Make Contact New and improved, these sales management programs help you close the deal.

Every entrepreneur is somehow in sales. It doesn't matterwhat your company does or whether the product you sell is yourselfor a tangible item. Whatever it is, it has to be sold.

Why not get an edge on the competition by staying on top of yoursales with a sales automation program (also known as contactmanagement software)? And, if you have a sales force, you can makeits success all the more likely by giving salespeople the righttools to get the job done.

This column reviews three popular off-the-shelf contactmanagement programs. If you have unique needs these programscan't meet, try searching trade magazines for industry- andneed-specific programs available from specialized softwarecompanies.

All three programs reviewed here (TeleMagic, GoldMine and ACT!)have recently been upgraded, making this a good time to comparethem. Both GoldMine and ACT! have made the leap into full Internetsupport, including e-mail functions and some Web site datafeatures. Also, both GoldMine and ACT! are true 32-bit applicationsthat run under Windows 95/NT, while TeleMagic remains a 16-bitapplication that runs under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.

All three programs offer networking capabilities for sharingdata and resources between groups. The networking functionality isdesigned to help a team work more productively together by sharinginformation, schedules, tasks and more in a cohesive manner.

The trick with these programs is getting people to use them. Itcan take some cajoling and convincing to get salespeople to embracea new way of working. For that reason, we'll take a seriouslook at the ease-of-use features in these programs.

Oh, Oh, Oh, Its Magic

TeleMagic V3 was originally created as a telemarketing programand still has some functions that are telemarketing specific. Theprogram has evolved into a fully customizable contact managementsystem. This means the software can be customized to enhance theway everyone in your company performs his or her job--which shouldultimately result in more sales.

The program can be used by a single user or networked users. Itcan also integrate with most word processing and accountingprograms, which makes adapting to TeleMagic relatively easy foryour entire staff.

The following example illustrates how the program can work for acompany that conducts direct-marketing campaigns: After adirect-mail piece is sent out, the marketing manager can trackleads generated by the campaign and assign them to specifictelemarketers. Each telemarketer can then pass the lead on tosomeone in sales while noting which actions were taken. At thesales desk, all salespeople will have access to customerinformation so it's easy to assist a specific customer wheneverhe or she calls.

After the sale, a customer service representative can contactthe customer and offer add-on products. The accounting departmentwill be able to keep track of the customer's payment history,credit terms and more. Each user has a "screen view" thatcan be customized with the information that is important to his orher job. For security reasons, not all users will have access tothe customer's entire file.

This may be overkill for a one-person company that is justbeginning to sell and market products or services, but it's aneffective approach for a growing office that needs to trackinformation from the beginning to the end of the sales process.

Using the program is fairly easy, though its Windows 3.1interface becomes apparent in its menu structure and dialog boxes.It also doesn't support the right-click mouse functions foundin Windows 95 programs. Icons at the top of the screen let younavigate the basic functions of TeleMagic, including viewingcalendars and to-do lists, activating the word processor (which isWindows' WordPro), faxing and
e-mailing.

TeleMagic's ease of use didn't "wow" me, andafter reading the manual for a short time, I was still unable toeasily determine how to perform some basic functions.

Striking Gold

GoldMine 3.2 is a feature-rich sales automation program thatincludes every bell and whistle imaginable in this category. Itsnotebook-style tabbed format makes it easy to point and clickaround its interface. Its calendar functions make it easy to planyour activities, while a group scheduling function lets usersschedule activities for multiple contacts and users. There'splenty in this program for salespeople, including some fine-tunedtools to assist in sales forecasting, quota tracking, call-successratios and more. Telemarketers will also find integrated callscripts.

This program has truly latched onto the Internet as the"next big thing" in information management. In additionto extensive Internet e-mail support that lets you easily trackyour contacts' e-mail messages, it also facilitates Web dataimport for capturing information on the prospects that visit yourWeb site. GoldMine's Automated Processes feature comes in handyfor creating an automated response to a Web site inquiry. Thismeans users can pre-plan how an inquiry will be responded to (witha form letter sent via e-mail, for example), and GoldMine willperform those functions without any help--until a real person isnecessary to complete a function. The idea is to take some of themundane chores out of users' hands.

