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The ACT! for Financial Professionals 11 release makes all of the new features in the core ACT! product available in the financial-services specific version of the product. Following the lead of ACT! 2009 (11.0), this release takes a “you asked, we listened” approach as we’ve focused on introducing new and improved features to areas of the product our customers use every day. We have concentrated on Microsoft® Outlook® integration, associating related contacts, improving lookups, printing, and more—all in an effort to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. The direction of this release was determined largely through research that was conducted with current core ACT! customers, including numerous face-to-face interviews, usability labs, and surveys. We feel confident this release will satisfy customer priorities to ensure ACT! for Financial Professionals is easy to use and intuitive, helping them to be more productive. This is also important because ease of use has historically been a significant competitive differentiator, particularly as we continue to sell against other CRM solutions in-market.

ACT! for Financial Professionals is primarily designed for financial advisors and their assistants, with brokers, other administrators, and managers as secondary targets. Financial Advisors (FAs) want to maintain a competitive edge with their peers and are typically the ones driving the decision to purchase a solution to manage their contacts. Often, the purchaser and the end-user are the same person, so messaging needs to both communicate value and demonstrate how ACT! for Financial Professionals can make them more successful as financial services professionals.

Key Takeaways: Using the Market Data to Drive Marketing Efforts

While you should avoid quoting these statistics directly, these findings do suggest some direction to take in messaging themes and campaigns for ACT! for Financial Professionals:

• Succeeding in an Economic Downturn: Even given the current economic outlook, studies suggest that popularity for technology such as ACT! for Financial Professionals is growing as advisors recognize the need to use every tool at their disposal.
• ffice:smarttags" />Independence from Brokerage Firms: Financial Advisors are very protective of their client data and “book of business,” and need to maintain full control of it so if needed, it can move along with them if they move to a new brokerage firm. Because of this, marketing efforts should focus on the individual advisor or advisor team, rather than targeting the large brokerage firms.
• Finding Client Information Fast: Several of the survey responses indicated that finding client information fast is the most important function for which they use ACT! for Financial Professionals. Their clients expect them to remember all kinds of details about their finances and family situation and having this information stored and easily recalled in ACT! is a significant enabler for them.

Our stance against competitive solutions is that ACT! for Financial Professionals is first and foremost as a robust contact and customer management solution that has been tailored to suit the financial services industry – not simply as a financial services solution. There are competitors in this segment with more financial services-specific features and functionality. Our solution and position, however, is based on understanding contact and customer management as proven by our #1 selling status for 20 years and high end-user adoption – frequently within the financial services market. ACT! for Financial Professionals competitive strengths include:

·         World-Class Contact Management: ACT! for Financial Professionals offers a world-class, proven contact management solution that is already tailored to fit the way financial services professionals do their business, and can be further customized and personalized to fit your specific needs.

·         Lookups and Search Capability: Data is easily accessible through dozens of search options and robust keyword search. Competitors have limited searching capability that do not let you search on all fields.

·         Ease of Use: ACT! for Financial Professionals inherits all of the ACT! core functionality which is recognized in the industry as exceptionally easy to use. User-friendly features include single views with filters and tabs, suggested workflow, intelligent defaults, and consistent, intuitive interfaces.

·         Affordability: Many competitors require monthly subscription or membership fees that add up quickly over time. ACT! for Financial Professionals only requires a one-time license fee that is relatively low, with even lower upgrade prices. Additionally, the overall cost of deployment is low as the product can be implemented and configured without extensive involvement from IT or outside consultants.

·         Superior Mail Merge Functionality: Unlike competitors, merging letter and e-mail templates to contacts is done with just a few clicks. Other products require additional steps and installation of components before letters can be merged, and frequently place limits on the number of contacts that can be merged at one time.

Grow your book of business with a complete picture of every client relationship and their network

ACT! by Sage for Financial Professionals is a comprehensive contact and client management solution that provides a complete picture of your client relationships. Given recent market turmoil, managing every relationship and network effectively is even more crucial to attracting and retaining clients, and ACT! for Financial Professionals helps you do just that. fficeffice" />

Access relationship details instantly to impress clients with your memory of their unique financial and personal profile details; leverage their friend and family networks; stay on top of your schedule; foster client loyalty with personalized communications and tailored service levels; and collaborate better with assistants and partners. And with all client interactions tied to the contact record with a date and time stamp, ACT! even helps you satisfy compliance requirements!

Take advantage of ACT! for Financial Professionals to keep every client relationship in focus—so you can grow your book of business and maximize your earning potential!

ACT! by Sage for Financial Professionals is a comprehensive contact and client management solution that provides a complete picture of your client and prospect relationships. Given recent market turmoil, managing every relationship and network effectively is even more crucial to attracting and retaining clients, and ACT! for Financial Professionals helps you do just that. Take advantage of ACT! for Financial Professionals to keep every client and prospect relationship in focus—so you can grow your book of business and maximize your earning potential!

(Top Reasons to Choose ACT! for Financial Professionals)

• Impress clients with your memory: Impress clients and prospects by organizing and quickly recalling their unique financial profile, interests, and other personal information.
• Leverage your client networks: Leverage your client networks by tracking households, relationships, and family members with quick visibility into conversations you’ve had with each.
• Stay focused: Stay on top of your schedule and tasks for razor-sharp focus, making every client feel like your top priority.
• Foster client loyalty and tailor service levels: Foster client trust and loyalty with well-timed and personal communications; segment clients by profile for a tailored level of service.

• Collaborate better with your team: Collaborate better with your assistants and partners with all business-critical client and prospect data centralized in one shared[1] location.
• Help satisfy compliance requirements: Keep details of each interaction with a client or prospect in a secured database with a date and time stamp to help satisfy compliance requirements.

• Powerful searching capabilities: Find client and prospect information quickly and easily so you can deliver high levels of service with your knowledge and memory of their unique situation.
• Organization of client data: Capture and secure business-critical contact, account, investment, and financial planning information in layouts designed for financial services professionals.
• Time management: Stay on top of daily responsibilities, even bookmark a client record to remember a quick call-back, so important follow-ups don’t slip through the cracks.
• Client communication: Communicate professionally and consistently using letter and e-mail templates; use top-notch mail-merge functionality to reach multiple clients with minimal effort.
• Mobile capabilities: Access client and prospect information, plus your calendar, on-the-go so you get the data you need in an instant[1].
• Data analysis: Use the dashboard and reporting tools to see a snapshot of your schedule or to gain insight into activities and sales potential to make more informed business decisions.
• Intuitive interface: Because ACT! for Financial Professionals is easy to learn and easy to use, you’ll be up and running in no time, ensuring you accelerate your time to productivity.
• Customization: Use ACT! for Financial Professionals out-of-the box or customize[2] it to fit the needs of your business.
• Integration: Continue to work with the applications you use every day by integrating with Microsoft® Outlook, Word, and Excel®.