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Read more: What Is a Custom CRM Field?
If you’ve ever worked with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, you’ve probably noticed lots of built-in fields—things like First Name, Last Name, Email, and Phone Number. Those are standard fields that come with every CRM. But what happens when you need to track something unique to your business—say, a customer’s favorite product line, franchise location, or contract renewal date? That’s where custom fields come in. What Exactly Is a Custom CRM Field? A custom field is a…
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Read more: Zoho CRM vs ACT! CRM: A Quick Look at Security and Compliance
If you’re still using ACT! CRM on a Windows 7 machine, it’s time to talk security—and no, we don’t mean installing another antivirus tool. While ACT! CRM has served businesses faithfully for decades, using it on an outdated system like Windows 7 poses a serious risk. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7 in 2020, which means no security updates, no patches, and a big red flag for compliance and data protection. 🔒 Risk Factor: ACT! CRM on Windows…
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Read more: The Most Common Questions Users Have About CRM
As the author of 14 books on various CRM products I receive a ton of questions every week both from my own clients and prospective clients. Here are the top five questions people often ask me about CRMs along with my responses. What’s a CRM, and do I really need one? One of the most common questions I get is, “Is CRM worth it, or can I keep using my trusty Excel sheet and Outlook?” My answer…
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Read more: I’ve Lost My ACT! Password!
Several times a month I receive a call from an organization that has lost their ACT! password. Sometimes this happens when the ACT! Administrator leaves the company – and takes his password with him. Fortunately we are able to recover those passwords and send the new administrator on their way with the advice to have two administrative users in the future “just in case.” However, many times a single ACT! user calls lamenting that he can’t open…
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Read more: Have You Discovered the Power of Using Your CRM for eMarketing?
This morning started with a flood of calls with various eMarketing questions. Small wonder considering that the Triumvirate of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas are right around the corner. Not to mention the various health insurance and other industry-specific deadlines. Why Can’t I use Outlook For My eBlasts? In short, while Outlook is useful for basic personal or business communications, eMarketing products are built specifically for email campaigns and provide various tools to make your marketing campaigns…
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Read more: Avoiding Double Entry in Your Act CRM or Zoho CRM
I field a lot of calls about various aspects of CRM; I have yet to receive a call from a CRM user asking to add more work into their schedule. I am, however, asked for just the opposite: “How do I Avoid Doing Double Entry between my CRM and other applications that I use?” Typically, CRM users are forced to add the same contact information into multiple products unless the products can be integrated together in some…
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Read more: Act! Pro is Gone – Where Do I Go From Here?
The Act! product was officially retired on 9/15/23. Apparently, a lot of existing Act! Pro customers either didn’t receive the message or don’t want to believe the message as I am being bombarded with questions from existing Act! Pro users. Keep in mind that Act! Pro had a “perpetual” license which meant that you could continue to use your copy of Act! Pro year after year without further payment. With the retirement of Act! Pro there is…
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Read more: Act or Zoho Dialer or “Click to Dial”
Using the Act Dialer or Zoho Dialer The other day someone asked me for my daughter’s phone number; although I call her almost every day I didn’t know it. My cell phone has made me lazy. I used to have her on “speed dial.” Then she was moved to my Favorites on my iPhone. Now I simply tell my phone to call her. No wonder I don’t have the number committed to memory! There are many advantages…
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Read more: Top 10 CRM Issues
I have been working as a fulltime CRM consultant for over 20 years. I like to say I work with CRM from “A to Z” as i have worked with Act, Zoho and many other CRM products. Unfortunately, no one ever calls me up to tell me how much they love their CRM, or to tell me how well it’s working for their company. However, I do field lots of calls from users that are having “CRM…
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Read more: How to jump start your CRM
No one ever calls me with an initial greeting of, “Hi Karen, I just wanted to tell you how great my CRM solution is working. Quite the opposite; I am usually hit with a litany of complaints ranging from, “our database is full of duplicates and outdated information” to “no one will use our CRM system.” Over the years I’ve become quite good at detecting problem areas and getting them corrected. I used to provide a “report…
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Read more: Using the Web Info Tab to Link ACT! to Various Sites
If you have ACT! 2010 or 2011 and you’re not using the Web Info tab you are missing the banana boat as we say in Florida. And, if you haven’t figured out how to use the Web Info tab in conjunction with your favorite social networking sites, then you’re in for a treat.
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Read more: Three Way to Improve Your CRM Database
Losing weight got me to thinking how I could apply the same concept to removing some of the “dead weight” often found in databases. Although I work with a variety of CRM solutions I find that my clients deal with the exact same issues.
