{"id":26697,"date":"2021-12-01T17:05:06","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T17:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=26697"},"modified":"2021-12-01T17:05:06","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T17:05:06","slug":"write-great-sales-emails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/write-great-sales-emails\/","title":{"rendered":"Set your sales team’s written communication apart with GEMS, our email coaching framework"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a sales manager, the most impactful thing you can do is coach your team. To do this effectively, it\u2019s important to remember that every customer interaction matters when closing a deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Study any sales coaching blog, podcast, or book and you\u2019ll find plenty of advice on the best ways to coach your sales reps: join their calls, listen to recordings, apply a framework \u2026 the list goes on. But these tips seldom acknowledge the essential role of emails in the sales process. At Intercom, we’ve developed the GEMS framework to help everyone on our teams achieve best-in-class written communication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are emails crucial to closing the deal?<\/span><\/h2>\n

According to data from <\/span>Gong<\/span><\/a>, the best indicator of whether your deal will close is not call velocity, but email velocity \u2013 the number of emails exchanged between the salesperson and the prospect in any given time period.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even more important is the number of times your prospect emails<\/span> you<\/span><\/i>. Boosting this number means creating email communications that are engaging, impactful, and above all, convince your prospect that you can solve their problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to \u2018make internet business personal.\u2019 Prospects and customers can only subscribe to that ideology if they experience it firsthand with our teams\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our mission at Intercom is to \u201cmake internet business personal\u201d. Prospects and customers can only subscribe to that ideology if they experience it firsthand with our teams. <\/span>Timely, well-constructed emails are a key pillar of a best-in-class customer experience \u2013 you can encourage your team to strive for the highest standards by consistently emphasizing the value of emails in the sales process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emails introduce your solution<\/b><\/h3>\n

Email is the most shareable asset<\/span> available to the prospect during the deal cycle \u2013 key stakeholders will likely be introduced to the conversation when they\u2019re added to email threads or forwarded emails. If the first email they read doesn\u2019t clearly show that you understand their pain points and how your company can help, you\u2019re fighting an uphill battle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Emails tell the prospect you get it<\/b><\/h3>\n

While a simple follow-up email is often looked at by sellers as an \u201cadmin chore\u201d, we encourage our teams to think of these follow-ups as a way to instill confidence in their prospects. It\u2019s an opportunity to let them know you actually listened to what they had to say and understood their unique needs. You can conduct the best call in the world, but if the follow-up is poor, the prospect will assume you didn\u2019t actually \u201cget the point\u201d, opening the door for a more polished competitor to step in.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Closing roles need email coaching too<\/span><\/h2>\n

In sales development land, managers allocate large portions of their coaching time to email outreach; scrutinizing reps\u2019 written cadences, making tiny tweaks, and monitoring any incremental changes as they go. In some organizations, almost every word or statistic in an SDR\u2019s email is closely examined.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This laser focus on written communication often disappears as sellers progress into closing roles. At this level, it\u2019s assumed the seller has perfected their email-writing techniques, and managers are mostly happy to leave their correspondences unmonitored. We aren\u2019t talking about prospecting emails here \u2013 these are emails exchanged between a sales rep and a buyer during an evaluation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs leaders, we should be coaching our teams to produce best-in-class written communications \u2013 so why is email typically a neglected coaching channel for closing roles?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The data tells us that, as leaders, we should be coaching our teams to produce best-in-class written communications \u2013 so why is email typically a neglected coaching channel for closing roles?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s because, as leaders, it\u2019s easy to feel like asking to see our sellers\u2019 emails, or sifting through them in a CRM, qualifies as \u201cmicro-managing\u201d. Or maybe some leaders don\u2019t truly understand the impact timely and well written follow-ups can have on a deal, or how they can empower a salesperson \u2013 regardless of how great a seller is on the phone or in person.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

GEMS: Our email coaching framework<\/span><\/h2>\n

Setting and maintaining these high standards means incorporating written communication into your coaching plan. Every sales manager at Intercom uses a variation of the GEMS framework, which we\u2019ve developed over time to guide email coaching at every level of our team.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

G<\/b>ood looks like<\/span><\/h3>\n

We show our Sales team what good looks like at every stage of the sales funnel. What makes an excellent discovery follow-up? How do you follow up after a demo or pricing discussion? Creating a clear image of excellence is the starting point. Applying your chosen sales methodology should help here.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cAt Intercom, we include an \u2018offline communications\u2019 pillar in every new account executives\u2019 onboarding process\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At Intercom, we include an \u201coffline communications\u201d pillar in every new account executives\u2019 onboarding process. This small tweak to our onboarding has played a huge role in changing most sellers\u2019 perception of email in the sales process, and setting clear expectations from the very beginning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

E<\/b>nable with tools<\/span><\/h3>\n

Now that you know what good looks like, enable your team to deliver this level of quality every time. At Intercom, our tech stack is critical to ensuring consistency in our written communication:<\/p>\n