The Most Important Skill We Can Develop

My youngest (who is a Junior at the University of Texas) will be going back to college this week. His dad took him to Office Depot to help him stock up on printer paper, etc.

I think how important it is to be organized in life and I want to stress to him that he will be so much more successful at school and in life if he finds his own way to be organized and he practices and develops it to an art so that it supports him.

It’s not like he doesn’t know ACT!. He’s helped me with some projects in the past and has done many of the screen captures on two of “The Official ACT! by Sage QuickStudy Guide” books I have written. However, he currently uses the calendar on his generic cell phone to record due dates. While I don’t think that is the best way to do this, he is the one that has to be comfortable with the system he uses.

That ultimately is the most important skill that any of us can develop. Each of us needs to find an easy organizational system that works for us. Then we need to work that system so that it supports us and helps to reduce stress while keeping our lives on track.

I want to say all these things to him on our last day, but I know he would only roll his eyes. Instead I say “Keep up with your homework and tests. Keep your grades up. But don’t forget to have fun. You’re only young once. Don’t let this time pass you by, sweetie. I love you. Call me when you get there.”  And of course he will forget that last one. What’s a mom to do.

ACT! 2009 Demo Database

When you install your ACT! software, a demo database is also installed so that you can play with your new software and learn more about using it before you create your own customer and prospect database. Ever wonder who creates and updates the database? Yeah I know… probably not. But as a piece of trivia, it is me.

Each year when I write and update the ACT! QuickStudy Guide, I also update the demo database as well. The demo is used for practice exercises in the QuickStudy Guide, so it helps if I can design the database in a way that encourages users to better understand the functionality of the new version of ACT!.

In addition to making it work better with the QuickStudy guide, the inside sales team often asks me to include certain things so that they can better demo the product to prospects. This year I added customized templates and reports to the demo database, along with several other features. For example, the demo database is designed so that for the next 12 months, no matter when you open the database, you will see open and closed activities and opportunities for 3 users in the database (Chris Huffman, Allison Mikola, and Ernst Anderson). So there are opportunities that closed in July 2009 (even though July 2008 isn’t even over yet).

Another piece of trivia. Chris Huffman has been the primary logon user for the ACTDemo database since the beginning. The company that Chris runs has changed over the years from CH Imports… to CH Gourmet… to the current CH TechONE. When ACT! included the ability to maintain photos with each contact record (several versions ago), I needed to select a photo for Chris Huffman. It was at that time that it occurred to me that no one really knew much about Chris. So, I made her a woman. You can see her photo on the Home Address tab on her record. Be sure that the ACTDemo layout is displayed.

You can see more obscure facts about the demo database in ACT! 2009. There is an attached file on the Notes tab that fills you in.

LinkedIn

Social Networking is the hot topic these days. I’ve recently started playing with LinkedIn and Twitter. Can it make you any money? Not sure yet, however, in filling out my profile, LinkedIn asked if I would like to see other members that went to the University of Kentucky during the same years that I was there.

I have tried to find my college roommates several times over the years, but it can be hard to find women if they have since married. I knew their maiden name, but have no way of knowing what their married name might be. I looked and of course couldn’t find them. Then my eyes stopped on the name Patricia. I didn’t recognize the last name, but she was in marketing. I followed through to the website and found a photo of the college roommate I hadn’t spoken to in over 20 years. We’ve had a fun time catching up.
 
I also located a fellow MBA graduate, but he was easier to find (no name change). Even if I never make any money from this new tool, the time I spent so far was more than worth locating and reconnecting with 2 great friends.

However, I am determined to take this further to see where I can go with it. Oh yeah and my LinkedIn profile is: View Susan Clark’s profile

ACT! by Sage QuickStudy Guide

Memorial Day usually marks the start of my 4+ week hibernation period. For the next few weeks I will be writing and editing the 2009 (11.0) version of the ACT! QuickStudy Guide. Since there is only a narrow window of time between when a software is ready for testing and when it is ready for shipping, I have to work fast. I usually spend about 12-16 hrs a day editing and updating the almost 600 page manual on all things ACT!. I’m looking forward to writing about the new features (with corresponding screen shots). I’d like to also throw in a few really advanced topics (like OLE/DB connections for reporting).

