 If you're new to the hotel and meetings industry, or perhaps you've just changed your role at your current hotel and have taken on a new market, or perhaps you have some experience in the industry and you've now moved to a new hotel. We're gonna talk about email tips when making that introductory email to your new clients and prospects. Everyone, it's Leanne from leancolderwood.com. And over the years, I have received a slew of introductory emails from brand new hotel sales managers, or even from older sales managers that have moved on to a different property, or have changed their role within an existing property. So whenever one of those things happens, you need to reach out to your clients and your prospects to introduce yourself. That's the slew of emails that tend to go out when you transition into a new role. But a lot of those emails will end up, again, in cyberspace if you're not crafting them correctly. So we're gonna talk about some ways that you can create that introductory email so that the client or prospect on the other end responds to you and you can start that relationship. Where our industry is built on relationships. And this introductory email is the first stepping stone to building a great and robust relationship with a client. So what are some things that we can do to that email that entices the client to enter into that relationship with us? Tip number one, before you even craft your email, do some research on the client. Now this could be a client that has done business with your property. So make sure you're researching what kind of business they've done with your property in the past, or they haven't done any business with your property. So what other properties have they been going to? What kinds of meetings does this plan or plan? So do your due diligence and do some research before you even craft the email. Tip number two, if you're predecessor in the role that you're in is still with the property, it might even be easier for that person to make introductions to the clients and prospects. It's a lot easier making a warm introduction than creating a cold call email and trying to start that introduction from scratch. Tip number three, now if your predecessor has moved on and you are doing a cold call email, provide a frame of reference within that email. So what is a frame of reference? In this case, it would be that you are replacing Susan Smith at XYZ Hotel. Without providing that frame of reference, that client or prospect may be thinking that person is still with the property and you are now taking over that person's market or perhaps that person doesn't wanna work with you anymore. So providing that frame of reference then clears up their database of contact information to make sure that they're talking to the right person. Tip number four, make sure your predecessor's emails are forwarded to you. This is really critical so you ensure that emails don't slip through the cracks and if a client or prospect is actually emailing your predecessor, that's a great way of doing a warm introduction and the email is simply, hey, Susan Smith has moved on but I'm your girl and I'm here to help you. So make sure those emails are forwarded and you don't miss any emails going through the cracks. Tip number five, introduce yourself. And what I mean by that is this isn't the time for the data dump about the property that you're representing although you're probably very excited to represent that property which is one of the reasons you've joined the organization but we're building a relationship here. So this is the opportunity for you to introduce something fun about yourself maybe even why you chose this property or this destination. But again, make it relational and save the data dump for a little bit further in the relationship when the client needs information about your hotel. Tip number six, make sure your signature line is complete. Complete means phone numbers, emails, maybe even the physical address of your property. So make sure it's complete. Don't leave out any details that leave the client wondering who is this person working for? How do I get a hold of them when the time is right? Tip number seven, update your LinkedIn profile. Now in the days of social media, we research everything and you're researching people in the industry, outside of the industry and planners are doing the same thing. When you send them an email introducing yourself, there's a high likelihood that they're gonna jump on your LinkedIn profile and check out your background. So make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete before they do that. Tip number eight, my perennial favorite include a call to action. So ensure that that introductory email entices them to respond to you in some way and keep that dialogue going and start to build that relationship. So that call to action could be about setting up a coffee date, perhaps setting up an appointment at an upcoming trade show, but make sure you include a call to action or else there is no reason for that planner to respond to that well-crafted communication. Those are eight really quick tips about that first introductory email that you send. Here's a couple of don'ts that I want you to be aware of when you're crafting that email and connecting with your client. Don't number one, please do not ask that client for a copy of the signed contract with your property. You must somewhere in that organization have a signed copy of that contract. And boy, does it look unprofessional if you ask for a copy from the client themselves. I wouldn't include this if this hasn't happened to me and it's happened to me, I can't tell you how many times and wow, do I feel uneasy working with a property that needs to come back to me for a signed contract? So please make sure that your property has a signed contract and you've got it in hand and please try to avoid to ask your client for that signed copy. Don't number two, and this goes with all emails I think I've mentioned in the past, do not ask that client, have you done business with our property before? You must somewhere in that database know if that client has done business with your property. And even after all that research, you still don't know, find a different way to ask that question. Please do not insult a client by asking them, have you done business with our property before? My final don't is please avoid the temptation to mass communicate to that laundry list of clients and prospects. It would be so easy for you to craft one email that you could send to hundreds of people with one click of a button. I'm urging you not to do that. Certainly create different templates and different drafts for different types of clients and audiences, but please try your best to personalize each email. That personalization is gonna go a lot further than a mass communicated email that may contain errors that the planner is gonna pick up on. So try to personalize all your emails if you can. Those are my quick tips and tricks for you. However, if you're more of a visual learner, I have created a checklist for you. So if you go over to my website at leoncaldrewood.com and under resources, look for this checklist. It's tips for new hotel sales manager checklist. And there you'll find all the tips that I've outlined here as well as a couple of extras. And by downloading this checklist, you actually also get signed up for my weekly newsletter, which doesn't completely suck if you're wondering. It's got the industry calendar on there as well as some other tips and tricks for the industry. And it's a way that you and I can stay connected and hopefully answer any questions that you have about the tips that I've just outlined today. You can also find a link for that checklist below this video as well as in the blog post that accompanies this video. So thanks for watching the video today. Best of luck to you in your new role at your new hotel. I wish you all the success in your role and I hope these tips have helped you craft those introductory emails and better relationships with your clients. Until next time, bye for now.