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Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 1
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction 3
Why Automate? 3
Surefire Contacts and Automation 3
Surefire Contacts Overview 4
Chapter 2: Getting Around 5
Getting Started 5
Surefire Contacts Main Menu 5
Surefire Contacts Screens 6
Using Buttons 6
Fields 6
System Windows and the Menubar 7
Useful Keys 7
Using the Zoom Key 9
Accessing Data 10
Using Other Surefire Features 11
Leaving Surefire Contacts 11
Chapter 3: The Profile 12
What is a Profile? 12
The Profile Data Screen 12
Adding a Profile Record 14
Keeping Notes 14
Adding a Note 15
Editing a Note 15
Searching for Profile Records 15
Updating a Profile Record 16
Removing a Profile Record 16
Other Profile Based Features 16
Chapter 4: Tracking Activities 17
What are Activities? 17
The Logged Activities Screen 17
Activity Data 18
Logging a New Activity 18
Editing an Existing Activity 19
Chapter 5: Keeping In Touch 20
Why Keep in Touch? 20
The Correspondence Menu 20
First Time Setup 21
Access Considerations 21
Printing Correspondence 22
Printing a Single Letter 22
Mail Merge 22
Building a Query 22
Autosizing Fields 22
Customizing the Correspondence Menu 23
Creating a New Letter 23
Accessing a Letter Directly 23
Adding a Letter to the Correspondence Menu 24
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 2
Chapter 6: Scheduling In Surefire Contacts 25
Importance of a Schedule 25
The Agenda 25
Specifying the Date 25
Showing the Profile for an Appointment 27
The Schedule/Entry Screen 27
Scheduling an Appointment 28
Editing an Existing Activity/Appointment 28
Logging a Scheduled Activity/Appointment 28
Logging an Unscheduled Appointment 29
Using the Agenda for Long-term Goals 29
Chapter 7: Surefire Contacts Reports 30
Standard Reports 31
Account List (no address) 31
Account List with address 31
Activity/Call History 32
Follow-up List 32
Won/Lost Report 33
Printing a Report 33
Adding Your Own Reports 34
Chapter 8: Surefire Accounting 35
Accounting in Surefire Contacts 35
Travel Expenses 35
Profit and Loss and Cash Flow Statements 36
Profit and Loss Statement 36
Cash Flow Statement 36
Printing the P & L and Cash Flow 37
Chapter 9: Surefire Off Hours 38
Why Off-Hours? 38
Off-Hours Options 38
Dining Guide 38
Accommodations Guide 39
Entertainment Guide 39
Wise Words 39
Adding New Entries 39
Updating Entries 39
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 3
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Why Automate?
During the past few years there have been incredible advances in
the high-tech products available to both consumers and business users.
VCRs and Compact discs have improved the quality of audio and visual
entertainment in our homes. FAX machines, cellular phones, and computers
are being used to speed the flow of information in the business sector.
While contact management is still a very personal enterprise, those
day to day chores such as tracking leads and prospects, correspondence
and follow-ups, scheduling, weekly reporting, etc. take precious time
away from other aspects of your business. Even more importantly, to be
competitive, you need to spend your time talking to the right people.
These are people who are most likely buy your product or service. The
right contact management software will allow you to make more efficient
use of your time by helping to target the most likely prospects from
among the hundreds of leads you have. And, it will help with some of
those tedious tasks as well.
Surefire Contacts and Automation
Surefire Contacts provides contact (i.e. People) and time (i.e.
Your Time) management tools to address the strongest points for
automation. Using the Surefire word processor, you can write a proposal
(on the spot if you have a laptop). You can also generate those reports
that allow you or your manager to track the effectiveness of marketing
campaigns and to plan new strategies. And, you can keep your prospects,
customers, and associates informed by sending timely product
announcements and friendly follow-up letters.
For general business management, Surefire Contacts offers documents
for Profit and Loss and Cash Flow calculations and travel expense
reporting. The best part of Surefire Contacts, is that general word
processing, database management and spreadsheet features are available
too.
We wouldn't want you to change your methods to fit our idea of your
business. Surefire Contacts can operate the way you do. What's more,
this can be done a little at a time, as you become more comfortable with
the easy concepts that make up Surefire Contacts.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 4
Surefire Contacts Overview
Many features of Surefire Contacts revolve around the Profile. This
is where the general information about leads, prospects, clients and
associates are kept. You can note additional data in a freeform manner
and keep a dated record of specific activities such as phone calls and
visits. Letters and mailing labels can be generated for a specific
profile or set of profile records.
There are also features that are independent of the Profile. You
can track and analyze travel and business expenses. In addition, the Off
Hours Menu allows handy searches of Hotel, Dining and other databases
that you might use while planning a business or pleasure trip.
When you use Surefire Contacts, information is available at a
glance, important follow-ups are not lost in the shuffle and you spend
less time rummaging through poorly organized card files for key
information on your clients. The following example shows how Surefire
Contacts can fit into a typical selling day.
Time Task Surefire Contacts
8:45 Check agenda for the day. Agenda
Add dentist appointment for next week. Schedule
9:30 Review detailed info about 10 am client. Profile
10:00 Phone J. Jones. Enter new personal data Notes
about J. Jones. Log the phone call and Activities
schedule an on-site meeting at Jones
Enterprises.
10:30 Review detailed info about R. Smith who Profile
you will be seeing at 11:00.
11:00 Visit R. Smith. Demonstrate the new product
line and prepare a written proposal Word Processor
on-site. Log that demo and proposal given. Activity
12:30 Lunch Dining Guide
2:15 Write follow-up letters to clients. Correspondence
3:15 Review detailed notes for 3:30 call. Profile
3:30 Phone P. Gould. Enter background info on Notes
Allied Pasteboard. Log the phone call; Activities
automatic follow-up call scheduled: 2 weeks.
4:00 Prepare Travel Expenses for Boston trip. Travel Expense
4:30 Prepare and print Weekly Call Report. Reports
4:45 Meet with your sales manager.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 5
Chapter 2 - Getting Around
************************************************************************
NOTE: To use Surefire Contacts you must already have installed
Surefire - The Smart Document processor.
************************************************************************
Getting Started
Create a CONTACTS directory below your SUREFIRE directory. Unpack
the file contacts.zip into this new directory and installation is
complete. You must change directory (cd) to the CONTACTS directory
before running Surefire Contacts.
If the Surefire directory is in your PATH, you can run Surefire
Contacts by typing at the DOS prompt:
surefire contacts
If the Surefire directory is not in your PATH, you run Surefire
Contacts by typing at the DOS prompt:
..\surefire contacts
Surefire Contacts Main Menu
The first screen that you see when you enter Surefire Contacts is
the Surefire Contacts Main menu. From here you may access all the
features of Surefire Contacts. The following list summarizes the buttons
that you can choose from the Main Menu.
Profiles will display data screens that allow you to manage your
Contact information. From here you can log activities, plan follow-
ups and generate specific correspondence.
Agenda will show your schedule for today as well as unfinished
business from prior days. Use this to schedule appointments as
well.
Reports will generate reports such as Call reports, Win/Loss
reports and Follow-up and Account Lists.
Correspondence will enable you to send Letters, Memos or generate
Mailing Labels.
Accounting is used to track your Travel Expenses and generate
company Financial Statements.
Off-Hours will allow you to see and maintain Restaurant, Hotel and
Entertainment information. You can also look up quotes and sayings
in Wise Words.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 6
Starting from the Main Menu, you will quickly be able to use the
many features of Surefire Contacts. In the remaining part of this
chapter, we introduce those tasks that you will need to do most often.
