Sometimes the things that seem so obvious to me aren’t quite as obvious to the typical ACT user.  A case in point is sending a fax directly from within ACT. 

 Ten years ago one of the first things I showed new ACT users was how to modify the existing ACT fax coversheet.  Back then most of my clients were using WinFax to link ACT to their fax machine, or printing out a coversheet and feeding it into their fax machine manually.  Today many of my clients are opting to use an online fax service such as MyFax or eFax for the few times that they actually need to fax.  Ironically, those ACT users often spend countless hours wrangling with the service’s interface to create a coversheet when they could just as easily use the ACT fax coversheet.

 The process is a simple one.  Here’s all you need to do to get started:

 Start by editing ACT’s existing fax cover page.  If you’ve previously set Word as your word processor preference you’ll be working in familiar territory here.

1. From the fax recipient’s contact record click the Write menu, choose the E-mail Message (from template) option and then select Fax Cover Page.  For me this is the cool part because I can choose to either print or email any of the ACT templates that I’ve created or modified.  In this case a new e-mail message will appear with your fax cover information in the body of the message.
2. Fill in the subject line following the instructions of your e-fax provider.
3. (Optional) Attach the document that you want to fax.
4. Click Send.

 Boom.  Your fax is sent.  Best of all, a record of the transaction will appear on the recipient’s history tab.

 Karen Fredricks
Karen@TechBenders.com
www.techbenders.com

Boy, do I hear that question a lot!  Sometimes I get a variation (feel free to substitute the name of the current CRM product du jour for Sales Force).

Here’s the deal.  I know folks like you – I call them ACT fanactics.  I had 500 of them wait in line to get into a seminar I ran in August, 2002 on a not so sunny night in South Florida introducing the all new ACT 6.  I guarantee I wouldn’t have had a crowd like that for a seminar on Excel or QuickBooks, not to mention Sales Force which was just a dot on the horizon in 2002.

If you were brand new to CRM it might be a different story, but you obviously know ACT and have liked it for years. If you move to another product you’ll constantly be missing core ACT features like dynamic groups and lookups.

When the “new” ACT SQL version came out in 2005 the developers asked me for a dozen of my ACT 6 Dummies books which I thought was strange until I realized that the programmers wanted to maintain ACT’s “look and feel.”  That means that although there are lots of cool new features in ACT (Outlook integration, e-marketing, companies, opportunities, web info tab, dashboards, secondary contacts and relationships)  the old “tried and true” features (adding contacts, deleting contacts, groups, lookups, mail merge) remain exactly the same.

 I’ve written books and produced training videos on a number of products (Sugar, BCM, Sales Force, Outlook) as well as on ACT and I have not found anything I like better for a number of reasons:

• There’s safety in number s.  ACT has a lot of longevity and loyalty going for it.  It’s been around for over 20 years and has millions of existing users. 
• ACT has widespread availability.  You won’t find a box of Sales Force on the shelves of your local computer store.
• Each new version expands the core functionality by adding new functionality that typically matches current technology trends.
• ACT is extremely customizable.  There are hundreds of consultants to help modify your database to exactly what you want – or you can learn to make those changes yourself.
• ACT is easy to use and intuitive.  I recently found out that Sage actually has a “click counter” (OK, that’s not the official title but you get the drift) who’s job function is to “count the click” required for basic functions such as mail merge to insure that the number of clicks is much fewer than with competing products.
• ACT is one of the least costly solutions around.  Compare a one-time purchase of ACT to the recurring monthly Sales Force charges and it’s a no brainer.

Hope this helps you in your decision!

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

I ran a webinar this week on synching smart phones to your ACT database.  Presenting with me was my old friend Rushang Shah of Companion Link software.  Rushang looks like the guy selling replica watches out of the trunk of his car; the last time I saw him he must have had a dozen different cell phones in his brief case.  Although I’ve used Palm, Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices in the past, he’s my go-to guy when it comes to cell phones.

We had a great turnout to the webinar.  I was particularly surprised by the number and quality of the questions that we received.  There is indeed a black hole area in the minds of many ACT users.  And, although I’ve been synching my ACT database to my phone for years, I learned a few new tidbits that I thought I’d share with you.

Many of the questions revolved around picking the “best” phone.  The bottom line is to pick the phone that you like best with a few minor concessions:

1. Some phones are dumb.  Literally.  A smart phone by definition is one that contains an operating system such as Blackberry, Apple, Android, and Palm.
2. Only smart phones can synch to a large database such as ACT.  It’s not that dumb phones are really dumb, they’re just not big enough to hold all that data.
3. Your cell phone carrier determines the phones that are available to you.  If you’re lusting for an I-Phone you’ll have to move to AT&T.  If you stick with Verizon you’ll have a huge selection of Androids to choose from. 