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Read more: Help! I Think I Have a Corrupted Act Database
We recently repaired a corrupted Act database for a client. In fact, it’s the SECOND time we’ve repaired his database. Needless to say he was not a happy camper, although he was thrilled to get ALL of his data back safe and sound. Needless to say, we wanted to make sure this never happens again so we questioned him on a few common Act database corruption “gotchas” Do you perform weekly maintenance? Do you have large amounts…
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Read more: Help Act Guru: My Act Outlook Integration Stopped Working!
One of the most common questions I receive from Act users is about the Act and Outlook integration. Some users complain that they could never get it working at all. Other users report that the Act Outlook integration “just stopped working.” If you have never used the Act Outlook integration there are three simple rules for using the Act Outlook integration: You must make sure that your version of Act is compatible with your version of Microsoft Office.…
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Read more: My Act! v19 New Year’s Resolution
In the past I’ve shared one of my favorite Act! tricks which is to copy the holidays from outlook to Act! so that you’ll have them on your Act! calendar. You might want to review my past blog article because this is a quick way to populate your Act! calendars with holiday information. Act! has been around for a long time – over 25 years in fact, and many of you have been loyal Act! users since…
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Read more: Have You Outgrown Your Act CRM Software? What Next?
I recently had a client call me to tell me that they were not going to upgrade their Act! to the latest version because they had outgrown Act!. “Karen,” they explained, “Act! just isn’t giving us what we want. We need a good pipeline report. We can’t find any of the opportunities that we log into the system. We need a better way to follow up on leads. And, most importantly, we need to make sure that…
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Read more: Know Your Customers Better with Act CRM Software
One of the primary purposes of using a system like Act! is being able to learn more about your customers. This customer data will make your business more successful. Act! has a variety of tools that you can easily implement to help retain and establish better relationships with your customers. Here are a few of my favorites: Create good Notes: If used correctly, your notes can help you to understand each customer’s individual needs and help you build…
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Read more: Thinking of Changing Your CRM Software?
We have to ask…what are some of the Salesforce.com causes for attrition and how may those considerations affect the choice your business makes when it comes to choosing the right CRM solution? “The financial metrics are clear enough — it doesn’t make sense to invest a lot of dollars in acquiring customers that may only be around for a few years. But to me that’s an argument for investing in more automated ways of bringing them on board…
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Read more: Act vs Salesforce.com
As the author of 14 books on various CRM software applications and the creator of the lynda.com Act! training videos I am often asked to compare the various CRM products. Potential CRM users aren’t sure which product to choose, and existing CRM users often want to “jump ship” to another CRM solution. In the final analysis, most CRM products offer very similar feature sets. Act! was virtually the first player in what was then known as the…
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Read more: Why Your CRM Implementation Fails
Having written over a dozen books on CRM software, it’s not unusual for me to receive calls from CRM users who want to “jump ship” and move from one product to another. The reasons may vary but the bottom-line is that the user feels that the current solution “just isn’t working.” I know first hand the benefits of CRM software. Unfortunately, I also know first hand why CRM implementations fail. To me, the biggest culprit is a lack…
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Read more: Choosing the Correct CRM Solution in the New Year
Customer Relation Management (CRM) systems have come a long way. Did you know that this sector is growing at an impressive 6% rate per year? The demand for quality CRM systems is growing at a fast pace because these tools help businesses boost their sales and productivity. There are a plethora of CRM tools on the market today. If you made the resolution to start using a CRM solution this year, make sure you pick the correct…
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Read more: Using Act! CRM to Boost Your Sales
A recent survey conducted by the American Research Group, Inc. showed that Americans were planning on spending an average of $861 on gifts for the 2014 holiday season. This number has increased by 8% compared to the 2013 holiday season and experts agree on the fact the online shopping will continue growing. And according to a survey from CreditCards.com, 75% of Americans have made an impulse buy during the holiday shopping season. This same survey showed that a third…
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Read more: The Act Dialer
The number of businesses that are moving over to VOIP phone systems is on the rise. VOIP phones offer many advantages, including lower monthly phone bills and nifty ways to connect your remote employees. For me, the biggest benefit of VOIP is that it allows you to integrate your office phone to Act!. Your computer must have access to a dial tone in order for it to integrate to your CRM software. Ten years ago most computers…
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Read more: The Act! QuickBooks Link
