Best Lead Management

[J.R.]

Don't get me started on Act with Activator..... Bottom line, don't spend the money on Activator, there are better products that actually do what Activator claims to do.

In fairness, Activator does do what it claims to do, just doesn't do anything you would think it does in order to do what it claims to do. I made the mistake of thinking Activator was an automation software, it's really a sales process software, that has limited automation capabilities.

Dan

What would you consider to be better then? The timeframe needed to get all the documents properly formatted would take some time, but from the looks of it it does appear to have many uses.

One thing that I really like about the software is the ability to have multiple campaigns. If I recall correctly I believe it comes with the ability to have 5 different campaigns, with the ability to add more as time progressed. They can easily be defined to the following groups.

1) Internet Leads
2) Telemarketing Leads
3) Referrals
4) New Clients
5) Cross-selling

Most client interactions are going to coincide with one of the aforementioned campaigns, with number 4 or 5 being ideal. I know we talked about it Dan, but the people on the board would benefit as well.

 

[TXINSURANCE]

I used ACT! and Webgrabber combo, I know there is ACT! for the Web but I haven't used it yet other than demo, I am sure it is fine knowing ACT!

However if you think $55 is high - you won't like ACT! Webgrabber combo, for 5 users my setup was in the five figures to get it how I wanted it.

I know there are a lot of web based CRM's although you usually get what you pay for.

 

[J.R.]

I don't know if their is any type of software that automatically transfer an internet lead to Act. online CRM, etc., but what worked for me was to have the internet lead provider send me all leads in an XLS format. Then it was simply a matter of downloading the information, converting it to .txt file and transferring to Act. Depending upon the outcome of the 1st call e-mail, etc. I had fields set up to put leads into based upon campaigns that I designed. Takes about one minute once you know how to do it, but the Act guidebook is a great reference.

 

[TXINSURANCE]

I don't know if their is any type of software that automatically transfer an internet lead to Act. online CRM, etc.,

There is - it is called Webgrabber, the software is about $1000 to $2000 or so and basically what it does is you make a template (or you pay someone to make the template usually) and it "scrapes" the data from email and posts to ACT!

You can schedule tasks, or program fields as you choose or tasks as you choose - you can get as complicated as you want really.

The costs to make this happen are...

ACT! software $300 to $1000 a license (depends what and where you buy)
Webgrabber $750 to $2000
Templates for each lead provider $150 to $250

On going updates (i.e. when lead vendor changes format), crashes, bugs, you need to pay someone to do this... For us the initial setup was in the low 5 figures and annually I budget about $1k / mo for changes and enhancements.

Not on the cheap - but if you saw it in action you would likely agree it is money well spent. People come in my office and the first thing they say is "... Hey that's pretty cool..."

I outsource this to a firm out of Chicago if anyone wants their contact info for a demo PM me - but like keep in mind even if you own ACT! figure on $5k or more for even a basic setup.

 

[djs]

Webgrabber is good, you can use egrabber if you don't have the budget, but you do them manually.

For less money, you can do a very similar setup with a product called web prospect available from crmaddons.com. In fact, you can get it in a bundle with sales automation manager.

Web prospect does the same thing as webgrabber, but is easier to use. Basically, you map fields in an email to fields in act, and it reads the incoming emails, imports them directly into act, assigns them to a campaign, where sales automation manager takes over and sends them targeted emails. The nice thing about this setup, you can setup the campaigns in sales automation manager to look for specific things, such as a certain state or certain age group, and vary the campaign based on this.

The cost of the software is one thing, making it work is another. Creating the campaigns, the letters, the timing, the logic used, etc, isn't something most agents will do well. It tends to be one of those 'great ideas' that you'll get to some day. This is where that $5K still comes into play. You might trim it a bit, but you'll still need to spend some $$$$ to make this work.

I've never tested them side by side, but I believe webgrabber is probably capable of a much higher volume of imports than web prospect. Mute point for most people. I only tried the demo of webgrabber a while back. I ended up using egrabber for a long time. Egrabber is a way cool product if you deal in just a few leads a day (less than 20 or so).

Dan

 

[Sam]

The agencyiq guys have been asking me for months to advertise on the forum. Well guys, here you go. A pretty positive review, with some constructive ideas and it didn't cost you a penny!

 

[arnguy]

Why isn't Al chiming in on this discussion with his expertise?

 

[djs]

I'm not sure where Al is, so I'll fill in for him. The views expressed may not be my own.....

The best thing going is SugarCRM, and it's available for free. Just download it, install it, and go to town. Make sure you back it up on a regular basis. Of course, many on this forum like YIO, I prefer SugarCRM.

Good enough.... I'll leave out the whole mysql vs access part of the discussion, not worth wearing my keyboard out over.

Dan

 

[Professor Leads]

I downloaded Sugar and was not able to install. I tried the install guide and it is way too technical for me. There doesnt seem to be a simple install wizard to click on and go. And of course tech support will not help you with their free version.

 

[arnguy]

I downloaded Sugar and was not able to install. I tried the install guide and it is way too technical for me. There doesnt seem to be a simple install wizard to click on and go. And of course tech support will not help you with their free version.

Contact "al3" for help!