You will be able to use Surefire Contacts effectively, right away.
Surefire Contacts Screens
Surefire Contacts is made up of Smart Documents that fulfil
specific needs. These Smart Documents are displayed as screens on your
computer. The screens display existing information, allow you to enter
new information, or allow you to get to other screens. For example, the
first screen you see is the Surefire Contacts Main menu. Other screens
include: the Profile Data screen, the Activities screens, and the
Surefire Agenda. Buttons are used to move from one screen to another.
Using Buttons
Buttons are those highlighted words that are used to go to other
screens or sometimes to perform specific actions. On screens like the
Surefire Contacts main menu, buttons are placed vertically in the center
of the screen. Profiles is an example of a button. When "pressed" the
Profile Data screen is presented. On other screens, buttons are located
along the top of the screen. For example, on the Profile Data screen,
Notes and Activities are both buttons.
You can move between buttons by using the (Home/End( keys or the
arrow keys. Pressing the (Enter) key will activate the button on which
the cursor is positioned. For example:
1) Press (End) 2 times to put the cursor on Correspondence
2) Press (Enter) now to "press" the Correspondence button.
This will display a different menu showing various types
of correspondence.
3) Press (Esc) to return to the Surefire Contacts Main Menu.
The (Esc) key will always display the previous screen except when
pressed at the Surefire Contacts Main menu. Here, it will do nothing and
will not exit to DOS. To exit you must press the ALT key and X at the
same time. This is often shown using the notation (ALT + X).
Fields
Fields are generally those areas of a screen that are underlined
(on monochrome monitors) or a green color (on color monitors). Fields
allow you to type in text, numbers or dates. Most fields are preceded by
a field label. The label is short informative text followed by a colon
(:). For example "Title:" indicates that there is a field just to the
right which contains a title. The same fields may also be used to
display information returned from a database
As with buttons, you move from field to field by using (Home) and
(End) or the arrow keys. After you type a value into a field, use
(Enter) to display that value in the particular format associated with
the field. For example, A numeric field with a format of "currency"
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 7
might look like $1,892.91, whereas a date field's format might cause the
date to appear as 15-jan-90.
When you move among buttons and fields with the (End) key, you
follow the same pattern that your eyes follow when reading: from left to
right and then down to the left side of the next line. Surefire will
look for the next button or field in this way, skipping text on the
screen until it finds a button or field. The cursor will be positioned
at this location. (Home) will do the same in reverse, backing to the
left and up until the cursor returns to the first button or field.
The arrow keys, on the other hand, will only move you to a button
or field that is directly up, down, left or right from where you are,
depending upon the pictured arrow. When using the left or right arrow
keys on a text or numeric field, you must be at the left-most or
right-most character of the field to move to another field.
When the cursor is at a field or button, that field or button will
be highlighted as the current field. On a color monitor, the current
field is shown in black. On a monochrome monitor it will be displayed in
inverse video.
System Windows and the Menubar
For the most part, the screens of Surefire Contacts are used to
accept and display sales and business related information. From time to
time a system window will be displayed on top of the current screen. A
system window is a rectangular area with a border around it that has
text and fields which request or display information. For example, you
would use the Print window to print your letter, the Format window to
change page margins, and the Info window to show the current time.
System windows are displayed when you choose operations from any of
the seven pulldown menus on the Menubar at the very top of your screen.
You press F10 followed by the arrow keys to explore these menus. By
pressing (Esc), the cursor will return to your current screen.
As you read this Guide, many of these pulldown menu operations and
system windows will be discussed along with using a particular feature
of Surefire Contacts. These menus and all system windows are explained
in detail in the Surefire User's Guide.
Useful Keys
The chart on the next page is a summary of the keys that you will
most often use to get around within Surefire Contacts.
All of these keys have already been introduced except the Help
keys, F1 and F2. These keys, when pressed, will open a window that tells
you more about the screen or system window that you are currently
looking at. You can see more help by repeatedly pressing the down arrow
key or (Page Down). You can go back up in the Help window by using the
up arrow key or (Page Up). Type (Esc) to put you back to where
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 8
you were before the Help window was opened. The chart explains the
difference between these keys.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Key Function Description │
│ │
│F2 Help Press anytime to see specific │
│ information about the current screen. │
│ │
│F1 Help Press when a pulldown menu or System │
│ Window is open to see information │
│ about the features of that menu or │
│ window. Otherwise, you will see a │
│ summary of general Surefire and word- │
│ processing features. │
│ │
│F10 Menus Press to access the Menubar. Once here│
│ use the arrow keys to select and open │
│ the pulldown menus. │
│ │
│Shift + F10 Hints Press to see the Surefire keystroke │
│ Hint line at the bottom of the screen.│
│ Press again to remove the hint line. │
│ │
│Esc Return Return to the previous screen. │
│ │
│Enter Enter Activate a button, or enter a field │
│ value. │
│ │
│End Cursor Move the cursor to the next field or │
│ button. │
│ │
│Home Cursor Move the cursor to the previous field │
│ or button. │
│ │
│ALT + X Exit Exit from Surefire Contacts to DOS. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Useful Keys
Generally, words in this Guide that are in parentheses indicate the
actual keyboard keys that are pressed. For example (Enter) and (End)
indicate the Enter and End keys on your keyboard, respectively.
Two words or characters separated by a plus sign (+) indicate that
the two keyboard keys are to be held down at the same time. For example,
(ALT + F) means to press the ALT key and then the letter "F" without
removing your finger from ALT. Likewise, (Ctrl + K) indicates that you
press the Ctrl key and the letter "K" at the same time.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 9
Using the Zoom Key
In general, many text fields allow you to "Zoom" for a pop-list of
words or phrases that are available for the field. Using this feature
can avoid unnecessary typing and insures that phrasing and spelling is
consistent for all related records. When the cursor is on one of the
fields, a 'P' will appear at the right of the status line. Surefire
Contacts has already provided many such fields. You can always add other
selections that are specific to your needs. To use the Zoom feature:
1) Press (ALT + Z) while the cursor is on a field to see the pop-
list of possible values for the field.
2) Use the up and down arrows to position the cursor on the desired
choice.
3) Press (Enter) to put the chosen text into the field and close
the pop-list.
For example, one such field is the Title field on the Profile Data
screen. Pressing (ALT + Z), will display such choices as "Manager",
"President", "Technician", etc. You may, of course, simply type text
directly into the field; perhaps "Chief Cook".
You can change or add additional choices to any pop-list. These
choices will then always be available for that field. To add a choice,
follow these steps:
1) Press (CTRL + Z) on the field to see existing choices.
2) Use the up and down arrows to position the cursor on a blank
line.
3) Type the new text on that line.
4) Press (Esc) to close the pop-list.
If you do change a pop-list, you must save the current document
screen so that Surefire remembers your changes for the next time that
screen is displayed. If you don't, Surefire will remind you that there
are unsaved changes before exiting or letting you read another document.
This will give you a chance to save your changes before they are lost.
You may make as many changes as needed before saving your screen.
To save your document, follow these steps:
1) Press (ALT + F) to open the File menu.
2) Press S to open the Save File window. The current screen
is part of the document shown after the label Name:
3) Press (End) to move the cursor to the OK button.
4) Press (Enter). The document will be updated to reflect the
changes you made to the pop-list.
Throughout this Guide, fields that have pop-lists available have an
asterisk (*) preceding the field label.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 10
Accessing Data
Suppose you had a stack of forms or index cards with client and
prospect data on them. Each card would have the name of a different
contact along with information about that contact. This would include
his company, address, phone number, the type of business he is in, etc.