The Act QuickBooks Link Small businesses require two solutions to effectively manage their front and back office operations: A CRM solution to manage front office processes such as sales and service An accounting solution to manage the back office operations including invoicing. Typically sales people don’t have access to accounting information and the bookkeeper doesn’t get involved with the sales department. However, by integrating your back office accounting to your front office CRM you’ll have a number of…
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Read more: Act! Outlook Synchronization
Act! Outlook Synchronization Clients often ask me to “setup their Act! Outlook integration” and are dumfounded when I respond that there is no such thing. “But Karen,” they insist, “you told me that my version of Act! is compatible with my version of Office. How can that be?” The confusion lies in the fact that there are actually three separate but equal components of Act! Outlook integration. Each process requires its own setup and works completely independently…
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Read more: Act! Software is Magical
The Contact field can prove to be surprisingly confusing for both new and old Act! users alike. Although the field seems very straightforward at first glance, it contains a bit of “magical Act! functionality” that can prove to be either a help or a hindrance. Let’s start with the Salutation field. I often ask Act! users what a salutation is and I receive answers such as “Dear” “Mr.” or “Vice President.” Not true. In Act! the Salutation…
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Read more: Confusing Act! Software Fields and Layouts
One of my favorite Christmas carols is a parody called “The Bathroom Door Said Gentleman” (sung to the tune of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.” During the course of the song we find out what happens when an unsuspecting male accidentally wonders into the Ladies Room because the signs had been reversed. I laugh every time I hear the song: and I think of Act!. Although Act! doesn’t contain bathroom doors it does contain “fields” and “layouts;” …
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Read more: So Why Exactly Should My Company Invest in CRM?
Implementing a CRM solution can be a daunting – and expensive – proposition. Many organizations are already using tools including Outlook and Excel spreadsheets and can’t justify the expense involved in transitioning to a true CRM solution. As a CRM consultant advise prospective CRM users to “keep their eye on the prize” and remember the true benefit of a good CRM installation: greater staff efficiency, productivity – and ultimately, greater customer satisfaction and loyalty that drives increased…
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Read more: Filling the holes of your Act! Database
As most of you know the “C” in CRM stands for Contacts and that’s the focus of these clean-up tips. I see a lot of databases in a variety of formats (Act!, SugarCRM, Salesforce, Zoho) and I’ve made one assumption: the typical database consists of 25% “dead wood.” I define dead wood as: Contacts that are missing pertinent or accurate pieces of information including phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses. Contacts that have been duplicated and exist in…
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Read more: Help Me, ACT! Guru! My ACT! Tabs have disappeared!
I recently received this plea for help from one of my ACT clients: “Karen, we have added a couple of new people to ACT and they are up and running. As a disciple of your teachings, I created a customized “Opportunity Layout Screen”(OLS) which fits our business and includes new fields. All of our Team has been using this layout successfully for over a year. However, one of the guys who we recently added is not seeing…
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Read more: Silly Answers to your ACT! Questions, Part 2
Last week I shared a story about an ACT! user who thought he had a major problem which turned out to have a rather easy, if not silly, answer. My second story involves an ACT! user who could not open his ACT! database; he kept receiving an error asking him to verify his user name and password. He insisted that he “did not have a password” and that ACT! “must have just stuck one in there.” Hmmm. …
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Read more: Back Your ACT Database in the Clouds
Any Administrator or Manager user can create an automatic schedule for creating backups using the ACT! Scheduler. Combine this power with your free Drop Box account to save your database “in the clouds.” Download and install Drop Box. In ACT, click the Tools menu, and then click ACT! Scheduler. The ACT! Scheduler – Create, Edit or Delete a Task panel appears. Click Create a task from the Schedule Tasks box. The ACT! Scheduler – Select a Database…
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Read more: Adding Holidays to ACT Calendars
Every year many of my clients ask me if there is a way to get holidays loaded into their ACT! database. Unfortunately, holidays do not come pre-loaded in the ACT! calendar. Obviously, some holidays such as the Fourth of July and Christmas are easy to add manually. However, other holidays such as Easter and Chanukah are almost impossible to add without at least a peak at another calendar. I’ve devised a way of getting holiday to magically…
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Read more: Act Cookbooks – Learn About Act
Last year I switched to a new publisher, PackT, after many years of writing the ACT for Dummies books. My new titles are called “Cookbooks.” Although you won’t find a great recipe for lasagne inside you will find dozens of easy-to-follow recipes that will help you master the more advanced areas of ACT. Packt Publishing is about to publish its 1000th title. Packt would like you to join them in celebrating this milestone with a surprise gift…
