General Description: This assignment tests the students ability to write a professional introductory business email to a prospect as follows:

You are a B2B sales rep. The company you work for specializes in e-commerce - high end web development. (See complete profile and instructions at the end of this assignment).

Your key objective is to secure an introductory telephone call or meeting with a prospective customer that youve never met or spoken with before.

Through your initial research, you have identified a company that you feel would be a great prospect (See complete profile and instructions at the end of this assignment).

Compose your email to the buyer/contact at this company designed to meet the above objective.

Evaluation Criteria: Be sure your email contains the following elements to ensure the best possible success:

1. Subject (2 marks)

2. Introductory statement (3 marks)

3. Benefit statement (5 marks)

4. Ask / Call to action (5 marks)

5. Your contact information (include name, Student # and class) (2 marks)

6. Grammar / spelling and creativity (3 marks)

Hint: Be sure to follow the format and advice referenced in the Top 10 Email Dos and Donts slides referenced in the Chapter 7 PowerPoint and discussed in class. This can be found the Chapter 7 Module in Canvas.

Expected format: Submit this email (in word document format) to the Canvas folder labelled Introductory Email Assignment. Please type your answers directly into a new document (do not include the full assignment questions in your document or it will be flagged by the Originality Checker). Your email should be no more than one page in length.

Late submissions: Will receive a grade of zero, unless exceptional circumstances have arisen that have prevented on-time submission and the instructor has been notified in advance.

Important: This is an individual assignment. You must complete this assignment independently and in your own voice. Emails that show evidence of collaboration or copying will be subject to the penalties laid out in Mohawks Academic Honesty policy.

Profile & Instructions: Assume you are a salesperson for a Hamilton-based company that designs and implements web sites for businesses.

Assume that you have identified, researched and qualified a new prospect for your web site design services, and have learned the following about this prospective customer:

The prospects company is named Lawn & Order Landscaping, and they provide residential and commercial outdoor landscaping services in Hamilton. Lawn and Order is a small but growing company and is owned and operated by David Lain. You have seen many of their crews working in the Hamilton area, which suggests the business is doing well, and you can see that their services are highly rated (5 stars) on customer review web sites.

Lawn and Order currently has a web site, but it is just a single page and is poorly done. By contrast, they are running a radio ad that is professional and effective, as is the Lawn and Order company signage and sales literature that you have seen in the market. Lawn and Order recently won a Hamilton Spectator award as Top Landscaping Company in the Hamilton area, and has been recognized by Homestars.com (a home improvement services review web site), as a Top Pick in the landscaping category.

The company you work for, Dynamic Web Creations, distinguishes itself by offering high quality web sites at affordable prices, and has successfully designed and launched over 20 web sites in the past 2 years.

The company has several happy customers in the home services industry and specializes in designing mobile web sites. Dynamic Web Creations was recently ranked by Digital Business Magazine as the #1 web site design company in Ontario for Value and Design Capabilities.

Your task:

Write an introductory Pre-Approach email to the owner of Lawn and Order Landscaping, David Lain.

The goal of your email should be to introduce yourself and your company, generate interest, and secure a follow-up phone call.

Be sure to follow the format and advice referenced in the Building Customer Relationships Chapter 7 slides and discussed in class.