So, what do you have on your plate?
”So, what do you have on your plate?”
Which customers and prospects did you visit or talk with last week? And what customers and prospects are you going to call this week?
Those are two very important questions asked by most sales managers regarding your accountability, and how transparent you are with your schedule. But if you use Act! on a daily basis, you can confidently respond to those questions—and with ease—through utilizing History and Activities.
What happened last week?
It’s all History. Whether you view the History tab on the Contact Detail screen, or the History List View on the navigation, History is the key. Why? When you finish a meeting, the notes from the meeting are entered into History as Meeting Held. Or, a customer calls in, and you talk for 30 minutes – that’s a Call Received, showing the details of your phone conversation. Perhaps your sales manager assigned a To-Do for you to prepare a quote for your customer. When you’ve completed the quote, the To-Do now shows in History as To-Do Done.
Do you need an ad-hoc report of what happened last week? For a summary view, use History List View on the navigation bar. Change the filters at the top of the view to set a date range – Last Week, for example. Set the filter for types, too. If you want to see only Meetings Held, the quickest way to get this is to set the filter for NONE, and then set the checkmark under Activity Types for Meetings Held. This is very customizable, and very powerful.
What are you doing this week?
When responding to “what are you doing this week,” it is assuming that you are actually planning your days, weeks, or months. Can everything be planned? No, but when it can be, use Activities. Activities allow you to plan your calls, meetings, and to-do’s. If a customer is a VIP, then a recurring, regularly scheduled call or meeting may be appropriate. For activities that are not planned, such as unexpected calls or a drop-in customer, document what happened in History, and likely there’s a follow up Activity for you to create.
For a summary view of Activities, use Task List View, and the filters at the top of the view. Again, this is another ad-hoc report that you view at any time. Set the date range to Current Week, set the Types to the primary Activity types (Call, Meeting, To-Do), and which User, or Users, you wish to view.
You’ve invested in Act!—make sure you’re using it to the fullest as explained above, and there will never be any question as to what was done or what you plan to do!