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Read more: Zen and the Art of ACT! Database Maintenance
Back in the days of ACT! 6 (was that really ten years ago?) my telephone message asked callers if they had recently “Compressed and Re-Indexed” their database. Back then, there was no way to automate this process although a reminder could be set to prompt a user to run maintenance. Unfortunately, many ACT! users either ignored the prompt – or didn’t know how to set it to begin with. Fast forward to the modern versions of ACT!…
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Read more: ACT Dynamic Groups
The other day I was working with a client when his ACT! alarms window opened; I must say that the number of alarms he had was, well, alarming. He quickly clicked the Select All button, selected Snooze and put all the alarms to rest for the remainder of the day. Curiosity got the better of me so I headed over to his Task List where I saw that the date filter was set to Today. I changed…
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Read more: Creating an ACT Zip Code Query
Several years ago a marketing company offered to do a mailing for me to all businesses within a 50 mile radius of my office. This sounded like a great idea until I realized that areas to the east and south of me contained nothing but the deep blue sea, and a large portion of the area to my west consisted of Florida swamplands. Obviously the marketing company wasn’t familiar with the geography of Florida! ACT! users frequently…
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Read more: Ways to Host an ACT Database
It seems that these days “everyone wants to be in the clouds” but alas, many business owners don’t know what that means and/or how to get the job done. There are a number of ways to access an ACT! database “from the clouds.” You can use a product like CompanionLink to sync ACT! to Google. You then install the Google app on your iPad, iPhone or Droid. You would be able to access and/or edit your contacts…
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Read more: America’s Apple Obsession
OK, I’ll admit that as a 30 year user of, and consultant for, Windows products I might be a bit prejudiced but can anyone explain to me the current obsession with Apple products? My local Apple store had a line wrapped around the mall before the holidays, and I witnessed similar occurrences at the Apple stores in New York. Apparently the iPad was the gift of choice this season surpassing the more reasonably priced Fire and Nook…
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Read more: Help! My CRM Software Has Fallen and Can’t Get Up
Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was your database. However, if you stick to my 5 simple Commandments you’ll soon be reaping the benefits of an effective CRM solution!
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Read more: Automatically Add Contacts from Web Form Leads
A common question I’m asked is whether there is an easy way to add the incoming leads you receive from a website form directly into an ACT! database. My answer is a resounding YES.
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Read more: Creating an ACT Link to a Client Folder
There are lots of cool shortcuts in ACT! that users take advantage of every day to make ACT! even more powerful than it already is.
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Read more: ACT! 2011 COOKBOOKS GO “R.A.W.”
Two books on the ACT software program by Karen Fredricks have been selected by Packt Publishing for inclusion in their R.A.W. (Read As We Write) program.
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Read more: I’m Thankful for the New ACT! 2011 Service Pack 1 (SP1)
In the ACT! realm I’m happy that Sage just released ACT! 2011 Service Pack 1 (SP1).
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Read more: Ding Dong – Your ACT! Database is Calling
One of my favorite ACT add-ons is the Call On CRM solutions that allows you to dial your phone directly from ACT!.
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Read more: Upgrading to ACT 2011 Will Actually Save You Money
Technology upgrades should be considered a necessary, recurring cost of doing business. You can’t run your business without a telephone and office supplies, and you shouldn’t be running a business with outdated technology. Ironically, technology is the single best way to lower the overhead of a business.
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Read more: Help! Someone Hacked My Yahoo Account
I received a rather bizarre e-mail last Saturday night just as I was getting ready to enjoy a lovely evening at a Marlins game. It came in to my business account from my Yahoo account and was asking me to send money to myself.
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Read more: ACT Training Courses on lynda.com
For those of you who might not be familiar with lynda.com I’d describe it as an online software school. You can take out a monthly subscription for roughly $25 a month which give you access to all of the courses including my own.
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Read more: EFax and Act: What You Need to Know To Make a Fax Coversheet
Today many of my clients are opting to use an online fax service such as MyFax or eFax with ACT.
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Read more: 4 Free Ways to Connect With Your Customers NOW
It’s amazing what you can do online, for free, in terms of connecting with your potential and existing customers right now! What’s really great is that it doesn’t take a lot of time, and it’s a great place to promote your uniqueness and your personality.
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Read more: Knowing the In-N-Out of Marketing
Maybe you can’t offer a secret menu, but you can make your customers feel like insiders by treating them like members of the family. And although you might not garner celebrity endorsements, you can ask for referrals or post positive comments on your website.