The next set of questions involved the synching process itself.  To sum it up, there are three basic scenarios for synching your ACT data to your cell phone:

1. Synchronize using a direct connection between your phone and your computer – your information data will flow directly from your database to your phone.  This requires a piece of software like Companion Link. This is probably the most traditional way of synching ACT data.
2. Synchronize wirelessly using the new free Google service.  This is the coolest way of synching but perhaps the most confusing as it contains two separate parts.  You’ll use Companion Link to synch your ACT database to a free Google account.  From there Google will automatically update your phone with your ACT information.  As complicated as it sounds, you actually only need to click a single button to synchronize your data and you won’t need to hunt for any cable wires.
3. Synchronize wirelessly using a paid monthly service.  This is a great option for folks who want the latest and greatest changes on their phone – but don’t have the time or patience to wrangle with the technology. 

Finally, there were lots of questions about Outlook, multiple databases and multiple users.  Can you synch both ACT and Outlook to your phone?  Yes!  Can each ACT user sync to their own phones even though they are all using the same ACT database?  Yes!  Can I synch just a portion of my ACT database to my phone?  Yes!

If you’d like to listen to the webinar you can access it online by clicking here.  And as always, if you have a comment or a question please feel free to post a reply.

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

I’ve lost ten pounds since the holidays!  Having been on the Injured Reserve list with a knee injury for over a year I packed on the extra weight.  I’ve been fortunate enough all my life not to have to deal with weight loss issues so I wasn’t sure what to do.  Quite frankly, the thought of paying hundreds of dollars for artificial meals or drinks wasn’t appealing so I tackled the problem in the same way that I tackle most problems:

• 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 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!

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

I love sports and I’m a sucker for Cinderella stories so I was pretty excited to see that Butler made it all the way to the NCAA Basketball Championship final this week.  After all, if my beloved Gators couldn’t be there I was glad to see that my dad’s alma mater was represented.  Maybe I’m prejudiced, but it seemed to me that most of the country was rooting for Butler.  Most of us like to cheer for the underdog and since many folks had never even heard of Butler until the Final Four they were indeed the underdogs against #1 Ranked Duke.

 Like it or not, unless you’re working for one of the Fortune 500 companies you too are an underdog when it comes to your business.  It’s an uphill battle to get your name to stand out against the competition.  Compounding the problem is some scary information that I read years ago that still reverberates.  It takes an average of 12 touches to convert a prospect into a customer.  And, 50% of sales people give up after the first effort; 90% give up after the second.

Wow!  With the odds so highly stacked against us it’s tempting to wave the white flag and admit defeat.  But like Butler, or Jimmy Conners who came back from a 1-6, 1-6 deficit to win Wimbledon in 1987, you have to focus on what you can do and not on what the other guy is doing.

 Here’s a few coaching tips that apply to both sports and, more importantly, your business.

1.  Act like a hero.  Think of the frustrations you’ve had when contacting large companies (don’t get me started on Comcast!) and then do the opposite when interacting with your customers and prospects.
2. Out-distance your competition.  I always said that if the other guy only tries to reach someone twice, I’d try to reach them three times.  If it takes twelve attempts to win a new customer then make those twelve attempts.
3. Use the proper equipment.  I doubt that Conners could have won Wimbledon with a broken racquet or holes in his tennis shoes.  If you’re going to resort to e-marketing use an ESP (e-mail service provider) to track your results.  And by all means use an effective database tool to help you focus on the correct audience.
4. If you can’t be bigger, be smarter.  Was it me or did the Butler guys look a heck of a lot smaller than the Duke players?  The fact that they almost won gives testament to the believe that brains can conquer brawn. 
5. Don’t think meat, just pitch.  In case you didn’t catch it, that’s a reference to what Kevin Costner told Tim Robbins in the baseball classic, Bull Durham.  He was trying to get “Nuke” to stop over-thinking everything and trust his mentor.  Trust your coach or, if you don’t have one and you’re struggling, hire a great coach or consultant to help you out.  It works for major class athletes and it will work for you.

 Let the games begin!

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 he could no longer send messages to even his own family members.

Once your e-mail address –or worse yet – your company’s domain – becomes black listed it can take you months or years to get the problem rectified.  And, even if you don’t get blacklisted, most spam filters will eat your message for lunch if you don’t follow a few e-mail best practices.

