Organize your Network Marketing Business with ACT

We have all learned about time management and maximizing our time.

One of the tools that we have come to rely on for our network marketing business is the use of a contact management tool.

The one we recommend is the program called ACT. Here we will give you a brief overview of the program.

ACT itself is not a user friendly program; otherwise there wouldn’t be the need for consultants for this program. Just like we have network marketing consultants we have ACT consultants as well. Can you learn to use the program ACT, absolutely?

The two versions’ I will talk about here are ACT 6.0 or 2004 and ACT 7.0 or 2005. I’ll explain what I liked about each version and why I upgraded to the latest version for my network marketing business.

Generating our own leads "prospects" through web sites and pay per click advertising really created its own management headaches until ACT.

ACT 2004 or 6.0 can be purchased quite reasonably on the internet today. There is a tremendous amount of secondary software to make it far more useful. One of these pieces of software is a program called Mail Merge Mania which will be discussed in more detail later.

Most of us would like to have prospects calling us back right? Well if and when it does happen, with Acts’ instant lookup feature, either first name, last name or telephone number we can identify just who is calling.

We can have all of the important contact information right in front of us, but we have to take good notes and get them into the program. Wonderful thing about computers, we only get something useful out of them if we put it in there in the first place.

ACT 2004 – has a feature which I believe is extreamly useful. This feature is the ability to use a mail merge html template. A mail merge template is useful for creating an email template such as a welcome letter to our new downline members.

If we are sponsoring individuals as we should be sending a welcome letter. A lot of the information that is sent to new distributors will be the same with only minor changes. We are able to personalize each email before it is sent through the use of the mail merge feature.

The mail merge feature is more then just for emails we can use it for generating welcome letters that we send via snail mail or the USPS, with each of these letters being personalized. We can also use it to put our own message on the back of a postcard, complete with the prospects address etc. This feature alone really helps maximize our time in follow up with prospects, customers and downline members.

Another useful add-on piece of software, but for most of us not essential just yet is called “Web prospect”. It allows you to import the requests or reports that come from our companies online forms I.E. the requests for more information. The program will import the contact information into your ACT data base and then if you choose schedule a call for you.

I found the importation to be important and very handy saving me hours of manually importing this information allowing me to spend more time marketing and in front of prospects.

The automatic setup of a scheduled follow up call is not quite so useful. If you are like most of us, when you log on and import the emails it will schedule them all at the same time, not a good idea of you have multiple requests.

Another great feature is the ability of ACT to dial a phone number for you. This requires that you have a modem card installed in your computer. This feature really saves you time and helps to prevent dialing the wrong number. When you use it to dial a number for you it starts a timer for you.

The Major difference between ACT 2004 and ACT 2005

ACT 2004 loads very quickly but shuts down very slowly. This is not a problem but a difference I wanted to point out between 2004 and the 2005 version.

None of the software add-on’s that worked with 2004 will work with 2005 / 2006. Companies that produced software for 2004 at the time of this writing are still trying to iron out and re-write the software for the newest program. This requires purchasing software that is very expensive for the average network marketer.

So why would I upgrade to 2005 knowing all this. The one feature I wanted and needed was the ability to do a look up by “create date”. This feature was essential in what I needed to maximize my time. When you import leads from a reputable leads company or the leads are self generated being able to look up by create date is important.

Tools can be a great time saver in our network marketing business or they can cause us a lot of grief. But if your goal is to build a large organization, then you must implement tools and processes that allow you to maximize your time and keep you where you need to be, in front of your customers and prospects. Even with a contact manager we can still drop things through the cracks and miss appointments.

If your looking to pickup the program ACT, just do a search for it at one of the major online retailers. For those that I work closely with my team I've created a video series, with the emphasis on using it for our network marketing business to help us work smarter and become more efficient.

Back to Our Network Marketing Articles Index.