Using “Coffee” to Initiate Business Dialogues

Before you can actually build any meaningful business relationships, you need to have a positive interaction with the other person. If you haven’t ever interacted, you need to first figure out a way to get together with the other person so that you can start to listen to each other and get to know each other. So, exactly how do you accomplish that?

“Coffee” is the icebreaker

You may have heard that before. Using “coffee” as your call to action can actually be really powerful and really effective. It seems that for humans, the thought of meeting for coffee (whether that means face to face or virtually (over the phone, Skype, or some other device) is really appealing and really pleasant (and not aggressive). People feel that they have nothing to lose by agreeing to have a cup of coffee (or tea, if that is your pleasure).

Keep in mind that “coffee” is not always meant literally. Coffee is a concept that represents all sorts of valuable things. The term is a tool that gets people together, allows them to start building a business relationship, nurturing that relationship, and continuing to evolve and maintain that relationship over time.

Coffee is delicious and it keeps you alert. It is also a great networking prop.

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Once you have invited the other person for coffee and you have shared that pleasant experience, you will be ready to take your business relationship to the next level. You will be able to start interacting on other topics and really get to know each other so that you are able to figure out what the other person needs and how you can help that person to get what they need. In other words, you can figure out how to solve his or her problem. That is a critical step in your relationship and it will truly set a precedent for your relationship going forward.

“Coffee” represents so much

Although coffee is a pleasant, delicious, exciting, and even gourmet drink, in business, it can be so much more. All sorts of interesting, wonderful topics can come up during coffee. Because drinking coffee is a social activity, it makes you connect with the person on a human level. It is a great excuse for deepening your conversation.

You may be discussing really exciting ideas and the coffee helps you to keep going in a natural way. After all, nobody would abruptly end their conversation is they haven’t finished their coffee yet. It is just not what people generally do. That last cup of coffee may just allow you to share the last thought, maybe the most important thought, with the other person and that may be the jewel in the crown.

Depending on your personality and your comfort level with other people, you may prefer not to “have coffee” in person. Perhaps you are not as comfortable speaking with the person face to face and it is just easier to interact with him or her over the phone or on Skype or Zoom. That can work for you as well.

Another really good reason to have virtual coffee is that perhaps the other person is not in your geographic location or perhaps he or she is not even in the same country. That is the beauty of the Internet. You can have coffee with anyone anywhere. As long as you respect the time difference, you will be fine.

The relationship is the core

Before you are able to accomplish anything in business, you need to connect with the other person on a human/emotional level. That relationship must be solid enough for you to continue to interact and to really listen to each other. Without the relationship, you don’t have anything with the other person.

Well, “coffee” helps you to lay that foundation. It makes it easy for you to blend the personal/social and the professional so that you can build a strong, enduring, mutually beneficial business relationship that will stand the test of time.

The fact is that coffee is a physical product but it is also more than that. It is a way (or a prop, if you will) to connect with the other person and to keep interacting with the person in various valuable ways.

Conclusion

When someone invites you to have “coffee” (or you invite them), you both feel good about it. It is a social thing but it is also a human thing. It makes you feel like you may be at the beginning of a new, exciting, meaningful connection with another person and the possibilities of what you may be able to do together truly are infinite.

It is true that coffee is a delicious way to wake up but it is so much more. It is also a way to develop a meaningful relationship with a person with whom you would like to share a meaningful business connection. It also gives you added energy and allows you to be really productive. Of course, you need that to make a success of your business. So, drink up and invite others to share it with you whenever you get the opportunity.

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