When summer heat is here, sometimes it’s nice for both you and your customers to stay inside where it’s cool. That makes summer the perfect time for digital sales tools! Not only are these tools an ideal way to inform your customers about your product offering, they also allow both of you to stay cool. Here are four of the best sales and marketing tools you can use without leaving air conditioning behind.

Getting Digital with Emails
Emails are a wonderful tool when the weather heats up. You can send a company newsletter. You can start a conversation with your customer about their order or ask whether they need to stock up on a product they ordered last summer around this time. You can send PDF proofs of your customer’s print piece for one last check before the order goes to press. Emails are a modern essential sales tool for a reason.

And don’t forget to update your email signature with favorite products for summer or with a link to a digital sales tool. Speaking of links to sales tools…

Send More Information Fast With ZOOMcatalog
When you’re showing your customers the wide selection of print products that your business offers, don’t be afraid to send them the entire Navitor catalog! ZOOMcatalog gives you the option to personalize an unbranded version of our catalog and either download the PDF or link your customers to it directly. This gives your customers the time they need to browse those products.

Highlight Products with Digital Flyers
Want to highlight a single product without getting bogged down with an entire catalog? We’ve got the digital tools for you! Download an unbranded flyer and attach it to an email for a ready-made awareness campaign or send a flyer when starting an email conversation with customers who are interested in a particular product. We’ve also got vertical market focused sales flyers to you to explore.

Keep it Simple With Your Phone—and Your Voicemail Message
You might use your phone every day, but it’s still important to consider when you’re marketing your business—especially when the weather is hot. Whether you’re reaching out to your customers to touch base after some time or you are returning a call with more information about their order, your phone is a powerful way to reach out to your customers wherever they are.

And don’t forget about your voicemail message! Take a moment to record a new message for your business phone to let your customers know both that you’ll return their call and the popular products they might want to add to their order.

How do you keep your marketing efforts moving when the weather is hot? We’d love to see your ideas in the comments below.

Summertime is filled with great weather, summer trips, events and distractions, and that can make the sales process challenging. There are also a few customer challenges that you’re more likely to see in the summer. Here are just a few of the challenging customers that you might meet this summer and how to better serve them during this very social season.

The Very Ready Vacationer
You’ve probably worked with this customer. You might have even been this customer when you were on the cusp of an exciting trip. The Very Ready Vacationer might be trying to get as much off their plate as possible, or they might be trying to put off an important meeting until after they’ve returned from their trip. Whichever way they try to clear their schedule for travel, chances are you’re going to run into difficult scheduling with this customer, especially if they also have deadlines to meet.

When you’re working with a Very Ready Vacationer, make sure that you’ve talked about whether there are any deadlines that will hit during their absence. If there are, ask them about how you can contact them with important questions or who to contact while they are away. If they need their print pieces after they’ve returned, take a moment to touch base with them once they’re back.

And, speaking of vacations…

The Wistful Worker
When you have a customer who isn’t going on vacation—but really wishes they were—you face an entirely different kind of distraction. This person might try to rush every sales meeting or forget what you’ve told them because they aren’t necessarily focusing on the work ahead of them.

How can you connect better with the wistful worker? When they’re distracted, logic is less likely to bring back their attention. Show them something exciting or ask them what they’re most interested in to get them more emotionally engaged in the conversation.

The Unconventional Office
Summer can lead to some unconventional work environments, and that can lead to big distractions. When your customer is working outside to take advantage of great weather, working from a coffee shop to change things up, or working from a summer event where they are promoting their business, the Unconventional Office can be difficult to speak to over the phone. Consider switching to email or text unless you need to have a conversation.

The Friday Flyer
This person’s personal life got much busier when summer started, and they’re prone to flying out the door earlier in the afternoon. And their absence might not just be an early exit on a Friday. Whether it’s children’s activities or sports event, the Friday Flyer’s absence can be a challenge no matter the cause. They might not be there to receive your call, and that can leave you without the information you need to move forward with their order.

When you’re dealing with a Friday Flyer, documentation and planning ahead are key. Try to use email to schedule conversations ahead of time, and, if you aren’t able to update them in a conversation, leave a message and include a mention of when you intend to follow up. And, if you need more information from them, make sure that you tell them exactly what information you need and that their order is on hold until you’ve heard back from them.

Have you met these challenging customers? How do you handle these summery challenges? We’d love to see you join the conversation in the comments below.