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Act! gives publisher’s sales team a productivity boost

When one of Poland’s major publishers wanted to make its advertising department even more efficient, it turned to Act! for efficiency gain.

Mikołaj Marzec

Advertising Department Manager, PRESSCOM

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With its journals and books enjoying a combined circulation of over 240,000, and 45,000 people attending its conferences and events each year, specialist Polish publisher PRESSCOM is a market leader.

However, maintaining that position requires a highperforming sales team who can consistently sell advertising to new clients, then build long-term relationships with them. To do this successfully, they must prepare tailor-made proposals for each individual customer based on their marketing requirements, and negotiate a deal that works for both sides An effective, robust and customizable CRM system was clearly needed.

Act! stood out from other customer and contact management systems because of the clarity of its interface, ease of setup and integration with Microsoft® Outlook and our phone system.

However, given the very specific and complex needs of the advertising sales team, trying to adapt the CRM software used by other departments would have been too expensive and time-consuming. So a search began for a better alternative, as Mikołaj Marzec, Advertising Department Manager, explains:

“We were looking for a system that would improve our sales team’s productivity by enabling us to manage our contacts and analyze the progress of individual projects more efficiently. It also had to be able to fully integrate with Microsoft® Outlook and our existing Voice-over-IP solutions, which are key tools within the company.”

Then, a well-established Polish distributor of IT systems introduced them to Act!.

After testing and comparing with alternatives, the decision was made to go with Act!, which offered all the features they were after.

With Act! in place, not only has the day-to-day task of proactively managing client accounts been made simpler, but much of the laborious note-taking that went with it has been eliminated.

Advertising Department Manager, PRESSCOM

For managers, tracking the progress of any one deal or transaction has also become easier, thanks to the powerful reporting function within Act!, which also proves particularly useful at the end of billing periods.

And of course the ability to integrate Act! seamlessly with Microsoft® Outlook means that the sales team’s notes and correspondence with their customers can be accessed in just a couple of clicks. As a result, they can respond much more quickly to customers’ questions and requests. Then, if necessary, any team member can instantly familiarize themselves with the complete history of PRESSCOM’s relationship with a particular customer.

Act! also sits happily alongside the VoIP telephony solution that PRESSCOM uses, which means that clients can be contacted directly, with calls recorded and notes easily and quickly added to the client’s record.

“All of these features, along with the clarity of the interface, ease of use and scope for customization were decisive in helping us choose Act!,” says Mikołaj.

Key Takeaways

  • With Act!, PRESSCOM’s advertising team now has a far more effective and reliable solution in place for generating and managing a centralized customer database.
  • Day-to-day tasks can be performed much more simply thanks to calendars, to-do lists, notepads and a range of other easyto-use features within Act!.
  • Reporting modules are enabling managers to keep track of developing sales patterns much more effectively.
  • By being able to integrate Act! so easily with Microsoft® Outlook and supported VoIP telephony solutions, PRESSCOM has been able to create a robust, comprehensive and joined-up communications process that works better for both them and their clients.

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