Using ACT! to Build Consistency in the New Year

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I’m a big fan of planning. In fact, it has been said, “Success is in the planning”, and I tend to agree. If time is taken to determine specific actions, the project or outcome will have a better chance to succeed. In general, not many will argue with this line of thinking, the challenge is action . . . believing it is important enough to actually do. For planning to be complete one should consider both personal and business planning, as they flow into each other. This article will focus on the business aspect (but don’t YOU forget the personal side like family, faith, & friends) of planning, covering historical success, maximizing future activities, and utilizing a contact manager like ACT! to build consistency.

Before one can effectively plan, they must also consider what has brought them to the present. Answering questions like, what did I do in the last year? What worked well? What worked not so well? With which people did I experience the most success?

If you are using a contact manager like ACT! properly, you should be able to ask these questions of your database. For example, if you are using sales opportunities, you can report on the number of sales you closed as a result of meeting someone at Tradeshow A vs. Tradeshow B. You can use other functions to tabulate what lead sources produced contacts that took your desired action, as well as why you are losing business to which competitors.

Other questions pertain to items in the coming year. Events: What events will I be attending? What would be an acceptable outcome to justify attending? What can I be doing now to prepare for that event? Relationships: Who can I partner with to maximize mutual success in the coming year? Continuing Education: This is the greatest asset in any business, if you are committed to continuing education, you are committed to the success of your business. What skill sets do I wish to sharpen in the coming year? Who are the people I would like to learn from? What events do they have, and when?

While I cannot share all possible questions of looking back and forward, I can give you an idea where to start. One way you can use ACT! by Sage is to help gauge your progress. By using the calendar, you can schedule activities necessary in leading up to a tradeshow. If you get one thing from this article, it is this, Schedule Monthly Reviews of projects or documented goals as a recurring activity. Each month you review your marketing and/or sales projects, their progress, if they are on schedule, and what needs to be done by next months review. Other ideas, are you tracking with your prospecting plans? Are your newsletter list building initiatives on track? By following this, you can limit the chances of task overload days before the deadline, and you are building a lifestyle of consistency. Setting a reasonable pace will allow for more progress than the shooting star approach to productivity, but this will require discipline.

There is an addon product that I’d like to introduce you to here. It enhances the functionality of the ACT! Calendar in many ways. One thing it allows you to do is colorize activities. So, for example all your planning activities show up a unique color, so when you print the calendar your eye can easily locate these activities. You can also leverage the word wrap feature of calendar printing, so you have all the details on the print out. There are quite a few features, you can check it out here: http://www.actasap.net/cp

Whatever tools you use, be it pen and paper or a comprehensive contact manager like ACT! it is important to understand your own history (what got you where you are) as well as what needs to be done to maximize future activities. Once you have this information use a tracking system/tool to schedule consistency of activity so that your goals might be realized.

If the saying is true, “Success is in the planning” what success are you planning for in the coming year?

Technorati Tags: Business, calendar, schedule

Is ACT! by Sage 2007, “junk”?

I recently received and email from a subscriber of http://www.whatsnewwithact.com/.  I thought I would publish it here, as perhaps he is part of the few bold enough to ask these questions, yet many might benefit from this discussion…below is the text and my reply. 

I have since read several reviews that ACT 2007 is junk. I believe it because I have been a user since version one and upgraded annually. I bought vs. 2005 and also 2006 but returned both. I had hoped that 2007 would fix the slow buggy product. I think they should fire all the software engineers and start over.

I am currently using vs. 6 but want to update. Any suggestions on what I should try?

Here is my reply:

 

Indulge me for a moment, and allow me to encourage you to consider another approach.

1.) All software has bugs, unfortunate but true.
(http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/2006/03/21_a378.html)
2.) Pick your poison.

In accepting these realities, you will be in a better (not bitter :-)) position to make your choice.  Make sure you pick the software that meets your business objectives first, and verify you can deal with the bugs, AND that the company will be around long after your purchase.

I’ve found that the people who have a bit of distaste in their mouth with ACT! (or any piece of software) are more often ‘technical’ in outlook than ’sales oriented’.  Those who have a ’selling’ outlook seem to get over the technical hurdles a bit easier.

Now if you are still reading, to take you forward, I would setup a test system, or at a minimum test the migration of your v6 database, and see how it does, so that you know what to expect when you want to migrate for real. 

As a last resort, you may want to see about hiring someone to migrate the database if it gives you fits, this may be a good investment, even for the most tech savvy.
Visit: www.act.com/acc to find a consultant in your area.

Hope that helps.

Warm Regards,
Travis

PS: I hope you find my review of the software
to be helpful in your decision making process.

What about you?  Have you completed the upgrade?  Done a migration, or are you sticking with an older version?  If so, why?  Feel free to comment from your own experiences.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Travis

 

 

Technorati Tags: ACT 2007, Business, email, outlook, upgrade

The Holidays Can be an Opportunity to Build Relationships with Customers and Prospects

Many enjoy the benefits of a good contact management system in their business.  Ultimately it is of no use if it does not help you maintain existing relationships while extending your reach to others.  One way you can build relationships with others is simply by emailing something to them that is:
1.) Valuable
2.) Unique
3.) To the point
Now I’ll leave it to you to figure out the content of your message, but be sure it follows those guidelines, or you have a good chance of falling on deaf ears.  If I were to sneak one more in there it would be “meaningful” give them something that you have personal experience with, and you believe in, or perhaps something a trusted advisor or friend has had a positive experience with.

Example:
*snip*
I have a friend who put together a piece of emailing software that ties into ACT! by Sage 2007 Peachtree, Quickbooks, Filemaker Pro, and many more.  Basically, his service is responsible for sending the emails, and because of that he can report on key things, like who is opening the email (and how many times), who is clicking the links.  He even has a scoring system to rank the most active subscribers.  He has extended an offer to utilize his service at no cost until 2007.  NO money or credit card information is required, and it only takes about 15 minutes (average) for folks to get started.  GO HERE to get started, and feel free to post (how to) your experience here. GO HERE>>
*snip*

So what I’m trying to do in the above paragraph is offer something of value, that is to the point, and unique (have you heard of such a product that ties in with so many systems?).  By the way the (how to) is a real link if you aren’t sure how to post to this blog. 

Have a great Thanksgiving!

 -Travis

PS: Go there if you want to see the holiday greeting link I recently send my subscribers to.

Technorati Tags: Business, contact management, email, Quickbooks, video

« Previous Page — Next Page »