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  SALES MEETING TOOL KIT: USING E-MAIL EFFECTIVELY
 

Component 1: Facilitator talking points

Component 2: E-mail agenda

Component 3: Action Plan worksheet

Component 4: Story of business e-mail success

Component 5: Activity 1: E-mail Quiz (handout)

Component 6: Activity 1 answers

Component 7: Appropriate uses of e-mail (handout)

Component 8: E-mail etiquette (handout)

Component 9: E-mail marketing tips (handout)

Component 10: Making personal contact

More Resources
  Component No. 1--Facilitator Talking Points

These notes will guide you and your salespeople through a discussion and activities on e-mail use.

Before the meeting:
  • Review all the meeting documents in this kit
  • Know your company's existing e-mail policy
  • Determine how you’ll change your company's policy, if necessary

Print the following:

1. These Facilitator Talking Points—Component 1

2. E-mail Agenda—Component 2

3. Action Plan Worksheet (to be completed by facilitator/broker before the meeting)—Component 3

4. Story of Business E-mail Success —Component 4

5. Activity 1/Handout 1: E-mail Quiz —Component 5

6. Activity 1: Answers—Component 6

7. Handout 2: Appropriate Uses of E-mail—Component 7

8. Handout 3: E-mail Etiquette—Component 8

9. Handout 4: E-mail Marketing Tips—Component 9

10. Handout 5: Making Personal Contact—Component 10

11. Action Plan to Ensure Salespeople Use E-mail Appropriately—Component 11

True Stories (3 min.)
Gain participants’ attention about the importance of safety in one of three ways:
1. Have them read the article, “Slash Your Ad and Mailing Costs,” (Component 4) about how to use e-mail effectively in marketing real estate.
2. Relate a story about yourself or someone you know who successfully uses e-mail in selling real estate.
3. Ask the group for their e-mail marketing success stories.

Background and goals (3 min.)
To segue from the true stories to the discussion, tell participants:

“E-mail has put communication at our fingertips. But no matter how casual an electronic conversation may be, what’s written in e-mail can last forever—saved to a mail server, forwarded to others, or printed out. With this in mind, our company wants to prevent problems and help you use it to your best business advantage.

In this meeting, we will:

  • Demonstrate appropriate e-mail etiquette.

  • Explain how to use e-mail to build business.

  • Explain how to make the transition from e-mail to face-to-face contact.


Activity No. 1 (5 min)
Have the salespeople complete Activity No. 1, a true-false quiz (Component 5).

When they’re finished, review each question. Ask them what they think the right answers are? Why? Use the “Activity 1 Answer Sheet” (Component 6) to explain the correct answers. Ask participants to come up with alternatives to the “false” scenarios.

How to use e-mail (5 min.)
Use the handout (Component 7) to review the different types of e-mail and discuss which situations each is best suited to.

E-mail etiquette (7 min.)
Discuss e-mail etiquette by reviewing the handout (Component 8). Talk about the do's and don'ts of writing and responding to e-mail.

Activity No. 2 (7 min.)
Ask the salespeople (either together or in small-group breakouts) to brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages of e-mail, which you can list on a flip chart. Have the group(s) discuss ways to adapt those advantages to their marketing practices.

Marketing tips (7 min.)
Review the types of electronic communications and how to grab attention with subject lines (Component 9). Ask the group to share how they’ve used various communications and what success they’ve had.

Making contact (7 min.)
Discuss when and how to turn an electronic relationship with a prospect into personal contact (Component 10).

Activity 3 (2 min. set up)
Explain that you’re going to hold a contest. Within the week, you’ll send an e-mail to the salespeople that will appear to come from a first-contact prospect—a cold e-mail, if you will. The salesperson who’s the first to respond—within the appropriate time frame and using the learned techniques—gets a prize (gift certificates, free supplies), which you can determine.

Adjourn.
Thank them for their time.

Component 2, next page >