From 2% to 34%: How Sarah Rodriguez Transformed Her Email Response Rate
Sarah Rodriguez
Vice President
Sterling Real Estate Group
The Challenge
Sarah Rodriguez was one of Sterling Real Estate Group's top performers, but she had a problem that was costing her countless deals: her cold emails were dying in inboxes.
"I was sending 200+ prospecting emails a week," Sarah explains. "I'd get maybe 4 responses. That's a 2% response rate. I knew my market. I knew my properties. But my emails read exactly like everyone else's: 'Hi, I'm a broker, let me help you find space.' Delete."
The Before & After
Subject: Commercial Real Estate Opportunity
My name is Sarah Rodriguez and I'm a Vice President at Sterling Real Estate Group. I specialize in helping companies find office space in Miami.
I'd love to schedule a call to discuss your real estate needs.
Best regards,
Sarah"
Subject: Congrats on the Wynwood expansion!
Just saw the news about Bright Health opening your new Wynwood clinic—congratulations! With your 23 planned hires in South Florida, I imagine you'll need space that can accommodate growth.
I've got a 12,000 SF space 2 blocks from your new location that's perfect for medical office conversion. Would a quick tour next week be helpful?"
"The difference wasn't just in the words—it was in the timing and relevance. When you reference something specific that happened to their company THIS WEEK, they know you're not just blasting a template. You're paying attention."
— Sarah Rodriguez
The Solution
Sarah started using Real Intel's Contextual Enrich platform in October 2024. The system automatically pulled real-time intelligence on every company she was targeting: recent news, funding rounds, executive changes, expansion announcements, and more.
Real-Time Intel
Every lead enriched with the latest news, funding, and hiring data
AI Talking Points
Automatically generated conversation starters for each prospect
Personalized Drafts
One-click email generation referencing specific events
The Transformation
The results were immediate. Within the first month, Sarah's response rate jumped from 2% to 18%. By month three, it had climbed to 34%.
"What used to take me 2 hours of research per prospect now takes 2 minutes," Sarah says. "Contextual Enrich pulls everything I need: their recent funding round, their new VP of Operations, the fact that they just announced an expansion into our market. I click a button, and I have a personalized email that references all of it."
Response Rate Over Time
The Big Win: Fortune 500 Deal
Sarah's biggest success came when Contextual Enrich flagged that a Fortune 500 healthcare company had just announced a regional expansion into South Florida. Within 24 hours of the announcement, Sarah sent a personalized email to their VP of Real Estate.
"I referenced their expansion announcement, their stated goal of 5 new locations in Florida, and even mentioned their new Chief Growth Officer by name—who had been appointed just 2 weeks earlier. The VP responded within an hour. She said, 'You're the only broker who clearly did their homework.'"
That conversation turned into a $3.2 million, 5-location portfolio deal.
"My emails went from being noise in someone's inbox to being the one message they actually want to open. Contextual Enrich didn't just improve my metrics—it changed how decision-makers perceive me. I'm not a cold caller anymore. I'm a trusted advisor who comes prepared."
— Sarah Rodriguez
Key Takeaways
Context Beats Volume
50 personalized emails outperform 500 generic templates
Timing + Relevance = Trust
Reference recent events to show you're paying attention
Research Time → Selling Time
Let AI do the research so you can focus on relationships
Subject Lines Matter
Specific, event-based subjects get 5x more opens