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!
