ACT! started life as strictly a sales database. It has since evolved into a terrific platform for sales, but it has marketing attributes that are overlooked by most ACT! users and companies.

The Referred by field in ACT! is a marketing field. Ergo, it should be considered as important as the phone or email field of the contact. When you are getting started with ACT!, make it a point to configure the drop-down list so that includes every possible avenue that a potential client reaches your firm. I would also make it a required entry field so that every time a new contact is created, an entry must be made.

Next, run the Referred By report every week. By tracking where your prospects originated, you have made the first step toward refining your marketing efforts (and thereby saving advertising dollars.) Next, track which prospect point of origin has the highest likelihood of converting to a customer and ACT! becomes a marketing as well as a sales database.