Sales Pain Points
Why you need ACT! by Sage 2009
We asked our customers what their typical sales pain points were and built it into the development of our ACT! solution. The latest release of ACT! by Sage 2009 is a great example of people-power. Make sure you try it today and tell us what you think.
Key Drivers and Benefits
Ensure End-User Adoption
Your Pain Point:
Have you implemented solutions that your team has rejected in the past? Do you need a solution that they will rally behind?
Solution:
Because ACT! is easy to learn and use, you ensure rapid end-user adoption, with little or no training required by you. Your team gets up-to-speed quickly and remains productive with ACT! Premium Solutions because they are intuitive and easy to use, with complete information on one screen with a tabbed interface, right-click and one-click functionality, and robust search capabilities. Because ACT! is so highly customisable, it is tailored to fit the exact needs of you and your team. Customisations can be made to everything from the layout to dashboards to reports, with little technical knowledge required. Your team has the ability to personalise menus, toolbars, and the navigation bar, to fit their individual needs, while still maintaining consistent data capture. Lastly, with multiple access options available, including Windows, Web, and mobile access, you provide your team with the options they require to be productive from anywhere. With an easy-to-use, customisable solution that can be accessed from anywhere, you can feel confident your team will rally behind ACT! because it fits their needs exactly.
Coach underperforming reps without delay
Your Pain Point:
Do you need a clear view of how your team is tracking towards their sales goals so you can coach underperforming reps in a timely manner and keep upper management informed?
Solution:
View how your sales reps are tracking to their sales goals and how their time is allocated, and coach underperforming sales reps without delay. Interactive dashboards provide a comprehensive summary view of top priorities and sales opportunities, including a gauge of team targets, enabling you to monitor performance status. For more detail, run one of 40 pre-formatted reports, 20 focused on sales opportunities, for each sales rep or for the team as a whole. Or, send most reports to Excel, HTML, PDF, or e-mail for further analysis or for when you need to present this data to upper management. Having a roll-up of this information allows you to understand all aspects of your team’s performance and enables confident decision-making.
Enhance sales predictability and results
Your Pain Point:
Does each sales rep on your team have a different way of closing business? Do you need this to be more consistent across the team so you receive more accurate pipeline data?
Solution:
Enhance sales predictability and results by providing a customised sales process for your team to guide deals through to close. With ACT! Premium Solutions, your team tracks sales opportunities from initial inquiry through close using a process customised to fit your organisation’s selling philosophy; schedules follow-up activities to ensure all tasks are covered as a lead moves through the sales process; and even tracks product discounts and costs and generates Instant Quotes. Because all this information is captured in ACT!, you get a complete view of your team’s sales pipeline so you know exactly which sales are tracking to close this month, quarter, or year and where your team members need to focus their attention in the coming days or weeks. And, you also get more accurate pipeline data for generating sales forecasts.
Focus your team on selling
Your Pain Point:
Do you need to improve the productivity of your team by automating key tasks so they can spend more time on the phone or in the field closing business?
Solution:
Streamline your team’s daily functions so reps can focus more on selling rather than administrative tasks, to ultimately improve their productivity. Your team members can manage all their activities in ACT! Premium Solutions automating activities with multiple steps, keeping their ACT! and Microsoft® Outlook® calendars up-to-date automatically and setting activity alarms for all deliverables with outstanding activities rolling over to the next day. They will find data in ACT! quickly using powerful search capabilities with multiple options for searching in the database. Communication with prospects and customers is easy using pre-formatted templates and Mail Merge for touching base with multiple contacts at once, saving time. Lastly, managing sales opportunities with the built-in sales process, including drop-downs with each step, helps to guide leads through to close. Your team members can analyse their sales pipelines without having to run reports because the dashboard offers an at-a-glance view of how they are tracking to the sales targets you set. By streamlining required functions, your team will stay productive throughout the day and focus on more important tasks, like selling.
Maintain relationship details, despite turnover
Your Pain Point:
Do you need a solution that will keep contact information secure so when sales reps leave your organisation they do not take this data with them?
Solution:
Rest assured prospect and customer details will remain as an organisational asset, even as your team experiences turnover. Because ACT! Premium Solutions are equipped with 60+ pre-defined fields including Contact, Company, Phone, Address, Web site, E-mail, and more, your team has a place to enter all their important contact details. Plus, they enter Notes, History, Activities, Opportunities, Documents, Secondary Contacts, and more to each contact for a complete record of their relationships. Once this information is entered into ACT!, it is secured on multiple levels - user, Contact, Group, Company, and field-levels, so you keep this information safe from intruders. Even restrict users from deleting or exporting ACT! data.This ensures that precious information remains within your organisation so your organisation maintains the relationships no matter which sales rep handles the territory or contact.
Meet sales quotas and drive revenue
Your Pain Point:
Do you need help hitting your ever-increasing sales quotes?
