The Five-Minute Introduction: Opening a Conversation With a Department Chair
Department chairs in PE and kinesiology receive a steady stream of vendor email. The introductions that get a reply share three traits: they arrive through someone the chair already trusts, they are short, and they ask for one small, specific thing. Five minutes is enough time to earn a second conversation when you use it well.
This post gives you a structure for that first conversation, scripts you can adapt, the three facts worth leading with, the claims to leave out, and the place your disclosure belongs. Everything here follows the standards every Campus Associate agrees to.
The five-minute introduction at a glance
- Arrive through a warm introduction from a colleague the chair trusts whenever you can.
- Disclose your commission relationship in the first message or the first minute.
- Name the specific problem: verifying and grading activity in large or online PE sections.
- Lead with three facts you can verify on eFit's own pages, and stop there.
- Ask for one small next step: a twenty-minute demo with the syllabus owner before the bookstore deadline.
Why Warm Introductions Win
Academic departments run on professional trust. A chair who hears about eFit from a former colleague, a conference contact or a faculty member in their own department starts the conversation with some goodwill already in place.
eFit Campus Associates selects people partly because of the relationships they already hold in education. Use them with care. Ask a mutual contact whether they would be comfortable making an introduction, tell them plainly that you are a commissioned associate, and make it easy for them to say no. A contact who introduces you knowingly is lending you their reputation, so treat every introduction as a loan you intend to repay with good conduct.
Ten Minutes of Preparation
Before you reach out, spend ten minutes on the department's public pages and the institution's course schedule. You are looking for the facts that make your message specific to them.
Before the first message
- Which activity or fitness courses the department offers, and roughly how many sections run each term.
- Whether any sections run online or in a hybrid format.
- Who coordinates the largest multi-section activity course, if the department lists coordinators.
- Which learning management system the campus uses (D2L, Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle).
- Whether the campus bookstore posts a course material adoption deadline for the coming term.
- How you know the chair, or who in your network knows them.
If you learn that the department runs a dozen sections of an online fitness course taught by part-time faculty, you have your opening. If you find almost no activity courses, you have saved yourself and the chair a conversation that would lead nowhere.
The Five-Minute Structure
Whether the conversation happens on a phone call, in a hallway at a conference or over a short video meeting, the same five beats work. Each one takes about a minute.
| Minute | Purpose | What it sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| First | Who you are, and your disclosure | Your name, your connection to the person who introduced you, and your commission relationship with eFit |
| Second | Why this department | The courses you noticed and why they caught your attention |
| Third | The problem | Verifying and grading activity for many students, especially in online sections |
| Fourth | Three facts | Free faculty accounts, automated activity grading from phones and trackers, CSV grade export |
| Fifth | One request | A twenty-minute demo with the syllabus owner, on a date before the adoption deadline |
Then stop talking and listen. The chair's reply tells you whether the problem is real in this department, who owns the decision, and what the calendar looks like. Write all three down.
Scripts You Can Adapt
Rewrite these in your own voice. Keep the disclosure, the specifics and the single request.
Asking a colleague for an introduction
Hi [Name], I have been accepted into eFit Campus Associates, which means I introduce eFit to PE and kinesiology departments and earn a commission when a program adopts it. eFit grades activity automatically from students' phones and trackers, which seems like a fit for [Department]'s online fitness sections.
Would you be comfortable introducing me to [Chair]? A short note is plenty, and a no is completely fine.
The first message after the introduction
Dr. [Chair], thank you, and thanks to [Name] for connecting us. I am an eFit Campus Associate and may earn a commission if your program adopts eFit.
I noticed [Department] runs several sections of [Course], some of them online. eFit grades student activity automatically from steps and eFit Minutes recorded on phones and fitness trackers, and exports grades as a CSV file for [LMS]. Faculty accounts are free, and students pay $59 per student, per semester.
Would the coordinator for [Course] be open to a twenty-minute demo before your spring adoption deadline? I can work around their schedule.
Meeting a chair in person at a conference
"I work with eFit as a commissioned Campus Associate, so you should know I earn something if a department adopts it. The short version: it grades activity for PE courses automatically from students' phones and trackers. How does your department handle activity verification in its online sections today?"
