• My youngest is graduating from the University of Texas this month… and he has a job. Yea!
• I will be out of town all next week attending the annual Sage Business Partner (and ACT! Certified Consultants) Insights conference in Denver (learning about the next version, checking out new add-ons, meeting with tech support teams to compare notes, etc.). There will be several thousand partners in attendance. 
• I’m also presenting at the conference on ”How to Implement Drip Marketing in Your Business.” In addition, I will be one of two business partners on a panel discussion about effective marketing methods in today’s economy.
• Cornerstone is planning another ACT Road Show on Wednesday, June 23rd in Houston to let our clients and prospects see what is up with ACT, but I am thinking about an online option as well for our out-of-town friends. (Save the date… and more to come on this later.)
• And I have just finished writing another book… The Swiftpage E-marketing QuickStudy Guide.

I’ve also been doing a lot of speaking lately at networking groups and at other conferences as well. I’m speaking at the ICED conference in June… again on using E-marketing strategies with your database.

I’m always looking for referrals for speaking at networking groups in the greater Houston area, or at conferences anywhere. Let me know if you are part of a group that is looking for a speaker with excellent content Which brings me to today’s tip…

Referrals are a big part of our business.

Part of giving referrals is also sending someone the basic contact information on the referral that you are passing on. I worked with someone recently who wanted to develop a template that merged just the basic contact information into a Word document. After I showed him how to do it, I asked him why he wanted this template. (After I heard his answer, I was kicking myself for not asking first. I have a much easier way to do what he wanted to do. )

Tip #1-Copying ACT Contact Information

This tip is so easy and it works no matter what version of ACT you are using (except for the Web users… sorry about that). If you want to send basic contact information from a contact in your ACT! database to someone else (like a referral)…

1. Lookup the Contact(s) in ACT
2. Click anywhere in one of the fields (you cannot be in the Notes or History tab), but do not select or highlight anything in Contact Detail view. If you are in Contact List view, tag or select the contacts to copy.
3. Press [Ctrl+C] on the keyboard to Copy the contact’s basic information (nothing happens).
4. In your email message or Word Document where you plan to include the contact’s information, press [Ctrl+V] to paste the information. It will look like this…

Susan Clark
President
Cornerstone Solutions, Inc.
713-661-5093
713-661-5096
PO Box 270514
Houston, TX 77277-0514
clark@cornerstonesolutions.com

The first phone number comes from the Phone field and the second one is the Fax. I usually delete the fax number before sending on. You cannot include any other phone numbers or other fields in this copy and paste operation. But if this works for you… it is so easy… and you can always manually include any additional information (like a Cell number) if you wish.

Tip #2-Sending a vCard

If you are using ACT 2010, you can also send a vCard (a virtual card with all of the contact information that can easily go into someone’s email Address Book… such as Outlook).

1. Lookup the contact(s) in ACT.
2. Right-click on the layout background (not a field). If you are in Contact List view, tag or select the contacts to send and the right-click on one of the highlighted contact rows that you have selected.
3. Select Send vCard.
4. A New Message email will display, with the vCard(s) attached. Continue filling out the email and click Send.
5. The recipient can double-click the attachment(s) to add the contact(s) to their own email address book (not to ACT!).

So hey, reply to this and send me a referral of someone you know who might be interested in using ACT! or doing more with their existing database (like marketing)… or maybe you know a group or conference that needs a speaker!

Thanks