Creating Views

Views are a great way for you to alter the way that you look at data in Relationals, as well as create distribution lists for email blasts. Views are one of the best ways that you can change the way that you look at data. Suppose that you have been very dilligent in identifying leads that are "hot." How do you look at these accounts? Simple. You create a view.

Start by selecting Add View from the very top of your screen (the link should be right under the main tabs and next to the name of the current view you are looking at). Once you have added the view, you will see the Filter Screen (see below).

At this point, I recommend that you print out these instructions and start to work on your own computer. These pictures are very small. You'll notice that the column to the left has a list of available fields, or information that can be included in your "view." The column on the right shows the information that is in the view. This only means that this is the information that you will see on the main screen of the view (the rest is still available within the accout, lead or contact record). Choose what you want to see on your screen and make sure it's in the right column. Things like Related To (i.e., account name), primary contact, primary contact phone number, primary contact email, and last activty are some really good choices. Highlight what you want to move from the left column and use the arrows in between to move the information between the two. You can use the arrows located to the far right to move information up and down.

Once you are done, check your sorting. If you are creating a view of leads, it always defaults to Last Activity descending. Here's a tip: If you change it to last activity ASCENDING, Relationals will put the leads that have the oldest last activity date (i.e., those that you haven't spoken to recently) at the top. You could also choose to have them sorted by Related To (i.e. Company Name), Primary contact - anything. Just think about how you want to look at the data.

The second tab is the Filter tab. This tab allows you to customize the information you are looking at. There are many ways to use this tab, such as to change your date parameters. However, one of the best ways to use the date tab is to Filter by a value. In the Field area (it's in about the middle of your screen), you will see a list of all of the available fields. You can choose just about anything - City, lead status, etc. Let's go back to our example before of looking at Hot Leads. You coud choose Filter - Hot Lead; Operator - equals; Value - Yes (because you want a list of everyone that you have identified as being a hot lead). You could choose Field - Lead Status; Operator - Equals; Value - Qualified to get a list of qualified leads. Want a list of everyone in San Francisco? Field - City; Operator - equals; Value - San Francisco.

Let's talk about the operator a little bit. This is basic Boolean logic (which I know is crazy for some people). But you want to think of what you want and don't want. So, for example, if you want everyone with an email address you would want to exclude anyone without, right? Therefore, you would use: Value - email; Operator - Not Equal To; Value - Blank.

Now, not to get too sophisticated on you, but you also can have TWO values. So, you could have people who live in San Francisco and are Hot Leads, right? You just click on the Add Value link to add another row. The only time this gets complicated is if you have multiple, contradictory values. For example, supposed you want to see adveritsers who are in either Zip Code 94014 or 94015. You'd be tempted to enter Value - Zip; Operator - Equals; Value - 94014 and then do another row with 94015. However, if you used AND you would get nothing because no one has a zip in both zip codes, right? You would have to select the Advanced Options to get the box that allows you to choose OR. Now, if you get so fancy pants that you need to use parentheses for your views, you need to stop reading this blog and go see a person for help. It's complicated to explain.

Homework for Tonight:

• Create a view of all of your accounts in a specific city.
• Create a view of all of your leads you have marked as qualified
• Create a view of your choice

If you are really interested in views, check by frequently. This is a hot topic, so I'll be sharing some other ideas on views in the future.