* New version of sales tool includes Excel hooks, improved PDA synch
If you sell for a small-to-midsized business, you probably use ACT software (http://www.act.com). You probably bought the software and were trained on it by another small business. And if you customize ACT, the program additions or changes probably came from yet another small business.
Whether ACT is the best contact manager and sales support tool is up for debate. But you can’t argue that ACT has spawned an army of small business ACT resellers, trainers and certified consultants worldwide.
I remember testing ACT in Dallas in 1987; a DOS version with painfully colorful screens crammed with pre-defined fields that forced you to work the ACT way. Nearly 20 years later, ACT is toned down but still colorful, with pre-defined fields that strongly encourage you to work the ACT way.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sales relies on details, and ACT 2005 – the new version – handles more details than ever. Untrained salespeople lack understanding of the sales process and lose control of critical details. If you buy into the ACT way, the software forces you to collect those details, track your commitments, pursue your prospects more professionally, and service your customers more completely. And you can customize ACT’s screen and reports more easily than in previous versions.
Ron Madara says he started as an “ACT abuser” in 1992 to support 20-plus product lines in his ACT rep sales job. In 2001 Ron joined EW & Associates as one of a half-dozen certified ACT consultants and resellers concentrating on the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut market.
Clients who approach Madara tend to be “good at selling but bad at organizing.” Half his client base has 20 to 30 ACT licenses, the other half fewer than 10. One corporate customer has thousands.
Madara includes training in all proposals because “if you don’t get it right at the beginning you can get frustrated.” ACT users don’t necessarily like computers, and often have nothing but ACT and Microsoft Office on their systems. ACT includes a word processor and e-mail client, but many users love the new hooks into Microsoft Excel. Since people tend to use Excel for sales contact management software before they buy the real thing, this link appeals to new ACT users.
Mobility also appeals, and ACT 2005 has improved PDA synchronization. Madara remotely supported a Wyoming-based client recently from his New York office to help him sync his new Palm Treo 600 PDA-phone.
“It’s surprising how well ACT has done, a pleasant surprise after the company’s been bought and sold several times,” says Rich Bohn, the host of SellMoreNow.com and a publisher of independent reviews on sales software. “They haven’t killed off the nice group of third-party partners; it remains a vibrant community.”
Bohn says ACT has spent money to upgrade the product to avoid technological dead ends, and now relies on Microsoft’s .Net architecture and Visual Studio for developers. The single-user version uses the Microsoft SQL desktop engine, while the Workgroup version relies on Microsoft’s SQL Server.
Despite multiple revisions, ACT developers remember their customers. “Some of the function keys in the newest version do the same things they did in the first DOS version,” says Bohn, “so long-time users feel comfortable with the new version.” That’s the kind of customer detail that makes sales.