The conference script ends with a question on purpose. In person, the chair's answer is worth more than anything else you could say in that minute.
The Three Facts to Lead With
A first conversation needs only three facts, and each one should be easy for the chair to confirm on eFit's own pages.
- Faculty accounts are free. Students pay $59 per student, per semester, directly, through a bookstore access code, or through an institution purchase. The pricing page shows the details.
- Activity is graded automatically. eFit reads steps and eFit Minutes from Google Health on Android or Apple Health on iPhone, so a phone is enough. Trackers that sync to Google Health, including Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin and Samsung, work as well. See how activity tracking works.
- Grades leave eFit as a CSV file that imports into D2L, Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle gradebooks. The LMS page explains the export.
If the chair wants more, you can add that 17,665 students have tracked activity in eFit, and that the course eBook includes twelve interactive 3D labs. Save the full tour for the demo.
Claims to Leave Out
Chairs have long memories for vendors who overpromised. The fastest way to lose a department is to say something in the first conversation that the demo later contradicts. Use the table below as a guardrail.
| Tempting claim | Accurate statement |
|---|---|
| It connects live to your LMS | Grades export as a CSV file that imports into D2L, Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle gradebooks |
| It carries a security certification | eFit publishes its privacy and security pages, and I will connect you with eFit for specific questions |
| Schools near you already use it | Say how many students have tracked activity in eFit, using the figure on eFit's site, and stop there |
| It saves instructors hours every week | Describe the task it automates: grading weekly activity from phone and tracker data |
| Students will love it | Offer the demo so the coordinator can judge the student experience directly |
When a question goes beyond what you know, say so and promise a follow-up from eFit. That sentence builds more trust than any clever reply.
Where Your Disclosure Goes
Your commission relationship belongs at the very beginning: in the first written message, or in the first minute of a spoken conversation, before you recommend anything. The standard wording is:
"I am an eFit Campus Associate and may earn a commission if your program adopts eFit."
Early disclosure is required by the program standards and reflects the FTC's endorsement guidance, which asks people with a financial connection to a product to make that connection clear. It also works in your favor. A chair who hears it up front knows exactly where you stand and can weigh your recommendation fairly. Our post on disclosure, ethics and trust covers the rules in plain language.
After the Conversation
Send a short thank-you the same day. Confirm the one next step you agreed on, with a date, and include the links to the pages you mentioned so the chair can check your facts. Thank the colleague who introduced you, too. If the chair declined, thank them just as warmly, note when their adoption cycle comes around again, and move on. Our guide to running a twenty-minute faculty demo picks up where this conversation ends.
Key Takeaways
- Warm introductions through trusted colleagues open more doors than cold outreach.
- Prepare with ten minutes on the department's courses, formats, LMS and adoption deadline.
- Use five beats: who you are and your disclosure, why them, the problem, three facts, one request.
- Lead with facts the chair can verify on eFit's own pages, and leave every unverifiable claim out.
- Disclose your commission relationship first, every time.
Frequently Asked Questions About First Conversations
How should I introduce education software to a department chair?
Ask a mutual colleague for a warm introduction, then use a short, specific message: who you are and your commission relationship, why you chose their department, the grading problem eFit addresses, three verifiable facts, and one small request such as a twenty-minute demo for the course coordinator.
When should an associate disclose the commission?
In the first message or the first minute of the first conversation, before any recommendation. The standard wording is: "I am an eFit Campus Associate and may earn a commission if your program adopts eFit." Repeat it whenever you meet someone new in the same department.
What should I avoid saying in a first conversation?
Leave out anything you cannot verify from eFit's published product facts. That includes integration claims beyond the CSV grade export, security or compliance certifications, the names of other schools, time-savings figures and any statistic you cannot source.
What is a good first request after an introduction?
Ask for something small and specific: a twenty-minute demo with the person who owns the syllabus for the department's largest activity course, on a date before the next bookstore adoption deadline.
The best introductions feel like a colleague sharing something useful. Keep yours short, honest and specific, and let the demo do the rest.
eFit Software
Field notes from the eFit team for current members of eFit Campus Associates and for people preparing to apply. Nothing in this journal is legal, tax or financial advice.