A database, in its simplest form, is the storage of information on an
index card by index card or record by record organization.
Unlike its paper counterpart, the computer stored record allows you
to use the full power of data processing. You may sort or group clients
by city or zipcode, automatically merging his address into a standard
follow-up letter. You may produce a paper listing or report of all
contacts within a particular territory. You may even prioritize those
contacts most likely to buy your products or services. Now, use the
computer to display the contact records so you have their phone numbers
at a glance.
Many screens in Surefire Contacts are designed to accept and
display data stored in a database. For example, the Profile Data Screen
shows data about the people and companies with which you deal. At any
one time you will see data about a specific profile. But, you can easily
access the data for all other profiles.
You do not need to worry about what a database looks like or how to
create one. Surefire Contacts will take care of this for you. However,
you do need to tell Surefire when to save or change data. And, since
there are many ways to select and sort your data, you need to know how
to tell Surefire the set of data in which you are interested.
This table introduces some of the most often used database commands
and the keys that invoke them.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Key Function Description │
│ │
│F8 Next Display the next record of the set. │
│ │
│F7 Previous Display the previous record of the set│
│ │
│ALT + A Add Add a new record to the current │
│ database which will contain the │
│ current values of the screen fields. │
│ │
│ALT + U Update Update the currently displayed record │
│ to have the current values of the │
│ screen fields. │
│ │
│ALT + S Search Start a database search. By default, │
│ if no query is defined, the search │
│ uses the value of the current numeric,│
│ date or text field to limit which │
│ records will be displayed. Press F8 to│
│ each record that was found. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 11
Using Other Surefire Features
For more information about getting around and using other features
of the Surefire system, refer to the Surefire User's Guide.
Leaving Surefire Contacts
To leave Surefire Contacts, first press (Esc) to close any windows
that are displayed. Then press (ALT + X). If you have not saved your
changes, you will be warned with a message window. You can disregard the
warning and exit anyway or remain in Surefire Contacts to do the save.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 12
Chapter 3 - The Profile
What is a Profile?
You probably collect a lot of information during the course of
doing business with various companies and people. The profile is where
the most general information about these companies and people is kept.
It is a permanent record used to refresh your memory about everything
from company address to sales potential to the buyer's personal likes
and dislikes.
The companies and people remembered in your profile can be your
leads, prospects, customers, associates, suppliers, etc. You can
retrieve and view this information very quickly, in many ways.
First you enter whatever information you feel is relevant to the
account. Later you can use Profile Notes to list little comments such as
your contact's best time of day to call, birth date, spouse's name,
directions to the office or plant, and so on. These things will help you
add a personal touch to your sales calls and correspondence.
The Profile Data Screen
The profile data are the specific pieces of information that make
up the profile. You enter information into the data fields of the
Profile Data screen for each company with which you deal. Later you can
use this information to select specific contacts. The following sections
describe the use of each field.
Buttons found across the top of the Profile Data screen access
specific profile related features such as Correspondence and Activities.
The use of Notes is described later in this chapter while subsequent
chapters are devoted to discussing the remaining buttons.
Profile Data is separated into 2 parts. Fields in the first part
are mainly for address and directory purposes and are described below.
Acct # - The account number field should contain a unique
account number (or letter-number combination) to
identify the profile. This allows Surefire Contacts
to link each profile to other databases of the system.
You may assign an account number according to methods
used by your company or you may indicate that Surefire
Contacts generate a number for you by "pressing" the
Acct # button (see below).
An account number should only be assigned once.
Thereafter, you may change all other profile data.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 13
Acct # - This button is just to the left of the account number
field. Pressing it will create a number for the
profile that is actually a date stamp. This means that
the account number is composed from the current date
and time. Not only will this number be unique, but it
will also indicate the date that the account was
"opened".
Client - This field contains the name of the company that the
profile is about. For example, if you deal with John
Smith at ABC Pharmaceutical, you will enter ABC
Pharmaceutical here. In some cases, depending on the
type of clients you have, this may be a person's name.
Addr - The street or mailing address of client.
City - Fill in appropriately.
State - Fill in appropriately. This field may also be used
for Province and/or Country.
Zip Code - Fill in appropriately.
Contact - The name of the person with whom you primarily deal.
*Title - The title of Contact.
Phone - The phone number (plus extension) of Contact.
Alt Ph - An alternate phone or FAX number used to reach Contact.
Dear - How will you address this Contact in correspondence.
For example, John Smith may be addressed as "John"
or "Mr. Smith".
The second part of the Profile Data screen describes how the
profile information was obtained, ways to gauge the importance of the
profile and information about a secondary contact. Depending on your
business, this information may or may not be especially useful and
should be considered optional. Many of the fields here have Zoom choices
available. These are indicated by an asterisk (*). Refer to the section
"Using the Zoom Key" in Chapter 2.
*Type - Is this the profile of a lead, customer, etc?
As the sales cycle progresses, you would change
this value.
*Business - The client's main business.
*Source - How was this client found; Trade Show, Referral...
*Ref'd by - Name of person who referred this client.
*Prob - Likelihood or receptiveness to buy; Cool, Warm,
etc.
Terr # - Number corresponding to the profile's territory
Potential - Estimated maximum sales potential in dollars.
Assigned To - Your initials or agent #, etc.
Tag - An additional yes/no field that you may update to help
select specific contacts for mailings, follow-ups, etc.
Press (Spacebar) to change the value from 'N' to 'Y'.
Alt Contact - Name of an alternate contact.
*Title - Title of alternate contact.
Phone - Phone number of alternate contact.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 14
Adding a Profile Record
After all information has been entered for a profile, you should
add the profile record to the database. If this is your first profile
record, Surefire Contacts will create a database automatically.
1) Type in or select values for all appropriate fields.
2) Press (ALT + A) to add the record to the profile data base.
The cursor will be placed on the account number field,
ready for you to enter data for another profile.
3) To add another record, repeat steps 1 and 2. You may
optionally use (ALT + Y) to clear the values in all fields
prior to entering the new profile data.
Keeping Notes
From time to time you might want to jot down additional freeform
information about the current profile. In Surefire Contacts, these are
called profile notes. Use notes to track personal information about
contacts, additional financial information, directions to the place of
business, etc. A note will be stored along with the date on which it was
noted.
Choose the Notes button to display the Profile Notes screen. On
this screen, notes for the current profile are displayed in reverse
chronological order (i.e. the most recent note is at the top.)
All of the notes for a particular profile may not fit on the
screen. The first 7 notes can be seen but there may actually be more
notes. In order to look down past the first screen, follow these steps:
1) Press F3 to "free the cursor"
This tells Surefire that you don't want to be restricted to
movement via menus and fields. Instead, you want to move freely
around the screen.
2) Press the down arrow until you start forcing the cursor to go
"below" the screen. This will cause the remaining notes to
"scroll up" into view. Pressing the up arrow will cause the
notes screen to scroll in the opposite direction.
If there are many notes, you may move around more quickly by
using (Page Down) and (Page Up) to scroll up and down through
entire screens of notes.
3) Go back to the beginning of the Profile Notes screen using
either the up arrow key or (Page Up).
4) Press F3. This will put you back on the nearest button or field.
5) You may press (Esc) to return to the Profile Data screen.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 15
You may choose one of the following buttons at the top of this screen:
Add Notes to write a new note for this profile.
Edit Notes to change or delete an existing note.
