Is quoting giving your company headaches?

• Does it seem like quotes take too much time to generate?
• Could you easily pull up a list of all outstanding quotes?
• Does your sales team remember to follow up on those quotes they spent so much time on?
• If someone is out of the office, could anyone on your staff find and review a specific quote with a customer?
• Would you like more control of the quotes coming out of your office?

If you are using the Opportunity feature in ACT!, you could generate a basic quote from the current opportunity. (Click the “Create Quote” icon or the hyperlink under Related Tasks at the left.)

But if your needs are even a little more elaborate, you might consider looking at QuoteWerks. Quoting has become a much easier task since we set up QuoteWerks in our own company. It is one of the most flexible and powerful products we have worked with in quite some time.

There are too many features to relay here, but these are my favorite:

• Quotes are saved to the Documents tab and synced to the master (and all remote users).
• When saving a quote, I am prompted to schedule a followup call and create a new opportunity.
• All current product pricing (including any volume discounts) is easily accessible by all team members.
• All of our quotes look the same, no matter who created them.
• If we include an add-on in the quote, the associated product slick explaining it’s advantages, is automatically included with the quote.
• Since many of our quotes have the same items, we have pre-prepared bundled line items that are easily inserted into any quote.
• When emailing, the quote is automatically converted to a .pdf file and attached to the email.
• When the deal closes, the quote can be sent to QuickBooks or Peachtree for generating an invoice…without re-entering the data.

If you would like a demo of QuoteWerks to see how it could improve your processes and close rate…give us a call. 713-661-5093

Whenever I set up ACT! for a client, one of the things I might do is customize the column display. It is easy to do (and the process works for any list view, such as the Notes or History tab or the Group List view).

1. Right-click the column headers and select Customize Columns.
2. Select an available field from the list at the lift and double-click it to move it to the right, so that it will display in list view. Use the Move Up or Move Down buttons to rearrange the columns.
   1. In the Task List view, I like to add the Company name and the Phone number to the view.
   2. I usually also remove the Priority list (double-click the field at the right to move it to the left), since all of my activities seem to be High Priority.
   3. If you are monitoring other user’s activities, you might also want to add the Scheduled For field to the right, so that you can group the planned activities by Record Manager.
3. You can also filter the Task List view.
   My days are mostly scheduled with appointments, so I use the Calendar view to see what I need to do and the Task List view to see what I am behind on. For example, at the top of the view, you can filter the list by date to display “Today”, “Today and Future”, “Tomorrow”, or any of several other time periods. However, my favorite filter is “Past”. Be leaving the Task List view on Past, I can easily switch between the Calendar view to see what I am working on today and the Task List view to see what I am behind on.
   
4. There are other filters at the top of the Task List view as well. You can filter by activity “Types:” (only display your calls) or you can filter by  Record Manager using the “Select Users” button (if you are a manager and checking on your staff’s activities). You could also filter the list by assigned “Priorities:” if you like, only displaying your High priority items for the day.
5. Finally, once your columns are in place and your filters are in effect, you can click on any column header to sort the list. This feature is great for grouping your like activities by “Regarding” or by Activity type, etc. Click on the Date column to return the list to it’s default display.

Don't forget to change the Dates: filter back to "All Dates"

Are you dealing with clients in different time zones and having trouble keeping track of the time difference?

In my Windows System Tray at the lower-right, when I click the date, this is what pops up on my laptop. One clock showing the time in Houston (Central) and two other clocks letting me know what time it is in other cities where I am setting up meetings with clients.

It is easy to setup.

1. Click on the System Tray date/time at the lower-right of your computer screen (see graphic above).
2. Click the “Change date and time settings…” link.
3. Click the “Additional Clocks” tab.
4. Put a check mark in the “Show this clock” option.
5. Select a city or time zone from the drop down.
6. “Enter a display name:” for the clock.
7. Repeat steps 4-6 for a third clock.
8. Click OK.

Voila. Not an ACT! tip (I know), but I loved this one.

If your company uses QuickBooks, there is an ACT! add-on that you should definitely consider. (It remains one of my favorite add-ons for ACT!)

