Synthesis, Inc. - Synthesis, Inc. - Administrative Support for Creative People

If you read the sales tip this month by Gary, (my husband, Sales Director and Operations Manager for Synthesis), well you may have noticed he nixed my idea of giving one last shout-out to our Elder Care Providers (a target market for 4th Quarter 2010 and 1st Quarter 2011). In fact, he not only nixed the idea of calling – he wanted all folks who had not graduated from Suspect to Prospect to be deleted from the database – yikes!

You can do blanket replacements in ACT! (Edit / Replace); you can even enter in a single note for multiple contacts (I’ll show you that in a minute). However, you can also (sob!) delete multiple people at the same time but you better know what you are doing!

NOTE: This tip is for administrators only! Do not attempt this tip unless you make a complete back-up of your ACT! database. Deleting contacts cannot be undone so if you make a mistake, it will be a costly one!

Not intimidated? Okay – here’s how to pare your database down:

Create a lookup of the contacts you want to delete. I suggest doing a sample deletion first:

Then, while in the Contact List view, highlight and Select (Lookup Selected) those folks you want to delete:

Right-click and choose:  Delete Contact

You will get one shot (okay 2) to change your mind: Pay particular attention to the number of contacts you are deleting. The worst thing you can do is delete your entire database or a group of important contacts. It cannot be undone! Your only option is to restore a backup…and if your backup is bad, or old…well, it could get ugly!

There will be one final prompt, then they are gone for good!  Whew!  That was scary. Now for something easier:

Sometimes after a meeting I like to update all the attendees with the same note. Instead of cutting and pasting the note into each contact’s screen, you can do a multiple-contact Record History. Here’s how:

Using the Contact List view, highlight the contacts you wish to enter data into, then click on the Icon: Record History (or if you are a keyboard rat, click CTRL_H):

You not only have the ability to add that note we talked about, you can also attach a file or a link to a file, even schedule a follow up.  One click does it all.

Enjoy this season of thanks and thanks to all of you for a great (first!) 17 years!