Adding a Note
After you press the Add Notes button, the New Note screen is
displayed. To add a note for the current profile, enter information in
the Date and Note fields and press (ALT + A). Do not change the account
number or client information.
Press (Esc) to return to the Profile Notes screen.
Editing a Note
After you press the Edit Notes button, the Edit Notes screen is
displayed. Use F8 and F7 to display each note corresponding to the
current profile. When the note that you wish to change is displayed, you
may enter new information in the Date and Note fields. Do not change the
account number or client information. Then, press (ALT + U) to update
the note record. In this way, you may update any note that corresponds
to the current profile.
Press (Esc) to return to the Profile Notes screen.
Searching for Profile Records
Once you have entered profile records, you probably want to locate
certain records depending on what you need at the moment. You may want
to review information for the contact who has just called on the phone,
send introductory letters to "Hot" leads, or phone clients in a given
city. To do any of these you need to let Surefire know what to look for
in the profile database.
When Surefire displays the contact(s) of interest, you can update
information, send correspondence, log an activity that just occurred,
etc.
The following are only a few of the most common ways that you can
tell Surefire what to search for.
To show all profile records in alphabetical order of client:
1) Move the cursor to the client field.
2) Press (CTRL + K) to clear the value of this field. This will
not affect the currently displayed record.
3) Press (ALT + S) to start a database search. When the search
is complete, the first record will be displayed.
4) Press F8 to display each record in turn.
5) Press F7 to display the previous record.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 16
To find the profile of a specific contact:
1) Enter the company name in the Client field.
2) Press (ALT + S). The profile will be displayed, if found.
To find all leads with a "Hot" sales probability:
1) Enter 'Hot' in the Prob field and press (ALT + S) to do the search.
3) Press F8 to display each profile record.
Note: Before searching, if an 'S' is in the status line, press (ALT + K)
to clear the previous search.
To do more complex searches, please read the Database chapters in
the Surefire User's Guide.
Updating a Profile Record
Very often, information about the people and companies you deal
with changes. For example, your prospect may become a customer, the
company may move to a new location, or your primary contact may no
longer be a decision maker for obtaining your product or service. To
locate and make the necessary changes to the profile records:
1) Search for the desired profile record(s) to be modified, by
the methods discussed above.
2) Enter the correct data in the appropriate fields.
3) Press (ALT + U) to update the profile in the data base.
Removing a Profile Record
Sometimes you might want to "remove" a profile record. For example,
this may happen if the client company is no longer in business, or if
you have been assigned to a different territory, etc. You can mark such
a record so that it will be bypassed when Surefire searches your profile
database. If you accidently delete the wrong record, you can remove the
mark and thus recall the record.
1) Search for the desired record(s) to be deleted using above methods.
2) Press (ALT + F5) to delete the currently displayed record.
Other Profile Based Features
In addition to keeping specific information about contacts as well
as freeform notes about them, you may choose one of these buttons for
other operations pertaining to the currently displayed profile.
Activities to see the history of activities logged for the contact
or to schedule a follow-up action. (see Chapter 4)
Correspondence to send a letter to this contact. (see Chapter 5)
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 17
Chapter 4 - Tracking Activities
What are Activities?
Activities are events that occur in connection with a client
profile record. These may include phone or in-person calls that are made
or received, demonstrations that you give, or the fact that a sale was
closed. Each activity that is logged will by tagged with the current
date. All logged activities will show up in your Call/Activity Report
for the appropriate dates. See Chapter 7: Surefire Contacts Reports for
more information on viewing your information in a report format.
In addition, when you log the activity, you have the option of
specifying that a follow-up event occur. For example, say you have just
given a demonstration to Jo Brown at ABC Engineering. In three days you
might want to send here a follow-up letter to make sure that you and
your product are still in here mind. You can have Surefire Contacts
remind you to send that important letter.
If you generate a Call Report later, there will be a record of your
demonstration to Jo Brown. If you generate a Follow-up Report, listing
all future client appointments, you will see the date on which to send
Jo Brown that letter.
The Logged Activities Screen
When you choose Activities from the Profile Data Screen, the Logged
Activities screen will be displayed. This screen shows a history of
activities, most recent first, for the current profile. For each
activity the following items are displayed: the date that an activity
was logged, the type of activity (i.e. was it a phone call, visit,
demonstration, etc.), and a brief command about the activity.
If the list of activities fills the screen, there may be more
activities. You may use (Page Down) to look at more activities on one or
more additional screens. Each press of (Page Down) will show another
screen. You may then press (Page Up) as many times as needed to go back
to the 1st screen. This is the screen with the buttons across the top,
labeled Logged Activities. Press F3 to put cursor back on buttons.
You may choose one of these buttons at the top of this screen:
New Activity to log a new activity or follow-up for this contact.
The New Activity screen will be displayed.
Edit Activities to change or delete an existing activity. The Edit
Activities screen will be displayed.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 18
Activity Data
Whether you will log a new activity or edit an existing activity,
there are various pieces of information that you can enter. Both the New
Activity and Edit Activities screens contain the same fields. Those with
pop-lists are preceded by an "*". Each screen is divided into two
regions. The fields of the top region relate to the current activity
that is being logged. For example, if you are talking on the phone with
someone in your profile, you would be logging the fact that you made or
received a phone call.
The following fields describe the current activity:
Date - Date the activity was logged. Default is today
*Activity Type - Meeting, Phone call, etc..
Duration - How much time did it take in hours?
Comment - Remarks about this activity.
The fields at the bottom relate to the scheduling of a related
follow-up activity. For example, you agree to send some product pricing
information to the person with whom you are speaking. You would enter
the fact that you need to send this information as a follow-up activity.
Fields for noting follow-up information:
Schedule Follow-up Action? - Toggle to Yes or No.
A scheduled follow-up action will be seen in
the agenda for that day.
Date - Date to follow-up. Default is 2 weeks from
the date of the logged activity.
Time - Time to follow-up as hours:minutes. (ex. 10:15
am, 2:30 pm)
*Action Type - An activity which will happen in the future.
Phone, Send Letter, Make a Survey, etc..
Priority - 1 - 9 where 1 is highest priority.
Comment - Remarks about the follow-up.
You may choose the Agenda button at the top of either screen to see
if there are conflicts with a desired follow-up date.
Logging a New Activity
To log a new activity, you must first choose Activities from
Profile Data screen and then choose New Activity. When the New Activity
screen is displayed, you may enter information about the activity in the
fields provided.
1) Move the cursor between the various fields by pressing
the (End) or (Home) keys.
2) Type in or choose the appropriate information for the
current activity and any scheduled follow-up action
3) Press (ALT + A) to add the activity record.
4) Press (Esc) to return to the Logged Activities screen.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 19
Editing an Existing Activity
To edit one or more logged activities for the current profile, you
must first choose Activities from Profile Data screen and then choose
Edit Activities. When the Edit Activities screen is displayed, you may
change any information about the activity or its follow-up in the fields
provided.
1) Press F8/F7 to see the information about each activity
until a record that you want to modify is displayed.
2) Move the cursor between the various fields by pressing
the (End) or (Home) keys.
3) Type in or choose the appropriate changes for the
displayed activity or follow-up action.
4a) Press (ALT + U) to Update the activity record.
4b) (ALT + F5) to Delete the activity record.
5) You may repeat steps 1 through 4 as desired.
6) Press (Esc) to return to the Logged Activities screen.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 20
Chapter 5 - Keeping In Touch
Why Keep in Touch?
Every business person knows how important it is to keep in touch
with his or her clients. First, it lets the client know that you care
about him. Secondly, it keeps your name or the name of your business in
the client's mind. Because of this, that client will most likely choose
you over your competitor when the time comes to re-stock an item or
purchase a new product.
