It has been said that a man who promotes his competitors on his own site is a man who soon will find another line of work. I have always believed, and made it the policy of VanillaSoft, that getting people into the right product is more important than selling your product to the wrong person. For my older readers, you will recall that Santa did the same in the classic film, “Miracle on 34th Street.” Macy’s became famous for sending people to their archrival, Gimbals. If it is good enough for Santa…

The truth is that no one product can satisfy the needs of everyone. From time to time I find a new product or service that I like to write about and recommend. Don’t get me wrong. If you need lead management, I want you to look at VanillaSoft first. However, if you are looking to manage prospects and contacts without letting anything slip through the cracks, and you want to do it through traditional e-mail, than I think you should take a look at Contactually.

Simple and smart, Contactually automatically prioritizes your email contacts and helps you reconnect with the most important people at the right time. When they see a high-priority contact start to slip off your radar, they will send you a quick reminder to follow up.

Beyond taking action with contacts in your network, Contactually also gathers and adds information from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (along with 20+ other social networks) to each person in your address book. You can easily find the latest updates on everyone in your network, and share it with other folks on your team.

Contactually is a great solution for anyone who sends a lot of emails, particularly people in sales, business development, or professional services (like consulting or financial management. Contactually works with any IMAP email account – including Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, and AOL.

So, if you have been looking to better manage your e-mail, contacts and opportunities, plug a few holes of lost opportunities, and are not ready for traditional CRM or lead management software, then Contactually may be worth the look.  To grab a free trial of Contactually visit them at  www.contactually.com/beta