Accent Gold Solutions Blog

Are you using Notes to track your day to day correspondence with your contacts?
Are you on ACT! 2005 or newer?
If yes to both, may I ask WHY?

Maybe you upgraded from ACT 6 and didn’t realize you now have a Notes tab AND a History tab. Or perhaps you use Notes because it’s the default tab on the layout. Or maybe you just think, “Let me make a Note of that.”

Whatever your reason, you’re wrong.

Yup. WRONG.

Here’s 5 reasons to use ACT! Histories instead of Notes when tracking contact communication:

1. Drop Downs – How many times have you had to type “Left message…” or “Met with…”? Too many! In Histories, ACT! gives you fields to track the Type as well as the Result, saving you Time and Effort while producing better data. (I’m all about the laziness, erm, effectiveness).
2. Follow-Up – Most correspondence has a next step to keep the ball rolling. If you are just putting in a Note, you lose out on the chance to schedule your Follow Up call / to-do / etc. Sure you could do it after you hit ok, but chances are you’ll be interrupted before you get a chance to and then you’ll forget. (more on getting distracted at work here).
3. Email Integration – Provided you’ve setup your Email correctly, your Outlook emails will automatically record on the History tab (way up there on the Laziness / Effectiveness scale). So why check two tabs for a running log of the relationship when ACT! has set it up to use one? Also, when you clear your tasks on your ACT! calendar, do you know where the record goes that you completed the task? You, you guessed it. History!
4. Reportability – I think I made the word up, but it doesn’t make it less true. Those drop downs from point 1 work to your advantage when trying to report on user productivity. ACT! has a few built in reports, but I really like Topline Dashboard – you can group / filter / sort / count your History by type / result / regarding / duration / user – you get the picture. Contact us for your free trial.
5. Effective Notes – “Wait. I thought I wasn’t supposed to use Notes?” Notes is a great place to store miscellaneous account information (personal tastes, login info, etc.). This time stamps it, so can serve more useful than just a general Memo field. And now that you’ve cleared out all your Histories, this important info isn’t buried in the back and forth communication!

So maybe WRONG isn’t the right word. Perhaps misguided suits you better. So Ctrl+H away (that’s the keyboard shortcut for record History) and enjoy your additional time and peace of mind.

Care to comment?

Our entire firm has been using MindJet mindmap for years. It is still the best tool on the market and rich in features. It exports well to Word, PDF and even PowerPoint. In fact this is how I create my PowerPoint presentations…I start with a MindJet mindmap. I love it and use it for everything – from Needs Analysis meetings to preparation for teaching Bible classes.

Yet, sometimes there is a need to collaborate online in a mindmap. I tried bubbl.us. Nice colors, but weak on features. Then I tried Mind42.com. That stands for “mind for two” – as in “let’s collaborate!”

The three buttons to remember are Enter, Tab and Shift+Tab. The rest is drag and drop - and highly intuitive. So as we have begun mapping out ACT or CRM projects collaboratively, this tool has proven itself to be invaluable. To find out more: http://bit.ly/MindForTwo

My 5 favorite features of Mind42 are:
1. Keyboard Shortcuts and Drag/Drop
2. Auto-save every 5 minutes
3. Export to RTF and even to MindJet
4. Online Collaboration! Functions like Google Docs
5. Did I say it’s FREE!!

We highly recommend Topline Designer!

ACT was revolutionized in version 10.03 with the development of Custom Tables. That means that users can now track just about anything in ACT – and associate it with a contact, group, company or even opportunity. The only problem is that ACT has not created a GUI (User Interface) for creating and managing these new Custom Tables. So a number of developers came up with some great tools to deal with this. And the Topline Designer is by far the best! It is stable! It allows for scripting! And the GUI (User Interface) is identical to the Topline Dashboard! Did we already say it is stable?!

I love this tool! I have been able to provide my clients with the solutions they require, including custom scripting that allows for workflow and automation.

And Accent Gold loves the developer, Dan Boehm! Topline has put out another top notch product for ACT 2010, and we are proud to be their top partner in Los Angeles and Southern California. If you need licenses, contact us for a 5% discount.

Have you been finding it difficult to finish what you start? Distractions lurk everywhere.

Email
Twitter
Facebook
Blackberry
Stumble Upon
Pandora

And the list goes on. How about just unplugging? It’s almost impossible, isn’t it!

Check out these fantastic practical tips! http://bit.ly/DisconnectFromDistractions

We highly recommend using Topline Dashboard!

Since its initial creation, the Topline Dashboard has been a central part of our ACT solutions. Here  are the top 5 features that we find most valuable for our clients:

1. Ability to include fields from multiple tables – for example both Activities AND Contacts.
2. Ability to save multiple list views (differently customized columns)
3. Charts and Graphs with that are easy to configure
4. Easily queried and filtered report criteria
5. Drill-down on charts/graphs. Then highlight the records and hit “Go To Contact” in order to see the details.

If you are in need, give us a buzz and save 5%!

Looking for the best Import tool for ACT 2010? We recommend MergeAdmin by ASDS.

We have been using this “Excel into ACT” import utility for the last 4 years.  It is fast, robust, and it allows you to (a) import into a field only if that ACT field is empty and (b) import into an ACT field only if the Excel field contains data. That way, you’ll never overwrite ACT data with a “blank”.

Lastly, the User Interface is easy to understand. It even lets you save all the import settings so that you can quickly run an update when needed.

The one drawback is that it doesn’t allow for import into custom sub-entities.

For other import recommendations give us a call – we’ve tested just about every tool on the market. For more info check out http://bit.ly/MergeAdmin.

Have you ever felt handcuffed? Well in case this is more than a metaphorical question, check out the following link – and learn how to get out of handcuffs in 3 minutes.

I just hope I never need this. I’ve gotta admit –  the “boy” in me found this pretty cool!

Check it out: http://bit.ly/HandcuffEscape

Want to evaluate your leadership skills? Tim and I will be teaching a Leadership Skills workshop here in LA. The call is to not just to learn, but to be challenged to deal with the traits that hold each of us back. Our text will be John Maxwell’s “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook”. Highly recommended! Check out http://bit.ly/21LawsLeadership.

Tim and I both had the  honor of attending the Sage leadership Academy in 20008. Ed Kless led it and it truly exposed our weaknesses in building our  business. On the other hand, we were equipped with numerous resources – one of which was Maxwell’s book and the knowledge of how to make the contents practical.

Although this class was initially designed to help train leaders in our church (www.thewestsidecoc.com), we decided that we could serve the Culver City community as well. So if you are ready to be challenged, let us know. The course starts Feb 7th!

I donated $10.00 to the Red Cross by texting “HAITI” to 90999. It’s charged to your cell phone. American Red Cross Pledges Initial $1 Million to Haiti Relief. You can also make a donation by calling 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish). http://bit.ly/RedCrossHaiti10Dollars.

My new favorite word is sagacious. Sage-like, shrewd, keen, discerning. Isn’t that how your clients need to view your consulting knowledge? Read it http://bit.ly/SagaciousDef