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Read more: ACT to Sales Force Conversions: What You Need to Know
If you were brand new to CRM it might be a different story, but you obviously know ACT and have liked it for years. If you move to another product you’ll constantly be missing core ACT features like dynamic groups and lookups.
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Read more: Synching ACT to Your Smart Phone
There is indeed a black hole area in the minds of many ACT users when it comes to synching their ACT database to their cell phone. I’ve been synching ACT database to my phone for years and have a few tidbits that I thought I’d share with you.
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Read more: Qualifying Opportunity and Potential in Sales
These days that’s not as easy to qualify prospects as it sounds. Companies and people used to be easier to read and qualify. Now image and brand can hide their truth. The outside is no longer the best criteria for a solid, quality prospect, but it still is what can draw our attention to them.
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Read more: Is Your Business the Underdog?
Like it or not, unless you’re working for one of the Fortune 500 companies you too are an underdog when it comes to your business. It’s an uphill battle to get your name to stand out against the competition.
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Read more: Four Hidden ACT Software Easter Eggs
This being Easter weekend I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite ACT Easter eggs. In case you’re not familiar with the term, a software Easter egg refers to a bit of hidden code in the software. Although these Easter eggs are all represented by fields and aren’t necessarily hidden, they do tie into other parts of ACT which you might not be aware of.
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Read more: How to Lose 10 Database Pounds
Losing weight got me to thinking how I could apply the same concept to removing some of the “dead weight” often found in databases. Although I work with a variety of CRM solutions I find that my clients deal with the exact same issues.
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Read more: Six Ways to Make Sure Your Act E-Marketing Isn’t Flagged As Spam
Once your e-mail address –or worse yet – your company’s domain – becomes black listed it can take you months or years to get the problem rectified. And, even if you don’t get blacklisted, most spam filters will eat your message for lunch if you don’t follow a few e-mail best practices.
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Read more: Being Penny Wise and CRM Foolish
Your parents probably taught you as a child to invest in your future. Shouldn’t you also be investing in your business?
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Read more: Is Your E-Marketing Message Marking You as a Spammer?
My rule of thumb for writing a marketing piece is to pretend that I am writing to one of my buddies with a bit of friendly advice.
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Read more: Keep It Simple, Stupid!
I’ve learned over the years that money I spend on a consultant, book or course is well worth its price when I compare it to the time it might take me to eventually wave the white flag and concede defeat.
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Read more: Let Me Sell You Some Swamp Land in Florida
It pays to advertise. After all, the harder “they” sell the more likely we are to buy.
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Read more: Singing the Customer Service Blues
Software companies are in the same boat as your local hardware or office supplies store. Hard as it may be for the average consumer to believe, software companies are in business to make money – or at least to remain solvent.
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Read more: Fathers Don’t always Know Best
You could market only to people who think – and communicate – the way you do. Unfortunately, that idea makes the somewhat flawed assumption that those people will still be around at the end of the next decade!
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Read more: Protecting Ourselves from Ourselves
My dad taught me that when I pointed my finger at someone (or something) I was in fact pointing two fingers back at myself. Think about it the next time something goes wrong with your computer.
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Read more: How Do You Rate as a CRM User?
Whether you’re new to the world of CRM or have been using a CRM product for years, your goal is to become a “CRM Master.” This article will grade your CRM efforts based on your use of various CRM features.
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Read more: Saying Good-Bye to the Act Email Blues
Sending an e-mail blast in ACT can be a pain. Learn how to send ACT e-blasts with a minimal amount of pain and effort!
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Read more: 5 Quick Marketing Tips
The biggest advantage of using ACT is to improve your marketing efforts. Here’s a few simple tips to turn your ACT database into a lean, green, Marketing Machine!
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Read more: How are you measuring Success?
So, just how do you measure success in your business? Obviously, if the dollars are rolling in then you must be doing something right! ACT’s Opportunity feature is a great way to measure your sales success. Using ACT correctly will help your business reach an even higher level of success. Use these simple tricks to help take your business to the next level in sales: Tip #1: Focus on the entire process, not just the dollars. Most…
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Read more: Are you ready for CRM?
So, do you think you want to start using ACT!, Microsoft Office Live or Outlook Business Contact Manager to help manage – and grow – your business? You’ll want do a bit of homework first to see if you’re ready to take the plunge into the world of CRM . 1. How different are your customers? Do you sell a variety of products or services? Are your customers spread across a wide geographic area and/or are they…