But there are quite a few amazing reasons to consider this product…

• What if you could create a new contact in QB with 2 clicks?
  I love that this product eliminates duplicate data entry AND that the company names in ACT! match the company names in QuickBooks.
• Did you ever want to see financial data for a specific customer, but did not have access to your QuickBooks company file?
  I work from my laptop most of the time and don’t have access to our company QB. However, now when I am on a contact record, I can look at my QB tab inside of ACT! and see if they have any past due balances, the last time they paid, their last invoice date, their YTD sales and a lot of other pieces of information. (See the graphic above. I can also see their past 4 years of history, but I cut that out to make the graphic readable.)
• Would it help your sales team to know what YTD sales are for their accounts… and also see corresponding sales for the prior years…without having access to QuickBooks?
  Now you don’t have to give your staff access to QuickBooks. They can look up account status for themselves.
• What if you could easily create a lookup/group in ACT! of inactive customers…those  that have $0 sales for the current year but had more than $5,000 sales last year (or whatever numbers you want to use)?
  Wouldn’t it be great for your sales team to have a group like that?
• Would it help to know that a customer has a 60-day past due balance or that their average days to pay was 90 days?
  Would that affect your next quote?
• Speaking of quoting, what if you could quickly look up in ACT!, what a client paid for a specific item in the past?
  If you buy additional licenses for specific team members, two more tabs are added to the ACT! view that allow you to see a summary of all past invoices, as well as a list of all items purchased and what they paid for specific items… without having to find that information in QuickBooks.
• Want to see purchase orders issued for a specific client?
  In addition to Invoices, you can also see Purchase Orders and their status inside the ACT! record.

Really, if you use QuickBooks and ACT!, you should definitely look at this add-on. Give us a call (713-661-5095) if you want to know more or buy here.

Recently I had the chance to convert a company’s SalesForce.com database to ACT!.  They had grown weary of the monthly fees, the inability to work offline as they traveled, and the multitude of keystrokes necessary to accomplish what one or two keystrokes in ACT! would do.

We were able to bring over all of their contacts, leads, and companies, as well as their history, activities, and opportunities. It was not an insignificant undertaking, since they had almost 200,000 contacts to import and close to 50,000 companies.

To make things even more interesting, in addition to using the ACT! for Web client, the customer also wanted to sync the mega database to selected remote sales staff, who didn’t always have web connectivity when they travelled. It’s challenges like this that makes this job fun. And the end-result was definitely worth it. Even I have been surprised how well this large database has kept up with the syncs.

We’ve converted several clients in the past 12 months. Most were coming back to ACT! after trying SalesForce for awhile. The dashboards available in sf.com are certainly impressive, but end-users hated the number of keystrokes required to enter history or mail merge a note. Since the sales team wasn’t entering that much data any more, the dashboards looked pretty empty.

It’s pretty easy to create similar dashboards for ACT!… and a whole lot easier to get everything into the database.

While you can accomplish a lot of things in Sage ACT! with the mouse (and right-clicking), if your hands are already on the keyboard as you enter data…a few keyboard shortcuts can really come in handy.

Even I don’t remember all of them, but I have a few favorites that I use all of the time. I’ve also included a few extra for the different Calendar and List Views in ACT!.

My Favorite 7+

Ctrl+H - Create history for the current record.

Ctrl+C – Copy current contact to the Windows clipboard so that you  can paste the Rolodex-style details into an email or document to send contact info to someone else.

F2 – Popup the drop-down list so that you can get a larger view of available options. You  can also use it for date fields and for the Contact name field to let ACT! know the correct first, middle and last name of a contact.

F5 – Refresh the current view. Great for the Calendar view when you have just synced, or created an activity from an Outlook email. Also great for refreshing the History tab to display the email you just attached from Outlook.