In addition, you can use correspondence to "touch" contacts who may
not be familiar your company or product lines. This can have the
advantage of helping you to begin a long working friendship with a new
client.
Surefire Contacts helps you to write timely, appropriate,
correspondence quickly and painlessly. Addressing information from your
Profile is merged automatically into a variety of correspondence formats
and mailing labels.
The Correspondence Menu
The Surefire Correspondence menu can be accessed from the Surefire
Contacts Main Menu or from the Profile Data screen. This menu contains
choices for various letters, a memorandum, standard mailing labels and
envelopes. You may add additional choices.
The letters will contain text that is appropriate to your business
and to the specific menu choice. Once this text is there, you can use
the same letter over and over again, each time "sending" it to a
different contact. You can make minor changes for certain contacts as
needed and print the letter without changing your standard words.
The memorandum is formatted for standard inter-office memos and is
not associated with your client database. The mailing label format
supports standard 3 1/2" by 1" tractor fed labels.
When you first display the Correspondence menu of Surefire Contacts
you will see the following buttons:
New Letter - use to write a letter.
Introductory Letter - use to introduce yourself to prospects.
Follow-up Letter - use to follow-up a conversation or
meeting.
Thank-you Letter - use to thank valued customers.
Past-due Letter - use to remind customers of overdue
payments.
Internal Memo - use to write a memo.
Mailing Labels - use to compose standard 3-1/2" x 1" labels
Envelopes - Link to your standard 9" x 4" #10 business
envelopes document.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 21
First Time Setup
Before you use any of the letters or memos provided on the
Correspondence menu, you will want to personalize them with your company
name, appropriate body text, and perhaps different margins.
To achieve this personalization, you should access this menu from
the Surefire Contacts Main menu. You will most likely be changing the
text in the body of each letter as well as providing for an appropriate
letterhead. New Letter, however is a choice to be used for creating
ad-hoc letters as you need them. For New Letter, you will only need to
provide an appropriate letterhead. Choose each letter in turn and follow
these steps:
1) Press (ALT + O) to open the Operate menu,
2) Choose Document to allow you to edit the letter.
3) Edit the letterhead area.
Type your company name and address in the area
designated by <..>. You may clear this area if you will
be printing on letterhead stationery.
4) Type appropriate text for the body of the letter.
5) If you wish to change the margins:
Press (ALT + P) to open the Page menu
Choose Format... to open the Format window.
Change the values in the 4 margin fields
Choose OK to set the new margins.
6) Open the File menu by pressing (ALT + F)
7) Open the Save File window by choosing Save...
8) Choose OK to save the letter.
9) Press (Esc) to return to the Correspondence Menu.
10) Choose another letter and repeat step 1.
Access Considerations
When Correspondence is accessed from the Profile Data screen, any
item you select will automatically fill in data from the current
profile. This is useful for sending letters to a specific client.
When Correspondence is accessed from the Surefire Contacts Main
menu, no information will be pre-filled. This is useful for setting up
a database query to send letters or generate mailing labels for many
clients at one time. See the discussion of Mail Merge, below, for more
information.
Printing Correspondence
Provided that you have installed your printer according to
instructions in the Surefire User's Guide and have chosen an appropriate
font, you are ready to print one or more letters. Whether you will be
printing one letter at a time or performing a Mail Merge operation, you
must first display the desired letter.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 22
Printing a Single Letter
To print a letter follow these steps:
1) Press (ALT + O) to open the Operate menu,
2) Choose Text. This will remove field attributes.
3) Press (ALT + F) to open the File menu,
4) Choose Print... to open the Print window,
5) Choose PRINT.
Mail Merge
To initiate a mail-merge, you should choose Correspondence from the
Surefire Contacts Main menu. After choosing the desired item from this
menu, you must indicate the persons or companies from the Profile with
which you wish to correspond. You do this by building a query or
selecting a named query. A query allows such things as selecting all
records in a given zipcode or city; clients with expected sales
potential in some dollar range who are also Warm prospects, etc.
Building a Query
1) Position the cursor on any name or address field
2) Press (ALT + D) to open the Data menu.
3) Choose Build Query... to open the query window.
Building queries may become quite complex. The on-line help,
accessed via F1, will provide information on specifying the most common
types of queries. Please refer to the Database chapters of the Surefire
User's Guide for a complete explanation of this topic.
Once a query is built or a named query has been selected, you may
perform a merge operation to generate and print all letters, envelopes
or mailing labels.
1) Press (ALT + F) to open the File menu,
2) Choose Print... to open the Print window.
3) Press SEARCH & PRINT.
Autosizing Fields
Often, fields are created to be large enough to hold the largest
data value. For example, the address field can hold 2 lines of data
though only one is usually needed. Also, the client field can contain up
to 35 characters of text but most company names are much shorter.
Undesirable extra spaces can show up in the salutation or the body of a
letter that has fields associated with a database. To remove these extra
spaces or blank lines from fields prior to printing follow the steps on
the next page.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 23
1) Press (ALT + O) to open the Operate menu,
2) Choose Text.
Now, print the letter or mailing label.
1) Press (ALT + F) to open the File menu,
2) Choose Print... to open the Print window.
3) Press PRINT.
Customizing the Correspondence Menu
In this section you will learn how to add your own letters to the
Correspondence menu. Three sets of step-by-steps will walk you through
the following tasks: creating a new standard letter, adding a button for
the new letter, and setting the button's command to display the new
letter when the button is chosen.
Each of the operations discussed in the following steps are fully
explained in the Surefire User's Guide. You may want to become familiar
with the basics of word processing in Surefire before starting this
procedure.
Creating a New Letter
To create a new standard letter:
1) Choose New Letter.
2) Press (ALT + O) to open the Operate menu,
3) Choose Document to allow you to edit the letter.
4) Press F3 to free up the cursor from fields
5) Type the desired text into the body of the letter
6) Save the document with a new name.
Open the File menu by pressing (ALT + F)
Open the Save File window by choosing Save...
Type in the new name.
Choose OK to save the letter.
7) Press (Esc) to return to Correspondence.
Accessing a Letter Directly
If the new letter will not be used very often, you may access the
letter directly as needed. However, if this letter will be used fairly
often, use the procedure at the top of the next page. When you access
the letter directly, you must do a database search to fill the fields
with the contact information from the Profile. Alternatively, you can
always use the letter as a fill-in-the-blank form by typing in a name
and address directly into the letter fields.
To access the new letter directly:
1) Press (ALT + F) to open the File menu
2) Choose Get... to open the Get File window
3) Type in the name of the letter
4) Choose OK to read the letter
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 24
Adding a Letter to the Correspondence Menu
To add a button that will allow you to choose the new letter from
the Correspondence menu, you must edit the Correspondence document.
While word processing operations are fairly simple, this type of
customization requires the creation of a button and the entry of a
button command.
It is very important that you understand the basics of Surefire
field and field command concepts before starting. You will need to know
how to create the button and how to copy and paste a field command.
Please read the sections of the Surefire User's Guide that correspond to
field creation and field command editing. You can also get context help
at any time by pressing F1.
The steps that follow will give you a general approach but can not
convey all the details. The steps preceded by an asterisk (*) indicate
operations to which you should pay special attention.
1) Display the Correspondence menu.
2) Press (ALT + O) to open the Operate menu,
3) Choose Document to allow you to edit the menu.
4) Press F3 to free the cursor from the buttons
5) Position the cursor for the new button
* 6) Create the new button.