Solution:
Meet your sales quotas and drive revenue by guiding your deals through to close using a sales process customised to fit your selling philosophy. With ACT! Premium Solutions, track sales opportunities from initial inquiry through close, pushing leads through your sales process. When working a sales opportunity, schedule a follow-up activity which is populated automatically with the opportunity details ensuring all tasks are covered as a lead moves through the sales process. Track products on each sales opportunity, specifying product discounts and costs for each item. Even generate Instant Quotes without having to enter additional information. You get a complete view of your sales pipelines with the dashboard for a better understanding of which sales are tracking to close this month, quarter, or year and where to focus your attention in the coming days or weeks.
Feel confident no task is forgotten
Your Pain Point:
Are you missing deadlines or having trouble staying on top of all deliverables?
Solution:
Manage your daily responsibilities and automate redundant tasks so you feel confident nothing is forgotten, while you focus on more important things, like selling. Multiple options for managing your day, week, and month are available using one of many calendar views, the Task List for a filterable view of all activities, and the dashboard which provides a graphical summary view of your schedule and scheduled tasks. If your organisation uses Outlook®, copy your ACT! and Outlook calendars automatically to keep activities up-to-date in both schedules. Ensure you stay on top of your deliverables by setting Activity Alarms. Any activities not completed roll over to the next day. Further, schedule an Activity Series for routine activities with multiple steps to automate redundant tasks. Because activities in an Activity Series are linked, a due date change to one will realign related activities. With ACT!, you benefit from increased productivity all day, every day.
Provide superior service
Your Pain Point:
Do you often forget the details of your previous conversations? Do you need this information at a moment’s notice so you appear prepared when you receive a call from your prospects and customers?
Solution:
Get a complete view of your relationships and keep your current customers happy while also expanding current accounts, with easy access to all the details about their unique circumstances. With ACT! Premium Solutions, track detailed contact information, including notes, history, activities, sales opportunities, and documents all tied to the associated Contact Record for a complete, integrated view. Even track Companies with multiple contacts associated or groups of related contacts for easier communicating. If this data currently exists in another system, simply import it as either .txt or .csv and keep everything in ACT! going forward. Because all the details are in ACT!, you impress your contacts with your knowledge about their unique circumstances to build stronger relationships.
Nurture your prospects
Your Pain Point:
Do you struggle to communicate with your prospects? Is tracking these communications daunting at best?
Solution:
Reach out to your prospects more effectively with professional and timely prospecting communications. Send and receive e-mails using Outlook®, Outlook Express®, Lotus Notes®, or the ACT! E-mail Client. However you prefer it, integrating ACT! with the e-mail solution you use today enables you to work without interruption, but also track vital information in ACT! for easy referencing later. Additionally, reach out to multiple prospects at once using Mail Merge with pre-formatted templates for sending communications to all leads in any group you create (for example, all leads in Brisbane). All of these communications are linked to each contact for a complete record of sent communications. This way, you ensure you are reaching out to prospects with the appropriate frequency. Rely on ACT! to help you nurture your prospects through to close.
Focus your attention where it counts
Your Pain Point:
Do you want to assess your sales pipeline each week, but need a quick way to do so?
Solution:
Assess your sales pipeline, including your top sales opportunities and total sales for the month, all in one view using interactive dashboards and eliminate the need to run and analyse reports. Interactive dashboards provide you with a comprehensive summary view of your sales opportunities and priorities and include a gauge of how you are tracking to your sales targets. Set the dashboard as your default startup view and begin your work day with a snapshot of this information so you understand your priorities for the day. If you need to present this data to management, cut and paste the entire dashboard or dashboard components to PowerPoint® and create your presentation in minutes. Having a roll-up of this information not only allows you to provide pipeline updates to your sales manager, but also allows you to determine which deals are more likely to close so you can focus your attention where it is best spent.
Get real-time access from anywhere
Your Pain Point:
Are you frequently on the road and without the detailed prospect and customer data you need?
Solution:
Get the information you need, exactly when and how you need it, using Windows- and Web-based options with seamless interfaces, plus mobile access options. Because the Windows® and Web products are full-featured applications, unlike many other CRM online/offline solutions in-market, you truly receive seamless access options with ACT! Premium Solutions. Additionally, sync ACT! to Palm OS®, Pocket PC, BlackBerry®, and iPhone devices for all the power and convenience of ACT! on-the-go. Or, you can access via Citrix or Terminal Services. With so many options available, you are never without the information you need, no matter where you are.
Third Party Validation
“I have a report sorted by date and time that details what activities each representative has scheduled or completed. It makes it easy to compare each representative and ensure we’re getting maximum productivity from the team.”
John Hrabosky, Earth Tool
“With ACT! Premium, we always know exactly what opportunities are open, what stage they’re in, and what the probability of closing them is. Not only does this help our sales team, but we use it to more accurately forecast our production and manufacturing.”
John Hrabosky, Earth Tool
“Before ACT! Premium, our reps kept their own notes, so management had no visibility into the sales process. If they left the company, their leads and opportunities went with them.”
Kym Bridgers, Choice Hotels