Insert key – Create a new record (or Ctrl+Insert – new Secondary Contact)

Ctrl+Delete – Delete current record or current lookup

Ctrl+M – Display the Schedule Meeting dialog (or L for Call or T for To-Do)

Calendar Views

Shift+F5 – Day Calendar View

F3 - Weekly Calendar View

Shift+F3 – Work Week Calendar View

Ctrl+F5 – Month Calendar View

F4 – Mini-calendar

List Views

F8 - Contact List View (F11 – Contact Detail View)

Alt+10 – Company List View

F10 – Group List View

Shift+F7 - Opportunity List View

Ctrl+F7 - Dashboard View

F7 - Task List View

If you would like, you can download a copy of the ACT! keyboard template which includes all of the Function keys and most of the shortcuts.

I believe my annual ritual of defining company and personal goals is one of the reasons we have been successful… and in business…for such a long time (since 1987). I also take the time each year to review my progress from the previous year. I don’t always get everything on my list accomplished, but I notice a common thread in the items that don’t get cleared.

I can usually track the uncompleted goals (or goals that got no traction) to 3 problems:

1. I did not form a clear mental picture of what to do next – Everyone knows that your goals should be well-defined and specific, but you should also have it clearly in mind what the “next step”* should be. Getting healthier or making more money can be great goals, but until you decide how to do that, they are only desires or wishes. Once your goal is more defined (e.g., add a new product line or drink more water), then you need to define the next steps. What does it take to add a new product line?
   • “Research” is not a well-defined or specific next step.
   • “Research what my clients are interested in”… is still too broad for a next step.
   • “Select 10 clients to call to find out what they wish ACT! would do”. OK I can work with that. I have a clearer idea of how to start the project by defining a good next step.

Of course, after that step is accomplished, I need to be sure I have another next step defined as well.

2. I did not change anything. Since many goals require change of some kind, think about adding one habit that supports your goal. Sometimes, even tiny changes in your ritual can make all the difference.
   • What if each morning before I opened up my Inbox, I made it a rule that I have to review my goals and determine if there is any “next step” I need to add to the day’s agenda. It’s just a tiny thing, but that habit starts my day well.
   • What if every morning when I get a cup of coffee, I build in a habit to also get a glass of ice water to take back to my desk as well.
3. I did not create an environment to support my success – Change is usually hard, but sometimes you can change your environment to make it easier. Think about it. If you have tasks that are hard for you to do, how could you change your thoughts or the surroundings to make the task easier. Environmental tweaks can beat self-control any time.
   • What if I scheduled a recurring activity in my calendar for each Monday morning to “Review goals and schedule next steps”? What if during that time I had a rule that during that 15 minutes, I did not do anything else. No email, no calls, no web-surfing… just a focused 15 minutes each Monday morning.  I can  put my goals list that I am working on in the “Details” section of the activity, so that I have quick access to the goals that I am working on for the year.
   • What if I use the concept of proximity and put my water bottles next to the coffee cups… it would make it easier to remember each day to take water to my desk, along with the coffee.

Some New Years resolutions are easier than others to accomplish. For the tough ones, check the three pitfalls against what you hope to accomplish and see if you can’t give your goals a better chance at success. Each element requires some thinking… but I promise it is well worth the time.

*I attribute my understanding of Next Steps to David Allen and Getting Things Done® (registered trademarks of David Allen Company -www.davidco.com) and highly encourage you to understand more abount his methods of productivity: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity 

If you are a GTD follower already, we have an add-on to ACT! that puts Projects and Next Steps inside of ACT at your fingertips: http://www.cornerstonesolutions.com/solutions/GPD4CRM.html

Each year I take a few minutes to add holidays as “Events” in our ACT! calendar. By adding them as Events, they will appear at the top of everyone’s calendar. It is also a great way to add employee birthdays, vacation schedules, or even trade shows.

Events display at the top of every user's calendar

It is easy to add these official (and unofficial) events to your ACT! calendar so that every user of the database can see and plan around the reserved dates and events. 

Adding n Event to Your ACT! Database

1. In ACT!*, click Schedule, Manage, Events
2. Click Add… (Use the list of 2012 federal holidays below if you like).
3. Enter the Event Name: and the Date:.
4. Click OK.

* You must have Administrator or Manager role to create Events in your database.

