The Curtain Is Rising: It’s Time For The New ACT!

Manufacturing Company Case Study
It turned out to be the ideal solution for a southeastern manufacturing company
that needed to improve information sharing with almost a dozen remote salespeople.
The reps in the field could only be effective when they had access to current
client information, but they were not very computer savvy. They also weren’t
too excited about change.

When training day arrived, the “no, not-me” and the “been-doing-fine-with-paper”
groups came prepared to stonewall any learning curve. However, what they saw
was the information they always wanted to have before they went on a sales call,
and they saw an easy way to access it on their own. The industry term is that
ACT! is intuitive, so that if you know the information you want, you can follow
a natural course to get you there. The salespeople didn’t care about the
jargon; they did, however, appreciate how easy it would be to prepare and get
up-to-date information anytime.

A month after “going live” on ACT!, management had met it’s
objectives to improve customer service. The sales reps were accessing ACT! on
a regular basis, and the sales reports were timely enough that everyone could
see the big picture. They sold themselves on the value of having access to current
information on their customers, and they learned how to sell smarter.

The expectation is that within six months after going live, the manufacturer’s
sales reps will find ACT! indispensable. That’s because a program like
ACT!, which is intuitive, will always have a higher adoption rate among users.
That assures a successful implementation and a solid foundation for long-term
benefits.

Investment Banking Company Case Study
And on the subject of being indispensable, how about having the capability to
customize your information gathering to more effectively integrate the unique
aspects of your business needs? That’s what sold an established investment
banking company on implementing ACT! to help strengthen and improve its customer
service delivery. The company’s goal was to keep up with many unique facts
about the people and families of its exclusive client base. So now, when a client
comes through the door at this financial services company, they are likely to
be presented with their favorite drink when they sit down for a meeting. It
was an easy customization to add the field to ACT! to store the information;
it was a big leap in customer service to be able to exceed a client expectation.

Marine Supplies Retailer Case Study
Meeting the specific needs of a client was also the driving factor for a marine
supplies retailer who uses ACT! The company knew its customers required different
sales processes depending on if the company was trying to sell a boat or a watercraft.
Based on their specific needs, they created two sets of sales steps in ACT!,
each unique to the product being sold. All steps were automatically scheduled
from the start of the sales process. The result, they report, has been a noticeable
increase in their close ratio.

ACT! for Specific Industries
The new world of ACT! offers versions for specified industries, where many of
the needs you might think would be customizations are already built in. For
those in the business of wealth management, there is ACT! by Sage for Financial
Professionals. It includes a series of special tabs dedicated to tracking investment
accounts; household information; all family members; advisors such as attorneys,
insurance agents or other accountants; estate planning information; and more.
The organizational structure is already created so the new user can hit the
ground running. One other special feature: It works in a workgroup environment.
That means all the people on your team who have a part in the sales and support
of your clients can have access to the full set of data stored. You say your
industry is Real Estate? There’s an ACT! version for it, as well.

Third-Party Add-Ons
As with all software tools, there are some areas of weakness. One example in
the new ACT! is the support of marketing campaigns out of the box. In this case,
however, a third-party developer has come to the rescue. That’s another
plus with a product like ACT! With such a large installed client base, more
players have written special add-ons. Add-ons and other applications can now
more easily link with ACT! since it moved to a Microsoft SQL Database. It works
on both SQL Express, the simple self-installing version of SQL 2005, or it works
with the full-blown SQL, which includes all of the management tools.

Conclusion
If you are serious about Customer Service and tracking information so you can
automate processes, you ought to take a serious look at ACT! Its choice of versions
allows you to scale from single-user to small workgroups of 30 or less, up to
large and spread out workforces with remote access and complex reporting needs.
It is a lot to consider as you THINK CRM, but you can be on center stage with
your clients’ applause if you ACT!