I tend to reflect on the past year each December and to look forward to an
even better next year (that way, I’m free to relax on December 31).  What
went well, this year and where I can improve my business practice next year.
Since I use ACT! 2010 software to manage my relationships, calendar and
activities,  I think of ways to better use the software. 

Here’s my “top ten” for next year (starting today!):

1. Clean out my old contacts. I have over 4200 names in my database, many
   are no longer valid.  I use $120 Duplicate Record Removal Software to merge
   the duplicates.
2. Clean out my unused Groups. Groups have a life of their own – I should
   delete the ones I don’t use.
3. Stay in touch with the people you do business with by sending newsletters
   on a regular basis.  I do
4. Clean the antiques out of my task list. There are tasks from over a year
   ago that I’ll never get to.
5. Stop rolling over my calls, to-dos and meetings (I don’t currently
   roll-over activities, and neither should you!).
6. Call one day ahead of time to confirm all my appointments (Not really an
   “ACT!” thing, but I’m going to do it anyway).
7. When someone hands me a business card, I will write a few words on the
   card to remind me about this person (How many times have you looked at a
   card and not remembered who the person is, or where you met?).
8. I will put every business card I have in ACT! (Why leave it to mold on my
   desk?)
9. When I make an unscheduled call I will ALWAYS record it in ACT!  (And
   schedule a follow-up.)
10. When I clear an activity I will ALWAYS schedule a follow up call.

Does you have any tips they’d like to share?

I’ve just returned from my weekly meeting of my local referral network (www.washtenawreferralnetwork.com).   And I wanted to tell you that if you are not part of a referral network you should visit one, or more, in your area soon.

Hoovers is good, and InfoUSA.com is good.  H&ll, lists are good:  good for marketing that is.  But  if you want leads there is nothing to beat a referral!  I’ve been attending various referral network groups for 9 years and consistently 40% of my new business comes from referrals received from the group.

Why not give it a try?

Subtitled: And aren’t social networks wonderful?

Last month I had a customer service experience with Hertz that I believe deserves retelling.  It started when I received a form letter signed by one Frank Camacho, title Staff Vice President of Marketing.  The letter gleefully informed me that I was eligible for a free upgrade from the “#1 Club” to “#1 Club Gold” with benefits that will get me in my rental car faster.
 
Sounded good to me (too good?) and I was ready to sign up when I noticed the language said that the $60 fee was waved.  It did not say if this was a one-time fee or an annual fee, only that it was “waved.”  So I decided to find out if there would be any changes the second year!

Wow, this wasn’t so easy.  The only phone number on the letter itself was for a reservation line.  Although eager and helpful the operator couldn’t answer my question: knew nothing about the letter.  She did, however, give me a different number, supposedly for the #1 club.  That, too, turned out to be a reservation line and after being dumped into a queue for 20 minutes I hung up.

At this point I wrote Frank Camacho a hand written letter, scribbled on the back of his original form letter.  Reading it over, I realized it was just too ugly to send.  In a flash of inspiration, I checked his name on linkedin.com and found he was a member.  I sent him an inMail, suggesting that I’d had a less-than-optimal customer service experience and suggested he call if he felt like discussing it.  Within three minutes of sending it I had him on the phone.

Now I don’t know what your experience is, but for me, getting a VP from a Fortune 500 company (304 on CNN – money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2008/companies/H.html) on the phone is a rare event.  At best, I would have expected it to take hours to find him. 

So, hats off to Mr. Camacho, for reading and responding.  Thank you: your sense of service is spot-on.

So I’ve used Outlook since I switched from Eudora 4 years ago (with ACT 2005 it was goodbye for Eudora support).   People are often sloppy about the subject line in Outlook – reusing the same subject even though they’ve changed the topic completely.  Even occasionally leaving the subject blank.

So when I want to change the subject on an incomming message prior to saving it I change the subject: that way I can find it later.

Double click  on the message in the inbox.  Click on the subject line and edit as much as your heart desires.  Close with saving and you are ready to file the message.

Subtitled:  Search, Search Search

In an earlier post I mentioned that I use hundreds of folders to organize all of my e-mail messages.  I should mention that I also use ACT!’s contact management capabilities to file most of my client-related email messages.

However, the point of this message is search.  Outlook’s built-in search is no-good.  So I use X1 (www.x1.com).  With this tool, purchased by yahoo a couple of years ago (and like the google desktop search gadget) you get full-text indexing of all the contents (every single word) in all e-mail messages, spreadsheets, documents and most databases for near-instantaneous retrieval.

Try a desktop search tool, you’ll like it.