The program is easy to use and did not require any manualreading to get to the meat of the software.

ACT! Now

Successful salespeople have learned that if you buildrelationships and stay on top of your leads, you will make moresales. That's the theory behind ACT! 3.0.

This version of ACT! is customizable so users and work groupscan design their own environments to run the way they need to. Italso includes direct links to Microsoft Word and WordPerfect andallows you to attach files, such as letters and faxes, to a contactentry.

Because ACT! has such a huge following, the program is supportedby numerous third-party products designed to enhance ACT!'sfunctionality. These include CardScan 300 Plus, a business cardscanner that lets you scan and import data from a business carddirectly into the contact manager. There's also MapLynx, amapping program that can be used in conjunction with ACT! toorganize your contacts. There's even an add-on product designedfor the real estate industry to manage leads and marketingefforts.

Though ACT! has always had the greaBODY market share of allcontact managers, it suffers from a long learning curve. It cantake hours for users to familiarize themselves with the program. Inversion 3.0, ACT! attempts to address this problem by giving usersa handful of layouts to choose from when entering data. This helpssomewhat, but I still found myself more comfortable withGoldMine's interface and way of working.

All three of these programs have something strong to offer.TeleMagic should be seriously considered by companies that usetelemarketing or require extensive customization for the variousdepartments in their businesses. If you're a single user,GoldMine and ACT! are better bets; my preference is GoldMine forits ease of use. GoldMine also includes some interesting features,such as Automated Processes, that should take some work away fromthe user and give it to the computer. Both ACT! and GoldMine arealso far more Internet-capable than TeleMagic, offering Internetmail support and hot links to Web sites.

Report Card

4: Excellent 3: Good 2: Fair 1: Poor

GoldMine 3.2 List Price: $295

GoldMine Software Corp.(800) 654-3526 (http://www.goldminesw.com)

Grade: 4

Pluses:Easy-to-use interface, extensive Internetsupport

Minuses:None of note

ACT! 3.0 List Price: $199.95

Symantec Corp. (408) 253-9600 (http://www.symantec.com)

Grade: 3

Pluses:Numerous add-on products enhance corepackage

Minuses:Not very intuitive

TeleMagic V3 List Price: $500 (single user), $1,300(network)

TeleMagic Inc. (800) 835-6244 (http://www.telemagic.com)

Grade: 3

Pluses:User-customizable, very appropriate fortelemarketing industry

Minuses:Interface needs face lift

Hot Disks

GoldSync Remote Synchronization: If you opt for GoldMine3.2 as your contact manager, you may find a need for GoldSync,GoldMine Software's new product that updates data at multiplesites and for multiple hosts and users at predesignated times. Thismeans all your GoldMine users can be up-to-date and in sync nomatter where they are. GoldSync retails for $495 per server, whichincludes support for up to three remote sites.

Direct Mail Express: IMarket Inc. has joined forces withDun & Bradstreet and Pitney Bowes to create a cost-effective,efficient way for small businesses to market themselves withdirect-mail campaigns. Direct Mail Express uses the Internet tofacilitate this process. Users follow a template-driven, six-stepprocess to execute mailings. The least expensive job is $0.44 perpiece plus postage. Visit (http://www.imarketinc.com), or call(800) 590-0065 for more information on how to use Direct MailExpress.

Contact Sources

Direct Mail Express, 460 Totten Pond Rd., Waltham, MA02154, acctmgr@imarketinc.com;

GoldMine Software Corp., 17383 Sunset Blvd., #301,Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, (800) 654-3526;

Symantec Corp., 10201 Torre Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014,(408) 253-9600;

TeleMagic Inc., 17950 Preston Rd., #800, Dallas, TX75252, (800) 835-6244.

Cassandra Cavanah is a contributing editor of PortableComputing Direct Shopper magazine and has reported on the computerindustry for eight years.