As the saying goes, I wish I had a dollar for every time an Act! user started the conversation with these words, “Karen, I am a long-time Act user.” In fact, there are millions of long-time Act software users out there because the Act! product has been around for over 30 years. And by the way, this is a statement that no other CRM product can make. However, using a product doesn’t necessarily mean that you are an expert in the product. As an example, I have been driving a car for many years; this hasn’t qualified me to race in the Daytona 500 or to replace the transmission in my car.
One of my long-time Act! users recently wrote me wondering if they should move to Salesforce because he “had heard” it offered more features than did Act. On the very same day another one of my long-time Act! users wrote me with this question: “We’ve been using Act! for many years. We recently hired a business coach. Our coach asked us if Actis a tool that can track sales, calls, emails, etc. to measure productivity of a producer/sales rep? Can you shed some insight?”
Shed some insight? I wanted to cry! Act! is so easy to learn that many Act! users quickly master the basics of creating contacts and scheduling appointments. Often these users stop there and overlook the true power of Act!. When I compare Act!’s functionality to those of other CRM products I find that Act! offers the same feature set as most other CRM products. In fact, I find that many of the newer CRM products offer fewer features than Act!, and charge three times as much to get them.
If you haven’t done so already you need to explore the Act! Opportunities function. The Act! Opportunities are hands down the most flexible aspect of the Act! product. It will not only allow you to track sales but will also allow you to run any number of dashboards and reports to help analyze your current sales revenue and determine the best ways to increase it. It’s not unusual for me to run across a sales manager who spends hours each month tracking the sales of his reps, not realizing that he can produce the reports he needs in a matter of moments. And, if data is your thing the Act! opportunities can be easily exported into other tools including Microsoft’s Excel and Business Intelligence products.
As for measuring productivity, the newly revised History Summary Classic report allows you to monitor the activities of your users including the number of calls and emails they produce during a given time range.
Finally, I do have to expound for a minute on my favorite Act! productivity tool, Dynamic Groups. Want to see which of your customers have expiring contracts? Create a Dynamic Group. Want to see which of your key customers haven’t received a phone call from one of your staff members in over a month? Create a Dynamic Group. Want to make sure that all the prospects you met at the latest trade show have been contacted? Create a Dynamic Group!