Subtitled:  Folders, Folders, Folders

I try to keep my inbox to 10 or less messages.   And I have another folder called “Action Needed” which I keep to under 35 messages (It’s a struggle).  So I have LOTS of folders (several hundred, I’m sure).  They are hierarchal organization, with 10-15 top level folders and nested 2-3 layers deep.

Here is my ‘method’. 

1.       I try to leave messages in my inbox for less than a day.  Then I move them to “Action Needed” because they obviously are not going to get immediate response.

2.       I go through “Action Needed” at least three times a week, filing as many messages as possible, acting on some and, occasionally, moving one back to my Inbox.

3.       I’ll make active use of the “Favorites” area, moving shortcuts to folders in and out of this region as projects become active and inactive.  Most project folders are in Favorites for a few months at the most.

4.       And, again, I make extensive use of folders for storing

5.       When I send a message I’ll move it to the appropriate folder immediately.

The real trick: Staying on top of your messages – keep your inbox lean.

Subtitled “Getting your ACT! together.”

Part 5 – What is everyone else on my team doing?

Just last week I could not make it to an appointment with my favorite prospect.  It was personal and there was no way I could get out it without risking a protracted argument with my mother-in-law.  So I HAD to send a substitute.  I could twitter all my followers, e-mail all my co-workers or start calling.  Instead, I looked in my ACT! database and examined the schedule of my sales manager as well as a couple of colleagues.  Within a couple of minutes I had a couple of possibilities and started calling.

Sure enough – I had a replacement to go on the sales call for me within no time at all.  (Now we can start the conversation about commission-splitting). Seriously though, if you need to know what everyone on your team is doing, you need a shared database (I think ACT! is the best for Sales Teams).

Thus, my last question: “Is your ACT! database working as hard as you are?”

Subtitled “Getting your ACT! together.”

Part 4 – What opportunities am I working on?

So my boss calls (sticks his head in my cubicle, e-mails or even sends a text message [im?] ) asking “What’s in your pipeline?”  or “How many deals are you working on for next month?”  or “…year-end?”

Good question.   I used to get out my Excel® spreadsheet and ponder it for a while.  Then I’d harness the power of my mouse and click around on it for and interminable time – updating expected close dates, and probabilities of closing the deal.  If life was good, the spreadsheet would calculate the totals correctly and I’d turn in the spreadsheet.

Next I’d get the call “Have you called the so-and-so account? ” or “when it the last time you talked to Mr. Smith at ACME?”  That’s all history now.  I enter my opportunities into my ACT! database as I discover them.  I update them regularly as I speak to my prospects, and I use ACT! activities to remind me when to call people back.  The Notes/History report give me, at the click of a mouse, an update on who (whom?) I talked to and when.  The Activities report tells me (or my boss) when I am supposed to call them back

Now, is your ACT! database working as hard as you are?

Subtitled “Getting your ACT! together.”

Part 3 – What do I do when the phone rings?

This is my favorite reason for keeping my ACT! database up-to-date.  The phone rings and someone starts talking like I met them yesterday.  And maybe I did meet them yesterday but I can’t remember their name to save my life.   So into ACT! I go, datamining like crazy:  use caller ID to check the phone number, ask some innocuous question to get the name of the company, or even ask them to spell their last name.  One way or another, I look them up in ACT! and, ah-ha! I know who they are, what we’ve talked about in the past and what I promised I’d do for them.

Checking the opportunity tab I can see the specifics of what deal we are working on with their company.  And thus, I can have a reasonable conversation without asking them to start the story all over again or, worse yet, tell them that I can’t find my notes of our last conversation.

So, is your ACT! database working as hard as you are?

Subtitled “Getting your ACT! together.”
Part 2 – What am I supposed do today?  (Did I make any promises that I forgot!?!)

So here I am, sitting at a my local coffee shop with an hour to spare between calls.  I know I can kill the time easily with many distractions:  Facebook to FreeCell.  But I want to, as Stephen Covey tells me, do First Things First.

Fortunately, my database is up-to-date; with contacts, appointments, histories and even opportunities all entered and updated regularly (that’s another topic).  So I bring up my task list and check the filters;  I want to show only telephone calls for today.  I pick up my phone and start dialing.

But here is a name that isn’t familiar to me, what to do?   I right-click and select ‘go to contact’ to quickly locate the person, quickly review the notes and histories for this person and voila! my memory is refreshed about this account.  So I go ahead and call.

Point is:  here is a useful task list of just the things I’ve already decided I want to do today, right in front of me with all the notes/histories as well as phone numbers and qualifying question.

You should ask: “Is your ACT! database working as hard as you are?”