I was looking back at some of the New Year e-Newsletters we have sent out over the years, around this time I typically wrote a “Top 5 Business New Year’s Resolution” kind of article and tied in how ACT! could help you keep those resolutions.
As I perused my old lists I realized that there are some good nuggets in there that are still relevant, but others needed updating. And the list name itself didn’t quite fit anymore. Because although we here at Po3 are hopeful that the economy will pick up in 2010, the past year certainly put many of us through the wringer. With colleagues and friends out of work I started thinking that maybe what I should do is apply the “professional” lens to my list this year. Because it’s not only businesses that can apply these resolutions, but individuals as well.
Finally, I included a Social Media Boost to each of the resolutions, because 2009 was “The Year of Social Media”. But, more than a trend or fad, Social Media actually “grew up” in 2009, and it began to be used effectively by companies in their marketing strategies. And, in the interest of full disclosure, the Social Media twist is somewhat self-serving because we are having a hands-on “Practical Social Media Workshop” in San Francisco next Tuesday, January 12th. We find that many of our customers are starting to learn about Social Media Marketing, but few have actually rolled up their sleeves and actually started working the Social Media sites/tools. So we figured we would help jump-start your Social Media Marketing initiatives for 2010 with a real-world, real-live workshop. Emphasis on the WORK. And we also decided to lower the workshop fee from $199 to $169 per participant, as a nod to the state of the economy.
Resolution #1 – Stay in Touch & Follow Up Consistently
Take a look at your customer list. Now, looking at that list, can you easily see the last time you reached out to all of the key contacts at your customers? Do you know when the next scheduled interaction is with that list? If you answered no to either of those questions, then you need to invest some time in 2010 to make it happen.
In ACT!, you can quickly do a lookup of ID/Status = Customer, then in the Contact List view, add the fields “Last Reach” and “Last Meeting” to that view and sort by those columns. Those fields are system fields in ACT!, by the way, that get populated when you clear an activity and/or record history that you had a phone conversation (Last Reach) or a meeting (Last Meeting). Once you are in this list view, you can also schedule recurring activities for your customer list to follow up on a regular basis, weekly, monthly, quarterly – whatever time-frame makes most sense for your customers. If you do this, there won’t be a customer in your database who doesn’t feel appreciated and cared for by your organization.
Social Media Boost - To make your interaction more meaningful, check your customer’s LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo, Facebook and Blogs before you connect, so you are up to date on the latest information that they have posted. Think how much more meaningful the conversation will be if you can start with something like “I saw that you just hired a new person/added a new product/opened a new office/just got back from vacation…” rather than “How are things going?” And with ACT! 2010, you can setup the Web Info tab to display that information right on the Contact record, reducing the amount of time you spend gathering that information. (See Resolution #3).
Resolution # 2 – Focus Your Marketing Efforts
First, you gotta look backwards & ask these questions about your marketing efforts in 2009: How did you spend your marketing dollars in 2009? How effective were those efforts? What investment paid off the most? What is your target customer profile for 2010?
Once you have taken a good, hard look at what did and didn’t work in 2009, then you can make your 2010 Marketing Plan. Focus on those marketing activities that net you more qualified prospects and customers. Look at non-traditional marketing options too. If you only do direct mail and trade shows, for example, try an e-mail blast campaign. With ACT! you can use Swiftpage to send e-mail blasts to thousands of customers and prospects, and track the results, right in ACT! In ACT! 2010 Swiftpage is the engine behind ACT! E-marketing, the integrated e-mail and drip marketing tool.
Whether you use Swiftpage or not, you can track your marketing campaigns in ACT! easily. You can either create a custom field or fields to track which contacts you added to which campaigns, or you can setup groups to track marketing campaigns. One great use of groups is to setup groups by market segments, and then plan and execute campaigns by segment, tailoring the marketing message for each segment. Then you can track which segment/campaign had the best results.
Social Media Boost - Social Media tools offer you a potentially power and relatively inexpensive way to engage with your prospects & customers. You’ll need to understand the major Social Media tools and decide which fit best with your target customers. Even if you aren’t actively using Social Media, you can bet your customers are, and maybe your competitors. Don’t you want to be involved in those conversations as well?
