Microsoft recently released a security update which prevents GoldMine’s Help feature from working properly. When your users go to view the help files it says the page can’t be displayed.

Of course, these updates/patches have also made your machine more secure, so you should consider that before you decide to implement any of the ‘fixes’…

If you’ve thought about it and have decided to skip the security and get your help files working again, perform the following steps:

This fix requires modifying the Windows Registry. These instructions are intended for those familiar and comfortable with this type of procedure.

To modify the ItssRestrictions registry entry to enable a specific security zone, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type “regedit”, and then click OK.

Locate and then click the following registry folders:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\HTMLHelp\1.x

Locate the regestry subkey called “ItssRestrictions” on the right.
Note If this registry subkey does not exist, create it by using Steps 1a and 1b below. Otherwise continue to step 2.

1a. Right Click on the 1.x folder. Point to New, and then click Key.
1b. Type ItssRestrictions, and then press ENTER.

2. Right-click the ItssRestrictions subkey, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

3. Type MaxAllowedZone, and then press ENTER.

4. Right-click the MaxAllowedZone value, and then click Modify.

5. In the Value data box, type the number 4, and then click OK.

6. Quit Registry Editor.

Who hasn’t heard the following expressions to describe sales: contact sport, a numbers game, and dialing for dollars.  I’m sure you all have.  Surely the sales professional is a lot more than these things.  But let’s face it – if we wait for the business to come to us, we can go out of business while we wait.

Salespeople usually try to find a good reason to follow up with a prospect or customer, such as a new special promotion, an answer to a question, an important expiration date, etc.  These reasons provide justification, or even motivation, for contacting someone.  And because they are understandable, the prospect or customer is often more responsive to approaches for this reason.  Plus, sometimes the right simple touch can strengthen your business relationship and reinforce loyalty.

One thing salespeople and marketers need to do is find and leverage more good reasons to reach out.  This should be easy … there’s no shortage if we just think about it.  Here’s a list of ideas which you can put to use:

- Elapsed days since a purchase or the last interaction
- Anniversary date of new customer relationship
- Invitation to a special event, conference call, etc.
- New product or feature announcement
- Special promotion or price change
- Awards or other special accomplishments
- Staff changes, moves, name changes

Some of the suggestions on this list you can apply with very little planning & preparation, while others require more work.  The common factor is the need to be proactive – to identify a tactic and take the necessary steps to put it into practice.  This is one area where marketing & sales can, and should, work together as a team very effectively!

Your CRM software can be a useful tool.  With features such as scheduling, queries, triggers, and automated processes, your software can provide you reminders, lists, and/or even automatically handle the fulfillment.  For example, on the anniversary date of a “customer start date” my system automatically queues a very short & sweet email to each customer from me.  It’s written in a very personal tone.  And it produces fantastic results!

Nobody should be sitting around waiting for the phone to ring!  There are too many good reasons to pick up the phone or to start an email to find more business.  Instead of making excuses for why you don’t have business, start finding reasons to touch base with your prospects & customers!

Now that GoldMine has enhanced duplicate checking, those irritating little dupes should not appear too often. However accidents do happen and they are easy to merge together using record tagging. Having spotted a pair of dupes, simply bring up the Contact Listing Window to show the duplicate records. A double click search on the Company name or Postcode should achieve this. Hold down CTRL and click on the first record (the one you would like to keep). Now click on the second (duplicate) record – this should be the one that you want to merge into the first. Go to the Tools Menu, Select Merge/Purge Records and then Merge Tagged Records. The second record tagged will be merged into the first one and you will no longer have a duplicate.

To log into GoldMine quicker on your PC, right click on the short cut icon and enter the following syntax in your GM shortcut after the GMW6.EXE prompt.

For example:
gmw6.exe /u:JAY /p:jed1978

The /u: stands for the username
The /p: stands for the users password

To have your username appear everytime you log onto GoldMine so you only need to put your password in enter the following syntax,

gmw6.exe /u:JAY

You are not restricted to the four variables in the Personal tab in User Preferences when it comes to User Variables.
Create extra variables by amending the username.ini file. (Bob.ini, John.ini, etc.), which can be found in your GoldMine root directory: C:/Program Files/GoldMine or G:/GoldMine, etc.

Create your own custom user variables under the [user_var] section

e.g.
[user_var]
Birthday=8/13/1978
DateEmployed=1/1/2001
Title=Sales Manager
Name=John Doe
Fax=(888) 232-3433

These can then be referenced in email templates and mail merge forms by using the following coding format:

<<&User_Var.DateEmployed>>
<<&User_Var.Title>>
<<&User_Var.Fax>>

GoldMine® Integration Services for Microsoft® Outlook® provides you with a complete view of email correspondence for contacts shared by GoldMine and Outlook.

Created for companies so GoldMine and Outlook users are on the same page and have a complete history for all prospects, customers and vendors. And now there’s no more time wasted manually copying emails from Outlook into GoldMine because you can automatically link all messages back to GoldMine from Outlook. With GoldMine Integration Services for Microsoft Outlook you can also:

■ Launch Contact in GoldMine: Brings up GoldMine and opens contact linked to the current highlighted email (if linked)
■ Link Received and Sent eMail Messages to GoldMine Contact: Searches GoldMine database for sender’s email address and links message
■ Create a new Contact and Link eMail Message: Allows user to create new GoldMine Contact record, and links email to it
■ Access to GoldMine Contacts via Outlook Address Book: Send an email from Outlook to any contact in the GoldMine database.

