I recently posted which Zoho CRM features are “nice-to-have” vs. “have-to haves”. This same discussion occurs when discussing ACT! CRM features as well.
Looking at a single ACT! CRM feature and dismissing it as the single reason to buy is a perfectly logical response. You’d be crazy to invest hundreds of dollars in upgrades each year to just be able to do one cool thing (unless of course that one cool thing was going to make you buckets of money).
But, imagine if each and every day you get to use the 10 “little” things you’d dismissed individually as nice-to-have but non-critical features. The sum of the parts can aggregate huge benefits.
Even discounting the need for regular upgrades, “I wish I could . . . ” is another comment I hear from users, even though the feature they wish for is already at their fingertips. Here are just 10 of the questions I’ve fielded from current ACT! users about capabilities already in their software solution: “I wish that ACT! could . . .”
- Export ACT! to Excel.
- Go to the Contact, Group, Company, or Opportunity List view and press the Export to Excel Icon.
- Don’t see the icon? Check to make sure your version of ACT! is compatible with your version of MS Office.
- Go to the Contact, Group, Company, or Opportunity List view and press the Export to Excel Icon.
- Merge duplicates in ACT!.
- Click the Tools menu, and then click Scan for Duplicates.
- Too many or two few duplicates showing up?
- Check the Duplicate Checking Criteria.
- Too many or two few duplicates showing up?
- Click the Tools menu, and then click Scan for Duplicates.
- Add images to my contact records.
- Tools > Defined Fields | Select Entity | Create new field.
- Open the layout designer and add the field to the layout.
- Email newsletters with ACT!
- Click the Swiftpage (Sage) E-marketing for ACT! tool on the toolbar.
- Set up a new account
- Use a ticketing system with ACT! (or track equipment, or renewal dates, or . . . )
- Integrate custom tables to create a one-to-many relationship.
- Know when a salesperson hasn’t contacted his customers or prospects within X weeks/months.
- Lookup > Contact Activity | Look for contacts that have not changed Since [Date].
- Update several records at once, instead of having to do it record by record.
- Look up the records to be updated.
- Edit > Replace Field | Swap Field | Copy Field.
- Get ACT on my smartphone (or tablet).
- Included with ACT! Premium.
- Stay connected from your iPhone®, iPad® or Android™ device.
- Automate repetitive tasks.
- Use Smart Tasks and get ACT! to automatically schedule activities and send emails.
- Get ACT! and Quickbooks to talk to each other.
- Go to actaddons.com and get the software that keeps Quickbooks and ACT! on the same page.
Don’t settle for making decisions based on what you don’t know – make it a point to find out how to become as effective as possible. Many features in any CRM software remain unused simply because users are unaware of the capabilities.
A Google search for “export act contacts to excel” or “duplicates in sage act” will quickly get you your answer. The more you know about using your CRM software, the more likely you are to use it to meet your business objectives.