in age, yet I saw a tremendous difference between their generations. When Andrea departed for college at the start of the millennium it took a mini-van filled to overflowing to carry her “necessities.” Her possessions included a stereo, television, desktop computer, digital camera, photo albums and a huge box of cables including one for the dorm’s Ethernet connection. Alyssa arrived on campus four years later carrying only an IPod, I-phone, Mac book and a couple of power cords.

Alyssa is a card-carrying member of the 70 million strong “Generation Y.” Although they travel light they have access to a never-ending source of media which they expect to access immediately, anytime, anywhere.

ACT 2010 now includes links to various social networking sites including Facebook and LinkedIn. I was surprised to learn that many of my clients weren’t as excited about this new development as I was. “Don’t use Linked In,” huffed one person. “Facebook is for kids,” snapped another. These folks obviously assume that the people they encounter in the business world think the same way they do. Unfortunately, they don’t.

I’ve identified ten areas of communication that have changed over the course of the last ten years, at least if you’re a member of Generation Y. And, like it or not, if they want your business to survive you’ll have to adjust to those changes.

1. Land lines: For Generation Y, land lines are a thing of the past. If they do talk on the phone they do it via a cell phone which has become a permanent appendage. More than 23% of homes currently lack land lines – and the number is going up all the time.
2. Newspaper Classifieds: I’m a firm believer that if radio killed the video star then Craig’s List surely killed the newspapers and put most forms of print media in jeopardy of extinction. Morning papers and TV news have been replaced by online media sources.
3. Dial Up Connections: Your first Internet connection was probably a dial-up. Today’s generation wants instant gratification and finds it at home, on their phone and even at the local McDonalds. And your site had better have the bandwidth and design to enable quick page viewing!
4. Books: I’m an author so this one really pains me. Books are expense to produce – and purchase. They take space to store. Gen Y does their research over the Internet and downloads their reading material to their Kindle. Students can even download textbooks at sites like Coursesmart.com.
5. CD’s: Whoosh. Now you see them, now you don’t. Faster than you can say “download” the CD has been replaced by YouTube, ITunes and a variety of other sites that allow media downloads.
6. Film cameras and prints: Even if you could buy one, you’d have a hard time finding a place to process your film. Gen Y has thousands of pictures residing on their cell phones, computers and Face Book pages. And can access millions more on the Internet. A single image is no longer enough to speak a thousand words.
7. Yellow pages: Ironically, the only people using the Yellow Pages these days are aging Baby Boomers who probably lack the eyesight to read them anyway.
8. Faxing: If they don’t have land lines, why in the world would a Generation Y’er have a fax line?
9. E-mail: If you think you’re reaching your target audience via e-mail alone, think again. Generation Y is so mobile that even e-mail can’t keep pace with them. they’re using Face Book and Twitter to communicate.
10. Cell Phones: Buh-bye cell, hello smart – at least when it comes to phones. Gen Y doesn’t have to sit at a desk or be tied to a computer to access information; they carry a wealth of information in the palm of their hands.

Of course, you don’t have to reach out to Generation Y. You could market only to people who think – and communicate – the way you do. Unfortunately, that idea makes the somewhat flawed assumption that those people will still be around at the end of the next decade!

Karen Fredricks
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com

Hi. My name is Karen, and I am addicted to online shopping. There, I’ve said it so I’m now on my road to recovery. I love the fact that I can go online and, in a matter of minutes, send a last minute gift to my cousin in Des Moines complete with card and gift wrap. As an added bonus I can spend a moment or two to do a bit of comparison shopping and then fill in my credit card information faster than you can say “Google Toolbar.”

One of my favorite sites is Amazon. It’s definitely my site of choice for book shopping. I started using their “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” section years ago and have discovered some great reads that I might have otherwise missed. Throw in free shipping – and the fact that they carry all of my books – and I’m indeed in Shoppers Nirvana.

However, as much as I love Amazon I’ve come to hate – or at least be very wary of – their review process when it came to items other than books. In case you’re not familiar with Amazon virtually anyone can offer a review of a product and assign a ranking based on a 5 star system. And of course the more people who assign a product a low ranking, the worse the product will appear in the minds of a potential buyer.

I’m not one to post reviews but I purchased a Canon wireless printer last year for my home and really love it. I’ve had numerous printers over the years including an Okidata dot matrix and an HP laser that could double as a tree anchor during hurricane season. Never had a Canon but tried this one because the features – and price – were right. I got it to work with everyone of our computers in minutes including machines using Win 7, Vista and XP. Even got my daughter’s Mac book to work on it. I headed to Amazon and was stopped dead in my tracks by the venomous reviews posted there.

Yikes! If I had read those reviews first I would never have purchased my beloved printer.
I started by reading some of the 1 star reviews. Most of them were quite short and many weren’t about the printer itself. For example, can you really hold Canon responsible if there is a delay in Amazon’s shipping, or the package arrived damaged by UPS? The 5 star reviews were much longer; some of these reviewers might consider a career as e-book authors. One common theme I noticed in the 5 star ratings was reference to the Quick Start guide. Funnily enough, I didn’t see that reference in any of the 1 star ratings!