Press (ALT + I) to open the Field menu.
Choose Create... to open the Field Create Window.
Set the type to Button, enter the label you want and press OK.
Press F1 for help on field creation.
Once the button is there, you should copy the field command from
the New Letter button. To do this:
1) Press (ALT + I) to open the Field menu.
2) Choose Commands... to open the Command window.
Press F1 for help on copying and editing field commands.
* 3) Copy the field command to the new button,
* 4) Change the name in the @GODOC command to that of the new letter.
5) Press (Esc) to close the Command window.
6) Save the Correspondence document.
Open the Save File window by pressing (ALT + F) (S).
Choose OK to save.
Your letter is now accessible from the Correspondence menu.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 25
Chapter 6 - Scheduling In Surefire Contacts
Importance of a Schedule
We all know that planning and scheduling is important. You probably
know how invaluable your little black book day-timer is. Surefire
Contacts provides an agenda and scheduling facility that will keep you
on top of your appointments. Appointments may either be ones scheduled
automatically as follow-ups to profile activities or you may schedule
business or personal appointments as needed.
The Agenda
To display today's Agenda, choose Agenda from the Surefire Contacts
main menu. You may also view the agenda for a possible follow-up date by
choosing Agenda from the New Activity or Edit Activities screens. When
you choose Agenda from any location, the Agenda screen will be
displayed. You may use this screen for reviewing currently scheduled
daily activities. These may be initial or follow-up appointments with
clients, or other things such as staff meetings, a dentist appointment,
car registration, etc.
You will see appointments that have been scheduled through the
Schedule Entry screen (see below) and through Activity screens. These
screens are accessible respectively from the Surefire Agenda screen and
from the Profile (discussed in the previous chapter).
The following specific information is displayed on the Agenda in a
report format.
Date:, Time: The date and time of the appointment.
Priority: The priority of the appointment.
Client (Subject) The appointment concerns this contact profile or
subject. A subject will be displayed if the appt.
is unrelated to a contact or is personal.
Type: The type of appointment; Meeting, Call, etc.
Comment: Additional information about the appointment.
You move from field to field in the Agenda by using the (Home) or
(End) keys or the arrow keys.
Specifying the Date
Normally, when the Agenda is displayed, it shows the scheduled
appointments for an already specified date. For example, when you choose
Agenda from the Surefire Contacts Main menu, the agenda is usually shown
for the current date ("today"). In this case, the Agenda will also show
activities that were scheduled for a prior date that you have not yet
logged as Completed or Canceled. Alternatively, when you choose Agenda
from an Activity screen, the agenda will be shown for the related
follow-up date of the Activity.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 26
Once the Agenda screen has been displayed with information for some
known date (like today), you may wish to look at the agenda for some
arbitrary date, Mar 4, Oct 21, etc. To specify this, type in the date in
the date field. When you move the cursor off this field (with Home or
End), the correct day of the week will then be displayed just to the
left.
For example, you have already displayed today's agenda by choosing
Agenda from the Surefire Contacts main menu. Say you want to see what's
scheduled for May 10:
1) Press (End) 5 times to place the cursor on the date field.
2) Type in the date.
Type in F (to get February),
Press right arrow (to get to day)
Type in 10
Surefire will make sure that the date is valid.
3) Press (Home) 2 times to place the cursor on the Full Day
button.
4) Press (Enter). The Full Day button will display the entire
agenda for the currently displayed date.
Other buttons on the Agenda screen allow you to call up the agendas
for various dates without typing in an exact date. These are:
Next Day to look at the day after the agenda date.
Prev Day to look at the day before the agenda date.
Next Week to look at the day one week after the agenda date.
Prev Week to look at the day one week before the agenda date.
This Week to look at the agenda for the seven day period starting
at the displayed date.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 27
Showing the Profile for an Appointment
You have immediate access to the profile information corresponding
to any scheduled follow-up appointment. This means that you first see at
a glance everyone you will be dealing with on a given day. Then, you can
review each individual appointment displayed one at a time. At the press
of a button you can get the full set of profile data including the
contact's full name, phone number, purchase likelihood, etc.
To access a profile corresponding to a scheduled appointment:
1) Choose Select. This allows you to browse through all appointment
entries for this agenda date.
2) Use F8 (and F7) to display each appointment, one-at-a-time. Stop
at the entry that interests you.
3) Choose Profile to view the profile associated with the chosen
entry. All profile related features are available.
4) Press (Esc), from the Profile Data screen, to return to Agenda.
The Schedule Entry Screen
The Schedule Entry screen is the place where you can add a new
appointment, edit an existing activity/appointment or log a scheduled
activity/appointment as Completed or Canceled. An already scheduled
activity will usually be a follow-up activity that you scheduled for a
specific contact.
To display this screen, choose Schedule/Edit Activity from the
Agenda screen. When you choose this button, the Schedule Entry screen
will display the appointments, if any that are scheduled for the current
Agenda date. If there is nothing scheduled on that date, the fields
other than the date will be empty.
You may press (Esc) to return to the Agenda screen.
The Schedule Entry screen has the following fields:
Date: Date of the appointment.
Day: Day of the week (filled in automatically)
Scheduled? Will this appointment appear in the agenda?
Should be 'Y'; Use 'N' for long-term goals.
Time: Time of the appointment. The format for this
field is hh:mm (am/pm)
*Activity Type: Type of appointment: Meeting, Phone Call, etc.
Priority: 1 - 9 where 1 is highest priority.
Subject: What or who is this appointment about.
Comment: More information about the appointment.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 28
Scheduling an Appointment
Sometimes you may want to schedule something that is unrelated to
a profile record, such as a staff meeting or doctor's visit. To do this
follow these steps.
1) Enter the desired date in the date field of the Agenda.
2) Choose Schedule/Edit Activity from the Agenda screen. If the
fields are empty, you are ready to enter information for the new
appointment. Press (End) or (Home) to move between the fields
and enter the new information. Skip to step 4.
3) If there is already something scheduled on that date, you will
see the first scheduled appointment. Press F8 to see any other
appointments/activities that have already been scheduled. If you
can pick a non-conflicting time, change the field values
appropriately for a new appointment.
4) Press (ALT + A) to schedule the new appointment.
Editing an Existing Activity/Appointment
If you need to make a change to some information about an already
scheduled activity or appointment such as rescheduling the time or date,
or adding a comment, follow these steps:
1) Enter the desired date in the date field of the Agenda if it is
not already displayed.
2) Choose Schedule/Edit Activity from the Agenda screen.
3) Press F8 (and F7) to view each entry for that date and stop at
the one that needs to be changed.
4) Enter the new information in the appropriate fields.
5) Press (ALT + U) to update the activity record.
Logging a Scheduled Activity/Appointment
Until you log the fact that a scheduled activity has actually taken
place or has been canceled, Surefire assumes that the task still needs
to be done. Once you choose Completed or Canceled from the Schedule
Entry screen, the activity record will be updated. You will
automatically have the chance to schedule a new activity via the New
Activity screen.
A completed activity will no longer be displayed in the Agenda but
will be shown in the Call/Activity Report encompassing the date of the
activity. If this activity is logged for a specific contact profile, it
will now also be displayed in the Logged Activities screen for that
profile.
A canceled activity will not show up in the Agenda or in a standard
report. You may search for canceled activities by using the Schedule
Entry screen to search for an activity/appointment with a Status of
"Canceled".
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 29
To log a scheduled activity/appointment as Completed or Canceled,
follow these steps:
1) Enter the desired date in the date field of the Agenda if it is
not already displayed.