What would you say if I offered you a salesperson that works tirelessly, or never forgets to follow-up, or never complains about compensation no matter how successful they are, is 100% loyal, and completely focused on what you direct them to do?  What if I told you this sales rep costs less than any other salesperson you pay today?  You’d say, “What’s the catch?” 

There’s always a catch … especially when something sounds this good.  But even with the catch, it’s still a great offer!  A fantastic offer!! 

First, meet your salesperson … their name is GoldMine Automated Processes!   Now, don’t go saying this is ridiculous … hear me out.

To begin with, let me quote the person reputed to be the “father of modern advertising,” and the founder of Advertising Age Magazine.  John Kennedy said, “Advertising is sales in print.”  Furthermore, it is generally accepted that most direct marketing body copy is approached from the perspective of a salesperson writing or speaking to an individual prospect or customer.  As they say, “You put the salesperson in the letter” and “You demonstrate in your brochure.” 

There’s a lot of “selling” going on in letters, emails, faxes, and related website pages.  With videos, flash, and now even podcasts, you can package a salesperson’s presentation, let alone their personality, and distribute at any time.  Not to mention communications intended to maintain and build relationships and loyalty.

Surely there is no replacement for human interaction – via a phone call or face-to-face.  By the same token, I’m not suggesting you do away with your sales force.  I’m asking you to question your next hire, or maybe even your next fire, if you get my point.  Plus, done right, GoldMine Automated Processes (AP’s) will make your existing sales force much more effective! 

GoldMine Automated Processes is an incredible tool that’s used by approximately 2% of users!  Why is that?  In part it’s a reflection on how poorly we prepare and manage salespeople in general.  We send them out to sell, but we don’t equip them.  How well have you done in defining an effective process, creating template letters, and training reps on how to leverage your firm’s website to help them sell, and more?

Automated Processes can send emails, print letters, send faxes, print reports, and more.  But with APs, this preparation is even more critical, because APs can only do what you design them to do. Nothing more, nothing less.  By the same token, the time, effort, and investment you make in Automated Processes can reap benefits and rewards over & over again! 

I don’t recommend jumping into GoldMine Automated Processes without the guidance from someone with years of experience – not because they are technically hard, but because they are conceptually very challenging.  You are very likely to overlook a critically important aspect.  Because of the nature of Automated Processes, to do things automatically at a rapid speed, the potential for damaging relationships is pretty high.

If you’re a busy person, struggling to keep up with a load of calls and emails, here’s a way to use GoldMine that I find extremely efficient.  It uses a feature in GoldMine most users aren’t even aware exists – “Activity Filters.”

Open your activity list and go to any of the pending tabs (Open, Calls, Appointments, Actions, Forecasts, etc.) and you’ll find the choice to “Filter” is one of the “Options” on the “local menu” that is accessible with the “right click.” Inside the “Activity Filter” dialogue window you’ll see you have the choice to “Activate Filter” in order to turn on this function, and to select the basis for your filter (i.e. User, Activity, Date Range, Activity Code, and Reference Text).  If you’re filtering the Closed or Real Time tabs you also have the choice of adding “Result Code.” 

Before I explain the valuable ways to use this feature, I will point out that there are some illogical options with the user interface.  For example, if you’re on your activity list in the calls tab, the choices for User and Activity are useless at best.  The do come into play if you’re on the Real Time tab.  Just use a little more common sense than the designer of the interface did and you’ll figure out what applies and what just creates confusion. 

Now, back to the benefits!  Which by the way, will only be relevant for those GoldMine users who diligently track their activities and schedule their follow-up with GoldMine.  Even more so if you make strong use of Activity Codes and References.  If you’re not there yet, trust me, you don’t know what you’re missing!!

For those who are still reading, it’s time I got to the point…

So, let’s paint the picture – the scenario is this:  You’re up to your eyeballs with a list of calls and actions that’s way longer than you have time to handle.  You know that on this list are tasks with varying degrees of urgency, requiring different levels of personal response.  Some items can just be rolled over to another date; while some could “timed” and should not be put off.  Others could be addressed with an email, or perhaps even a personalized “on-the-fly email merge.”  (If you’ve never done one of these from the within email client, you really need to learn how to do this!)  And, still others require an actual phone call or a completely individual email.  On some you’re ready to go in for the “close” and a lot of them you’re just touching base looking for any feedback whatsoever.

The tricky part is focusing on your activities with a sense of priority and the means of identifying sets of similar activities from one another.  With GoldMine, it’s easy to do the tricky part if you understand how to use Activity Filters.  By simply activating a Filter you can cut out of your long list of Activities only those which require your attention on the basis of the Activity Code and Reference. With an Active Filter on you can send a personalized email merge, and then rollover all those same activities to another date. 

Here’s an example:

Suppose you simply wrote the word “Close” in the reference of those activities where you believed when you scheduled them that the next time you followed up you should try to take the order.  Or, if your wrote the word “Timed” because for some reason you didn’t want to let this activity slip by or get overlooked.  With an Activity Filter it would be a cinch to pull them out of your list.  The same concept can be applied to Activity Codes. 

When you Activate your Filter, only those that meet the conditions you set are displayed.  This makes it very easy to “Tag Records,” and to use other time-saving features such as “Auto-Update” and “Roll-Over”  (Another good fact to know is that you can filter and tag emails on the “Email” tab.  Something you can’t do from the email center.)

For me, as the week winds down and I’m to the point where choices need to be made because I can’t possibly complete all my calls or actions, Activity Filters and the things I can do with them, really saves me!