Resolution # 3 – Be more Efficient & Productive
Chances are good that you, like many folks, are trying to do more with less. Less money, less people, less time. So you need to maximize your productivity and make every tool you have work for you. ACT! is a very powerful contact management solution, but we find that many folks don’t really use it to its full potential. Sage just published a white paper on how using ACT! can help you be 25% more productive versus other CRM tools. The two areas of ACT! that we see opportunities to maximize productivity are in database design and task management.
Too many folks just start using ACT!, right out of the box, and never take the time to customize the fields and views to map to their business model and sales process. You do have the standard “User Fields” that you can use, but you can customize those and/or add additional custom fields or even add custom tables. Customizing your database will make capturing, tracking and reporting on relevant data that much easier. If you find yourself constantly searching multiple places for information, think about customizing ACT! to track all that data for you.
The ACT! Task List is a like a productivity secret weapon. The task list can help you prioritize your tasks, and, when used properly, can help you group like-kind activities together. Turns out we humans are more productive if we do batches of tasks together. If you are careful with the information you put in the regarding field of an activity, you can then sort your task list by “regarding” and, voila, all you like-kind tasks will be grouped together.
Social Media Boost - ACT! 2010 now has a web info tab which allows you to organize all your Social Media links in one place and you can then view those links on your customer and prospect contact records. So rather than pulling up LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other sites, you can click on the Web Info tab and see that contact’s relevant Social Media information. Did you customer just Twitter about their new product? Did a prospect just post about their latest vacation? Those are great tidbits to bring up in conversation, and you can quickly find that information without leaving ACT!
Resolution #4 – Network with Other Professionals & Organizations
When I first got started in sales, I went to every networking event I could and built a database of contacts in my industry. Then again, when I started my own company, I threw myself into networking again. The net result of both efforts was relationships and knowledge. Both of those examples occurred during economic downturns (I guess I like jumping into new things when the economy is lousy.) What I learned was that networking is critical in a down economy. I admit that my networking activities are more selective now, but I also better understand my market and my business.
Attending networking events and meeting people is just the first step though. You need consistent and relevant follow up to nurture those relationships. I add everyone I meet in my networking efforts to my ACT! database, with a note on what they do and what they are looking for. Then I send a follow up note and/or e-mail and invite them to stay in touch, referencing what they told me they are looking for or are interested in. Then I schedule a follow up activity for a month or so down the road and drop another e-mail to touch base. One of our best partnerships came from attending a local Chamber of Commerce trade show several years ago. I met a great IT Solutions Provider and now we have several mutual clients, having referred each other a number of opportunities.
Social Media Boost – In the “olden days” I was limited to networking events that were in my geographical area, but with Social Media sites & communities I can belong to any number of affinity groups all over the world. I am actually part of a peer group of consultants that are spread across two countries and 4 time zones, but we share information and ideas that have literally changed my business over the last two years.
Resolution # 5 – Start Using Social Media Tools for Business & Professional Development
Well, you had to see that one coming, right? If you aren’t already using Social Media sites and tools for your business, then 2010 is the year you need to start. Marketing used to be about the message, but it’s quickly becoming about the conversation. Social Media sites and tools provide an interactive experience for you and your customers. You can connect with customers and prospects, engage in a dialogue and then identify opportunities through those new relationships and conversations.
You can use ACT! to track the contact information for folks that you connect with through Social Media tools, and as mentioned above, with ACT! 2010 you can use the Web Info tab to aggregate the relevant Social Media information all in one spot.
Social Media Boost – Well, this entire resolution was about Social Media, so the boost would probably be in an ACT! Guru article I wrote for the Fall 2009 ACT!ion Newsletter about how to use the ACT! 2010 Web Info tab to build relationships, click here to see that article, or search community.act.com for “Stacy Roach”. Or (here is another plug for our event) if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area next Tuesday, January 15th, think about coming to our hands-on, Practical Social Media Workshop. We will walk you through getting up and running on the key Social Media tools to help your business or your professional development.