2012 Federal Holidays
Monday, January 16 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday
Monday, February 20 – Washington’s Birthday
Monday, May 28 – Memorial Day
Wednesday, July 4 – Independence Day
Monday, September 3 - Labor Day
Monday, October 8 – Columbus Day
Monday, November 12 - Veterans Day
Thursday, November 22 – Thanksgiving Day
Tuesday, December 25 - Christmas Day

Other days to mark on the calendar
Monday, January 23 – Chinese New Year
Tuesday, February 14 – Valentines Day
Wednesday, February 22 – Ash Wednesday
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 – Leap Year
Sunday, March 11 – Daylight Savings Time
Saturday, March 17 - St Patricks
Sunday, April 1 – Palm Sunday
Friday, April 6 – Passover
Friday, April 6 – Good Friday
Sunday, April 8 – Easter
Sunday, May 13 – Mother’s Day
Sunday, June 17 – Father’s Day
Sunday, September 16 – Rosh Hashanah
Tuesday, September 25 – Yom Kippur
Wednesday, October 31 – Halloween
Sunday, November 4 – Daylight Savings Time Ends
Friday, November 23 - After Thanksgiving
Saturday, December 8 - Hanukkah

p.s. If the events doen’t display on your calendar, it may be that they have been turned off.
Click Tools, Preferences, click the Calendar & Scheduling tab
Click Calendar Preferences button.
Put a check in the Display events option.
OK, OK

I’m frequently asked about printing labels (or envelopes) from an ACT database. Remember you “write” letters and you “print” labels and envelopes. You can review the steps below or watch a quick video if you like.

You can view a quick lesson on how to print a label and then use the procedure below to remind you how it is done.

Printing a Label or Envelope 
      (For all versions of ACT)

1. Lookup your contact(s) first.
2. File, Print (Click Tools, Print if you are using the Web version).
3. Change the Printout type from Address Book to Labels (or Envelopes).
4. Select the size.
5. Click Print (or OK if you are using an older version of ACT or Open if you are using Web).
6. Select either Current contact or Current lookup.
7. Change the “Send output to” from Printer to Preview (if necessary) to check your settings.
8. If you selected Labels, click the Position tab to change the starting position Row: and Column: (This feature was not available in versions 2005, 2006, or the Web version.)
9. OK. Verify that all looks OK.
10. Click the Print button on the toolbar.
11. Select a different Printer if necessary, load your labels or envelopes, and click OK
12. If necessary, select the Envelope Feed options for your printer and click OK

If you have been a Sage ACT! user for a long time, you may not be taking advantage of how the new Groups feature works. In older versions of ACT! you had to manually add and remove contacts from groups. Most people forgot to add their new contacts to existing groups and so the group memberships would be quickly out of date.

All of that has changed with the newer versions. Did you know that you can add a contact to a group based on one or more field values?

You can follow the detail instructions below this video, but live examples are included in this video:

Let’s say you want to create a group of all clients with e-mail addresses.

1. Click on the Groups slider bar at the left to go to Group Detail view.
2. Click the New icon on the toolbar (or press the [Insert] key on your keyboard).
3. Enter a name for the Group.
   
4. Click the Add/Remove Contacts… button on the Contacts tab (or the icon on the smaller toolbar at the top of the screen).
5. Click the Edit Criteria… button in the Add/Remove Contacts dialog.
6. Create a query that finds all contacts with an ID/Status of Customer (or something similar to what you use in your ACT database) AND where E-mail “Contains Data”. Click the Field Name drop-down and select ID/Status. For the Operator, select Contains. In the Value area, type the value for the first criteria. Click Add to list. For the second row of the query, select the E-mail field and choose the Operator of Contains Data. Click Add to list. Click Preview to check your results so far.
   
7. If all looks well, then click OK to save the query criteria for the group.
8. Click OK once again to save the group.

While it may take a minute or two to define the Group query criteria, it is great for helping you to keep your Group memberships up to date. As you change the ID/Status from Prospect to Customer, the contacts are automatically added to the group. If the e-mail bounces, you can remove the data from the E-mail Address field and the contact will be immediately removed from the group.