Here’s my short list of suggestions:

1. Scrub your database.  Make sure that you aren’t emailing to e-mail addresses that have bounced in the past or are just plain invalid.  Avoid sending your message to duplicate addresses or generic addresses that start with “info” or “webmaster”.
2. Make sure you’re spam compliant by following the Can-Spam law.  Basically you need to make sure you have procedures in place for users to easily opt-out of future mailings, and include a valid mailing address in your message.
3. Use an ESP (email service provider) that uses a valid form of e-mail authentication.  That basically means that your e-mail blast comes from an authorized source.  These folks spend lots of time – and money – making sure that their emails get through to the folks using the Big Three for their e-mail (Yahoo, AOL and Google).
4. Time the frequency of your mailings; sending out a monthly newsletter is much more appealing than sending out a daily special pricing offer.  Target your mailings so that you are not sending your message to folks who have absolutely no interest in your products.  
5. Make sure you know the difference between plain text and HTML e-mails.  If you want to include graphics in your e-mail blast you’ll need an HTML editor or risk having your message show up as a jumbled mess.
6. Avoid common spam triggers like exclamation points, red lettering and words like “sale.”   

If you’re new to the world of e-marketing you’ll want to consult with an expert for a while.   They’ll be able to help you master the process and avoid some serious blunders.

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

Title: Build a Bigger ACT Database
Location: ACT Virtual Users Group
Link out: Click here
Description: It doesn’t matter what database software you’re using (ACT, SalesForce, BCM) all database users are looking for two things: updated contact information and e-mail addresses. I’ve tried lots of services – Hoover’s, Sales Genie – and none of them will give you e-mail addresses. But I’ve found a service that will give you e-mail addresses, phone numbers and other current information for free.
Start Time: 6:00 PM
Date: 2010-05-03
End Time: 7:00 PM

Title: Synch your Smart Phone to ACT
Location: ACT Virtual Users Group
Link out: Click here
Description: Learn to synch your ACT database to your phone wirelessly, synch both your Outlook and ACT contacts to your phone if you use both, and have an automatic online (free) backup of your database
Start Time: 6:00 PM EST
Date: 2010-04-21
End Time: 7:00 PM EST

Title: Synch ACT to QuickBooks
Location: ACT Virtual Users Group
Link out: Click here
Description: I\’ve used QuickBooks and ACT for years. And I\’ve tried every method I could find to link the two together with absolutely no success – until now. I\’ve finally found a product that actually works. I never realized how much time I could save in a typical day.
Start Time: 9:00 EST
Date: 2010-03-31
End Time: 10:00 EST

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 got was a totally reworked piece that bore little resemblance to his original chef-d’oeuvre; I did, however, refrain from placing a large red “F” at the top.

As an author I’ve been critiqued by some of the best editors in the world and I know the process.  It’s not unusual for the early drafts of my books to return to me in the form of road kill.  As the daily recipient of dozens of pieces of spam I know which messages will make their way through – and which messages will take a permanent place in the Spam Folder.

My rule of thumb for writing a marketing piece is to pretend that I am writing to one of my buddies with a bit of friendly advice.  You might want to think about the following parts of your message before sending out your next blast:

1.        Subject line:  This is absolutely the most important part of your message because it will determine whether or not your e-mail is opened.  Take a look at your own Inbox and determine which message you opened and which you immediately marked as Spam.

2.       Length:  Do you have time to read a two page message from a stranger, or someone you barely know?  After you write your piece go back and remove any unnecessary verbiage. Keep you sentences brief and to the point.

3.       Tone:  Keep it simple and friendly.  Period.  Don’t lecture.  Don’t sell and/or come across like a carnival vendor. 

4.       Formatting:  If your message is clear you don’t need to resort to bold, underlined and red formatting, and avoid using ALL CAPS.  This type of formatting will make readers think you are shouting at them and will cause spam filters to gobble up your messages and spit out the pieces.

5.       Bullet points:  Yes, pithy little statements neatly arranged with bullets can be effective – but only if they are done extremely well.  In my client’s case his bullets had no symmetry; some started with sentences, others with verbs, some focused on his product and others on the customer. 

6.       Blatant sales pitches:  Granted, some of your product pricing might include a manufacturer’s discount or rebate that you’ll want to share with your recipients.  My client, however, offered a “3 day only” offer for his services knowing full well that he’d offer the same “deal” at any time.

7.       Closing:  This one should be simple.  Do you normally sign your emails with your own name or just that of your company? 

Put yourself in the shoes of your recipient, keep your message simple and you’ll find that writing great marketing pieces is easier than you think!

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