Good afternoon and welcome to Promo Perspectives, a podcast presented by SAGE dedicated to giving promotional products distributors and suppliers tips, tricks, and insights to help grow their businesses.
I’m Gabe Gotay, Senior Marketing Coordinator here at SAGE. Today, I’m here with a SAGE News Update. I’m going to share what’s new and what’s coming in SAGE!
To kick us off, I want to talk about some of the newest features in SAGE Workplace.
First, SAGE has given suppliers the ability to add even more data about their products! They can now include direct links to their websites on the product details pages, allowing you to go directly to the source of a specific product.
Additionally, there’s now a Carbon Footprint field where suppliers can include any product’s carbon footprint in kilograms. This additional level of transparency will allow distributors to make informed, eco-friendly, and sustainable choices when searching for products.
Next up, we have two powerful new features designed to revolutionize your client presentations and boost your sales: the Presentation Gallery Layout and the Presentation Wizard.
First up, the Presentation Gallery Layout. This modern and clean interactive layout provides a sophisticated way to showcase your selected products. This new layout allows you to present yourself to your clients in a modern, clean, and sophisticated way, creating a better user experience for your customers.
It streamlines product viewing, making it easy to access detailed information, and even allows for easy client interaction, enabling them to comment and provide instant feedback.
Now, let’s talk about how to create these stunning presentations with incredible ease. Introducing the Presentation Wizard.
Powered by SAGE AI technology, the Presentation Wizard takes the work out of creating customized presentations. Simply select a client from your CRM, and the wizard automatically generates a presentation tailored to their specific information and history. The AI considers their past orders, what’s been presented to them before, their industry, and much more. It even considers the products and suppliers you typically work with.
This not only saves you valuable time but also ensures you deliver a highly personalized presentation that exceeds client expectations. And while the AI does the heavy lifting, you still have full editing control to tweak and customize the final result. The Presentation Wizard is ideal for generating tailored product ideas for specific clients with minimal effort.
Both the Presentation Gallery Layout and the Presentation Wizard are designed to enhance your client interactions and drive sales. These tools are especially beneficial for distributors already using our presentation module, but we encourage everyone to explore these powerful new features. For more information on the Presentation Gallery Layout and the Presentation Wizard, visit our website or contact your SAGE representative.
Keeping the AI train rolling, SAGE is proud to have introduced some new features to our email hosting service! If you use SAGE’s email services, we have added some exciting new AI features to help you save time and work more efficiently. These tools include email summaries, draft replies, and more.
Finally, let’s talk about one of the most exciting new features, Client Text Messaging! In today’s fast-paced world, instant and direct communication is key. Many clients prefer the convenience of texting over traditional methods like calls or emails.
Client Text Messaging allows you to connect with your clients where they are, keeping conversations flowing seamlessly, even when you’re on the go.
This new feature offers hassle-free communication designed to keep your team in sync. All conversations are conveniently organized within one platform, and instant push notifications to your desktop or phone ensure you never miss a message.
Let’s take a look at some of the key features. Client Text Messaging offers unlimited texting, and each customer account is assigned a unique phone number for professional messaging. A convenient call forwarding feature automatically routes calls to that number to your main business line. And shared chat history keeps the entire team informed, even when someone is out of the office.
Now, a few important points to remember. Client Text Messaging is designed for one-on-one communication. It’s not a bulk SMS marketing tool. Also, you’ll find this new feature within the CRM module on the Clients tab.
This streamlined approach brings all your client information and communication tools together in one place.
This powerful new tool is especially beneficial for distributors with multiple salespeople who actively use SAGE CRM. It improves team collaboration and ensures consistent client communication. Even single-person distributorships will find value in Client Text Messaging, as it allows for clear separation between business and personal communication.
Client Text Messaging is just the latest way we’re helping businesses like yours thrive. We believe this feature will significantly enhance client engagement and streamline your communication processes. For more information, visit our website or contact your SAGE Account Advisor.
That’s going to do it for our new features, but SAGE is always working to improve our tools and streamline your workflow, so stay tuned for more exciting developments!
Let’s move on to upcoming events! We have a great slate of upcoming webinars.
For our supplier viewers, we have a The Ultimate SAGE Supplier Center Webinar coming up on March 5th from 1 pm to 2 pm central time! Learn everything there is to know about the SAGE Supplier Center from Carmen Murphey, Supplier Support Manager here at SAGE. From updating products to looking at your stats to adding specials and SAGE Chat, and more! Register today on the Supplier Resources page of SAGEworld.com
For distributors, we’ve got two SAGE Academy Webinars in March.
On March 5th from 1:00 to 1:30pm Central Time, Andy Evans, Senior Corporate Account Manager here at SAGE, is going to be diving into SAGE Connect API and integrations! Learn how to effortlessly integrate live SAGE data into your website or backend systems. This session will demonstrate how automated syncing of product details, inventory levels, order statuses, and more can optimize and streamline your workflows and boost efficiency.
Next for distributors, on March 19th from 1 to 1:30pm Central Time, Amanda Carpenter, Senior Customer Experience Manager here at SAGE, will be running through all the newest SAGE features! She’ll dive deep into all those fun new things I talked about at the top of the episode, walking you through how to use them in more detail with a live demo in the SAGE Workplace Web App.
And last, but I certainly hope not least, the next live episode of Promo Perspectives will be on Wednesday, March 26th, from 1 to 1:30pm central time! The episode will be hosted by yours truly, plus special guest Patrick Harvot, Distributor Sales Team Lead here at SAGE! We’re going to be talking all about fulfillment!
To register for either of those SAGE Academy webinars or the next live episode of Promo Perspectives, head to SAGEworld.com/resources
Finally, let’s take a look at upcoming trade shows and conferences.
If you’re a member of PPA Chicago, make sure to register for The Showcase coming up on Thursday, March 20th! Visit with amazing suppliers, discover new products, check out the concession, and even adopt a puppy! Supplier booth registration ends on March 7th. Distributors can register all the way up until the day of the show and are welcome to bring clients and end users as guests. Visit PPAchicago.org to register.
And finally, coming up in April, we have the return of SAGE Conference, the industry’s largest virtual conference! We’ll have live, interactive educational sessions on the main stage from experts both in the industry and from beyond! SAGE Conference is free to attend for all verified distributors so keep an eye out for the invitation email to register your whole team!
That’s it for today’s episode, thank you for listening and subscribing! We’ve got some great episodes on Sustainability and Responsibility coming out this month, and next month we’ll be releasing the episodes focused on fulfillment, so stay tuned and we’ll see you next time!