2) Choose Schedule/Edit Activity from the Agenda screen.
3) Press F8 (and F7) to view each entry for that date and stop at
the one that needs to be logged.
4) Choose Completed or Canceled for the displayed activity.
5) You may log a new activity and/or follow-up using the New
Activity screen.
6) Press (Esc) to return to the Schedule Entry screen.
Logging an Unscheduled Appointment
If you want to log the fact that some unscheduled appointment or
activity has taken place, choose the Log Activity button on the Agenda
screen. The New Activity screen will be displayed. Log the appointment
or activity as you would log one that relates to a Profile. See Chapter
4: Tracking Activities for more information on using the New Activity
screen.
Using the Agenda for Long-term Goals
To use the Agenda to note your long-term goals, you will schedule
an "appointment" as described earlier. This time, however, leave the
date and time fields of the Schedule Entry screen blank and set the
value of the Scheduled? field to 'N'. Later, you can generate a follow-
up report looking for all non scheduled activities. This will be a
reminder of your long-term goals. See Chapter 7: Surefire Contacts
Reports for a complete discussion of generating a follow-up report.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 30
Chapter 7 - Surefire Contacts Reports
The reporting features of Surefire Contacts enable you to analyze
the data that you have stored in the various databases of Surefire
Contacts. You can also use reporting to list information in different
ways. For example, you may just want an alphabetized list of all your
prospects or you may want a list of all accounts that are scheduled for
some follow-up activity.
Standard Reports
You access the Surefire Contacts Reports menu by choosing Reports
from the Surefire Contacts Main menu. Use this screen to access the
reports that present or analyze your data. Each report that is supplied
with Surefire Contacts will be described later in this chapter. Choose
one of the following to see the reports:
Account List (no address) to see an alphabetized listing of all of
your contacts without their addresses.
Account List with address to see an alphabetized listing of all of
your contacts with their addresses.
Activity/Call History to see a report of all activities noted for
your contacts for four weeks prior to the current date.
Follow-up List to see the follow-up dates for all contacts that
have outstanding scheduled follow-up appointments.
Won/Lost Report to see a report of closed versus unclosed sales.
After generating a report as described in the following sections,
use the Reset choice on the File menu to start over with empty report
fields. For example, if you choose Reset after generating an Account
List report, you may then move the cursor to the Client or Contact
fields and initiate a search by pressing (ALT + S). This will produce
your report alphabetized by Client or Contact name respectively.
When looking at any of the reports that are longer than one screen,
use (Page Down) to look at more of the report and (Ctrl + Page Up) to go
back to the first screen. When you return to the first screen, Press F3
to put the cursor back on one of the buttons.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 31
Account List (no address)
This account listing displays basic information from your Profile
database. Each entry in this report helps you to quickly identify a
particular contact. For each contact it shows from left to right, the
name of the client, the name of your primary contact, and below, the
type of business and the phone number of your contact. This can be used
a your personal phone-book.
When you choose this report, you will see empty fields in a report
format. There are two buttons available that will generate different
reports and two buttons that allow you to quickly access the full
profile for a listing.
Choose Business to see your profile accounts listed alphabetically
by the type of business. For example, clients dealing in Farm
Equipment will be listed before those involved in Hardware, and
Hardware clients will be listed before Metallurgical manufacturers.
Within a business segment, the client names will be alphabetized.
Choose Alphabetically to produce an alphabetized list of your
contacts (by company name).
Choose Select Client to look at a single list item. Press F8 to see
each item, then choose Profile to see the full profile for that
contact.
Choose Profile after Select Client to see full profile for contact.
Account List with address
This account listing displays more complete information from your
Profile database. Each entry in this report shows the full address for
a particular contact. You will see the name and address of the client,
the name of your primary contact and the phone number of your contact.
When you choose this report, you will see empty fields in a report
format. There are two buttons available that will generate different
reports and two buttons that allow you to quickly access the full
profile for a listing.
Choose Alphabetically to produce an alphabetized list of your
contacts (by company name).
Choose State to produce a contact list sorted by state.
Choose Select Client to look at a single list item. Press F8 to see
each item, then choose Profile to see the full profile for that
contact.
Choose Profile after Select Client to see full profile for contact.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 32
Activity/Call History
The Activity/Call History report presents a list of dated calls or
activities that you have logged. For each logged activity, you will see
the date the activity was logged, the name of the associated client from
the profile, a comment about the activity and the type of the activity.
The activities listed in this report are shown in chronological order.
When you choose this report, you will see empty fields in a report
format. There is one button available that will generate a different
report and two buttons that allow you to quickly access the full profile
for a listing.
Choose New Report to see a new report based on the current
beginning and ending dates shown near the top of the report. Move
to and change the beginning and ending dates before choosing this
button.
Choose Select Client to look at a single list item. Press F8 to see
each item, then choose Profile to see the full profile for that
contact.
Choose Profile after Select Client to see full profile for contact.
Follow-up List
The Follow-up List displays a report of the activities that you
have scheduled in the future which pertain to profile records. These are
activities that you have not logged as Completed or Canceled. This
report will not show appointments that you have scheduled through the
Agenda that do not relate to a particular contact profile.
For each activity, the date of the planned activity, the client's
name, the priority that you have assigned to this activity and the type
of activity are shown one per line.
This listing is in chronological order and shows all follow-up
activities from "today" onward. If more than one activity is scheduled
for the same day, the one with the highest priority is displayed first.
A priority of 1 has highest importance and 9 has the lowest importance.
You may choose Select Client to display each scheduled follow-up
record one-at-a-time. Then choose Profile to see the full profile for a
particular entry. To return from the Profile Data screen, press (Esc).
Finally you can choose List to once more view your Follow-up list in a
report format.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 33
Won/Lost Report
The Won/Lost Report will tell you about how many potential
prospects you have "closed" and how many have either gone with a
competitor or have not closed for some other reason. This report lists
the name of the client and whether they have closed, gone to a
competitor or simply not closed. These entries are dated by the date
when you noted the closure or non-closure of a sale.
To tell Surefire Contacts that a client has closed, purchased from
a competitor or not-closed, you may log this specific type of activity
when one of these three occurrences has happened. To do so, choose
Activity from the Profile Data screen. Follow the steps laid out in the
section Logging a New Activity in Chapter 4: Tracking Activities. Be
sure to select "Closed", "Competitor" or "No Close" as the type of
activity.
Those clients who have closed are listed first, those going with a
competitor are listed second and not closing for another reason are
listed last. For each group of these clients, the report will show a
count and a percentage of the number in the group out of the number in
all three groups.
For example, say you have taken 10 prospects through the sales
cycle to the point of closing. Out of these, you were able to close 6
sales, one client went to a competitor and 3 clients did not close. The
report will first show the 6 that closed and give a percentage of 6 out
of 10 or 60%. Then, the report will show the one who purchased from a
competitor and give a percentage of 10%. Lastly, the report will display
the 3 clients that did not close and show this as 30%.
As with the Follow-Up List above, you may choose Select Client to
display each won/lost record one-at-a-time. Once you find a record of
interest by repeatedly pressing F8, choose Profile to display the full
Profile record for that contact. After pressing (Esc) to return to the
report, you can choose List to once more view your Won/Lost data in a
report format.
Printing a Report
Once a report has been generated, you may print it. This may be to
keep a printed record of certain data on a periodic basis or to have a
hard-copy available for your manager.
1) If desired, edit the text of the report. This may be to add some
type of annotation. Press (ALT + O) and choose Text to allow edits
and to remove the field attributes.