This got me to thinking – who exactly is posting these reviews? What is prompting them? And most importantly, which ones should I believe? If I were looking for a new car I’d probably take a look at Road and Track. Software and hardware? PC Magazine or PC World work for me. And, by the way, they both agreed with my assessment of my new printer. I’ve decided to stick with Amazon for their book reviews but leave other reviews to the experts!

Karen Fredricks
CRM Author, Trainer and Consultant
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com

My dad taught me that when I pointed my finger at someone (or something) I was in fact pointing two fingers back at myself.  Think about that the next time something goes wrong with your computer.

I recently corresponded with a very irate ACT user.  He had tried in vain to install ACT without success.  He had hired a “computer expert” who had tried to help him, again with no success.  Of course he pointed his proverbial finger at ACT, not realizing that two fingers were pointing directly back at himself.

The first mistake the user made was not to call Sage’s technical support team for assistance.  One benefit that comes with your ACT software purchase is 30 days of “Getting Started” support.  This support includes phone, chat, and e-mail support for up to 30 days from the date of product registration.   I guarantee that had he called the support line, or taken advantage of the online chat, he would have been up and running in a matter of minutes.

The second finger, or mistake, that the user made was not being aware that all the safety mechanisms he had in place to “protect” himself from intrusions from the outside world were also preventing ACT from installing properly.  There are three common safety devices that should be turned off, at least temporarily, during the installation of most any software program:

·         Anti-Virus Software

·         Firewall Software

·         The Vista operating system’s User Account Control (UAC).

Ironically, ACT warns you to turn off your Anti-Virus and Firewall software during the installation process.  And, a quick Internet search will explain how tame the UAC warnings that drive many users nuts – and interfere with software installation.

Although I wouldn’t categorize my Dad as a “computer expert,” his common sense would have saved this user from a lot of unnecessary aggravation!

Karen Fredricks
Tech Benders
www.techbenders.com

I am the author of ten “For Dummies” books – all of which are listed on Amazon. Five of the books are on ACT and naturally are listed right next to the ACT software itself. Unfortunately for me – and potential ACT users – there are lots of “negative” ACT reviews which I am often asked to comment on.

Please realize two things about negative comments you find on Amazon – or anywhere else for that matter:

* People tend to voice opinions when things go wrong, not when things are working well.
* You have no idea as to the level of expertise of the writers of Internet reviews.

I love Amazon and shop there often. And yes, I look at their reviews when purchasing a products. However, you need to take their reviews with a grain of salt – and consider the source. I doubt that many IT professionals are taking the time to post on Amazon. You’d be better served by looking at the ACT reviews in the major computer magazines or in sales magazines such as CRM and Selling Power.

In my opinion, the Amazon “whiners” could make better use of their time by researching the issue on one of the many excellent ACT support sites or, better yet, hiring a true ACT expert to help them!

I’ve been using ACT for over 20 years and, like most of you, my database needed a bit of Spring Cleaning. Although I routinely rely on Swift Page to help me update contact information, I wanted to get a better understanding of the needs of my contacts. I sent out a simple email to roughly 1600 ACT users that I had added to my database during the years 1999 through 2004 asking them to let me know what software they were currently using for contact management, their reason for using it and how they liked it.
I received over 500 hundred responses to my request – and the responses continue to trickle in two weeks later. If nothing else, users of contact management software love to share their experiences!

I had expected that many of the ACT users from 10 years ago had moved on to other CRM solutions that they perceived to have a better set of bells and whistles than what they found in ACT. Boy, was I wrong! Most of my contacts have remained loyal to ACT.

If I was surprised by the response rate, I was stunned to learn that Outlook was the competitive product that had lured away the most users from ACT. Yikes! Talk about taking one step forward and two steps back!

Outlook is great for emailing to a single contact and for keeping very basic calendars and personal address books.  However, if you’re running a business and need to keep track of your prospect and customers you’ll need to supplement it with another solution.

There are numerous limitations to using Outlook in a business environment including:

• No Account Management: There is no way to “roll up” several contacts into one centralized Account or “Company” record.
• No Sales Process Management: Because Outlook is targeted at a general audience, it does not provide tools for managing sales, projects and customer relations.
• No Reporting: Outlook only allows simple printing of list. It does not include the ability to create custom reports or specific sales reports. ACT! provides many contact reports, all of which are customizable to meet the specific needs of a particular individual.
• Minimal Customization of Contact Data: Outlook offers very minimal customization. ACT! allows user to store the exact information that they need to by easily modifying or deleting existing fields and add unlimited customer fields for each record.
• Lack of Mail merge features: Because Outlook’s users tend to be the general population and use Outlook as an e-mail client, they typically have no need to use templates. On the other hand, ACT! users are sales professionals and small business owners who want to automate as many business processes as possible.
• Inability to create an e-mail merge: You must use a BCC in order to send a mass email in Outlook, and you can’t personalize the body of the e-mail. This means that your e-mail is very likely going to be trapped by your user’s spam filter.

I can only assume that those ACT users who migrated to Outlook are either no longer running businesses or have no need to grow one. For me, not using ACT to manage a business is tantamount to using an abacus to total a long column of numbers.