Annual ACT! Certified Consultants Conference

I’m just back from our nation’s capitol. I am alternately invigorated and exhausted when I attend these conferences. There were close to 3000 Sage-affiliated Business Partners and over 200 ACT! Certified Consultants from around the world in attendance. There were lots of new ideas, camaraderie, and friendships developed. No one gets much sleep since we are all connecting with other consultants. I love it, so I put off sleep until this week.

Then there was the trade show where we could see all the add-ons in action (the subject of the next Houston Area ACT User’s Group meeting).

ACT consultants also got to preview the next version of ACT! by Sage (sorry… they make us all sign non-disclosure agreements). I’m looking forward to later in the year when I can tell you more.

Are You Keeping Up With Reading?

According to the US Department of Labor and a survey by Yahoo! Chief Solutions Officer, people who read at least 7 business books a year earn over 2.3 times more than people who read only a single book each year. What books have you read lately to fuel that constant flow of new ideas and strategies to help take your business to a new level?

BusinessWeek Podcast

Years ago I was introduced to Michelle Nichols by a mutual acquaintance that is a sales trainer. Michelle has since started writing the Savvy Selling column for Business Week. Recently she contacted me and asked if I would like to do a podcast interview with her. (Gee, let me think about that for a few minutes. Do I want a podcast on Business Week?) Of course.

I sent her a few articles that I had recently written and she selected the “10 Mistakes that Sales People Make with their CRM” as the basis for our interview. It was a lot of fun. You can download and listen to the podcast here.

So the morale of the story is this. Keeping up with your contacts over the years can many times reap really cool rewards.

Organization and Goals

While writing/updating the Official ACT QuickStudy Guide for Sage, I keep an elaborate spreadsheet tracking how many hours I have spent on the project, how many pages have been reviewed, how many days until identified deadlines, how many pages/day I have to complete to make my deadlines, and more.

Since ACT! 2008 is Vista compliant, I am also reshooting all of the screen captures and making notations in the book about differences between the current Microsoft world and the new one (Vista and Office 2007). My college-aged son is helping me with the screen captures. Some of his comments about working 8 to 5 versus project work have made me realize how important it is to have goals and methods of tracking our progress. It is what keeps us … sane. It helps us to know if we really are ahead of the game or struggling to keep up.

Impossible goals are what makes life interesting, and sometimes challenging, and many times fun. It’s the organization that makes getting there manageable

ACT! and Wikipedia

OK, so I got distracted from writing the ACT! QuickStudy Guide today while I was looking up a definition in Wikipedia. I noticed that there was not an entry for ACT!. Oh my gosh! How many times is there a subject that hasn’t been started in this Internet encyclopedia? So I took some time out to learn how to create an entry, looked up similar entries for topic ideas, wrote and formatted my entry, checked and footnoted some of the facts, and finally just submitted (because I need to get back to my real business).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT%21

What a rush!

ACT! QuickStudy Guide

Been away from the Blog lately as I am revising the “Official ACT! GuickStudy Guide” once again in preparation for the release of ACT 2008 (version 8). Each year I alternately look forward to and dread writing and updating the manual. It is fun to see all of the features planned for the new release. However, the time frame I have available to write the book (from the time that it works until the time Sage wants to ship the software to distribution) is very short and it requires that I isolate myself from my clients to review and update the almost 600 pages of the book. (Yes, I know the name is QuickStudy…but I didn’t pick that one. The concept is that none of the sections is dependent on any other section, so you can start in the book wherever you like.)

However, I know the time spent is worth it to my clients as it makes me know more about the software than almost anyone out there. Since the product will ship late summer 2007, and I have been working with it since April of this year, I also have a head start on all of the idiosyncracies. Hopefully I am catching any new bugs associated with the new release. The ACT! programmers are always so great to work with and have been quick to fix any problems that I have found in the alpha and beta builds. I really am impressed with the ACT! development team that they have right now.