2) Press (ALT + F) to open the File menu,
3) Choose Print... to open the Print window.
4) With the cursor on PRINT, press (Enter).
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 34
Adding Your Own Reports
You can create your own reports that reflect any of the data stored
in a Surefire Contacts database. The major databases are for the
profile, profile activities, and unrelated activities. Once you know the
desired information, and how to reference it, a report is fairly simple
to design. First, you must fully understand the database and reporting
concepts of Surefire, paying special attention to projections and report
formatting. Please read the chapters of the Surefire User's Guide
relating to Databases and Reporting.
Once you have created your new report, you may add a button that
will allow you to choose your own report. To add this button to the
Surefire Contacts Reports menu, you must edit the "reports" document.
This type of customization requires the creation of a button and the
entry of a button command. It is very important that you understand the
basics of Surefire field and field command concepts before starting.
Please read the chapters of the Surefire User's Guide that correspond to
Field creation and Field Command editing.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 35
Chapter 8 - Surefire Accounting
Accounting in Surefire Contacts
The Surefire Accounting screen is displayed when you choose
Accounting from the Surefire Contacts main menu. This screen leads to
spreadsheet-like forms and documents that allow you to manage the
financial state of your business. Additional menu items may be added to
a track or calculate information specific to your business or accounting
needs such as training expenses, etc.
From this screen, you may choose one of the following:
Travel Expenses to calculate current and to review past expenses.
Financial Statements to generate Profit & Loss and Cash Flow
statements.
Travel Expenses
The Travel Expense form keeps travel expense information for a
given week on a daily basis in a printable form. By using database
queries, you may analyze past travel expenses for any time period.
This form has the following fields:
Name: Your name.
Purpose: The reason for the trip.
Week Beginning: The date representing the Sunday that started
the week of travel.
Location: The city in which expenses are incurred.
LODGING: Expenses for hotel, motel, etc for each day.
MEALS: Expenses for each of 3 meals for a day.
TRAVEL: Cost of the actual transportation by category.
MISC. Other costs incurred during the trip.
To print the expense report:
1) Press (ALT + O) and choose Text to remove field attributes.
2) Press (ALT + F) to open the File menu.
3) Choose Print... to display the Print window.
4) With the cursor on PRINT, press (Enter).
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 36
Profit and Loss and Cash Flow Statements
The first screen presented is a Profit and Loss statement. It is
used to calculate the profit and loss for your business on a twelve
month basis.
The Cash Flow statement, on the following page, allows the entry of
information used to manage the cash flow of your business on a twelve
month basis. Some fields in Cash Flow are automatically filled-in with
data from the P & L.
To the display Cash Flow statement when looking at the Profit and
Loss statement, press (CTRL+Page Down). To display the Profit and Loss
statement when looking at the Cash Flow statement, press (CTRL+Page Up).
Profit and Loss Statement
Each entry in the Profit and Loss statement is totaled downward for
a month and across for the year. The following information may be
entered for each month:
Revenues: Revenue on a per-product basis.
Total Revenues: Total revenues from all products.
Cost of Sales: Cost on a per-product basis.
Total Cost of Sales: Total costs from all products.
Gross Profit: Total revenues - total costs
Itemized Expenses: Salaries, insurance, advertising,
phone, etc.
Total Expenses: Total of itemized expenses
Net profit: Gross profit - total expenses
Cash Flow Statement
Each entry in the Cash Flow statement is totaled downward for a
month and across for the year. The following information may be entered
for each month:
Cash on Hand: Cash at the start of a month
Cash Receipts: Revenue, credit cards, loans, etc.
Total Cash Receipts:
Total Cash Available: Cash on hand + total cash receipts
Cash Paid Out: Cost of sales, expenses(from P&L), etc.
Total Cash Paid Out:
Cash Flow: Total cash available - total cash paid out
Cash Position: Cash on hand - cash flow
Other Essential Data: Sales volume, accounts receivable accounts
payable, bad debt, inventory on hand,
depreciation.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 37
Printing the P & L and Cash Flow
Since this is an extra wide document, each visible page will be
printed on 2 8½ x 11 sheets of paper that show the entire statement when
placed side by side. In Surefire this type of formatting is called a
Split Page. If you look at the top or bottom margins of the document,
you will see parallel lines that indicate this.
To print the Profit and Loss and Cash Flow statements:
1) Press (ALT + O) and choose Text to remove field attributes.
2) Press (ALT + F) to open the File menu.
3) Choose Print... to display the Print window.
4) With the cursor on PRINT, press (Enter).
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 38
Chapter 9 - Off Hours
Why Off-Hours?
We at Piaf believe that using computer software should be a
comfortable and rewarding endeavor. To assist you with this, we have
provided an Off-Hours screen. This screen allows you to have some fun
with Surefire Contacts and yet learn important concepts used throughout
the system. This is the place to come when you have made the big sale,
when you need inspiration or when you are traveling to another city.
You may display the Off-Hours screen by choosing Off-Hours from the
Surefire Contacts Main menu.
For Dining, Accommodations, Entertainment, and Wise Words, you may
either enter your own information or import the data from other Surefire
Contacts users. Except for Entertainment, the documents are already
there. A database will be created automatically the first time you add
an entry.
Off-Hours Options
You may choose one of the following buttons:
Dining to see information on Restaurants, Pubs, etc.
Accommodations to see information on Hotels, Motels, Inns, etc.
Entertainment to see information on Attractions, Theater, and Clubs
Wise Words to see a collection of Quotations for any occasion.
The Dining Guide
The Surefire Dining Guide screen contains these fields:
Restaurant Name - name of restaurant.
Address - address of the restaurant.
City, State, Phone - city, state and phone number.
*Type of cuisine - type of cuisine.
*Rating - what is the rating of the restaurant.
*Price Range - inexpensive, moderate, expensive, etc.
*Ambiance - mellow, romantic, family, club, etc.
Notes - comments about restaurant, recommended
items, etc.
Surefire Contacts User's Guide Page 39
The Accommodations Guide
The Surefire Accommodations Guide screen contains these fields:
Hotel Name - name of lodging establishment.
Address - address of the accommodation.
City, State, Phone - city, state and phone number.
*Location - airport, downtown, country, resort, etc.
*Type of lodging - type of lodging: hotel, motel, inn, B&B, etc.
*Rating - what is the rating; Poor, Fair, Good, etc.
*Price Range - inexpensive, moderate, expensive, luxury.
*Ambiance - casual, formal, exotic, etc.
Notes - comments about lodging, amenities, etc.
The Entertainment Guide
The Surefire Entertainment Guide screen is left for you to create as
desired.
Wise Words
The Surefire Wise Words screen contains these fields:
*Type - What type of saying or quote; Success,
Motivational, Inspirational, etc.
Author - who is the author of this wisdom
Text - text of the saying or quote.
Adding New Entries
To add an entry to any of the above databases:
1) Press the (End) and (Home) keys to move between the fields on the
screen
2) Enter the information in the fields provided. Press (ALT+Z) to
choose from a pop-list for fields preceded by a '*', above.
3) Press (ALT + A) to add the record.
Updating Entries
To update an entry in any of the above databases:
1) Initiate a search of existing records based on some criteria such
as the type of Food served or the City of interest for a hotel.
2) Press F8 (or F7) to view each record. Stop when the record of
interest is displayed.
3) Press the (End) and (Home) keys to move between the fields on the
screen.
4) Change the information in the fields provided. Press (ALT+Z) to
choose from a pop-list for fields preceded by a '*', above.
5) Press (ALT + U) to update the record.
