The Currency of Coffee
Coffee is a great lesson for all entrepreneurs. A styrofoam cup, filled from a beaker that looks like it’s been on the burner for twelve hours, doesn’t carry a high perception of value. The same cup, poured into a kitschy ceramic mug by a “barista”, in a craft-heavy shop with a real roaster and bags of beans scattered around…well, that’s a luxury. But it’s not the coffee that changed. It’s the experience, the timing, the environment. A coffee guzzled by oneself is worth less than a hot cup delivered by a friend…unless it’s midnight and a big report is due.
Precisely because of coffee’s perceived value relative to its cost, it’s also an amazing tool for building your business. Taking someone a coffee is an excellent sales strategy. Coffee opens doors. Coffee stirs conversation. Here’s how I’ve used it to great advantage:
In Catalyst’s annual “Fit It Forward” week, the first assignment I give our clients is literally “Buy a stranger a coffee.” Every year, in drive-thrus and coffee lines, dozens of Catalyst clients say, “I’ll pay for the guy behind me.” The benefit is far greater than the price of a cup, and the purchaser feels good all day. But until I told them to do it, few were.
In our second location (2006,) our gym was above a women’s clothing shop. On opening day, I took the sales staff a tray of coffee as an introduction. That same afternoon, a teenager dropped a power snatch from over his head; all the track lighting in the shop below broke free and shattered. We resolved it peacefully. That coffee saved me five years of war with the neighbors.
Before Catalyst opened, I sought advice from an elderly attorney. My partners-to-be were friendly guys with successful businesses, but I thought it wise to be careful. I walked down the street to the attorney’s office and stopped to buy him a coffee on the way. I could barely afford the coffee, let alone his advice, but he said, “Thanks for the coffee. I needed that. No bill.”
In January 2013, I sat in the original Starbucks in Seattle with some of the HQ “inner circle”–Andy Stumpf, Sevan Metossian, and Jimi Letchford–and we were waiting for Greg. I was dangerously close to missing a flight home. But the wait gave me the opportunity to lay out what I was doing with Two-Brain Business over coffee. The next time I visited HQ, my book was in Sevan’s office, and I was on the payroll as a writer for the Journal. That coffee was worth tens of thousands of dollars.
When we published Ignite! Enrichment Through Exercise, I thought it would be popular around town. Instead, it seemed to be popular everywhere BUT locally: we had Skype calls with South Africa, Europe, Boston and Texas, but not our city. So we asked a local physiotherapist if we could bring his staff a coffee and a copy of the book. The discussion turned into lunch, and our first referral from them was worth over $19,000.
Like coffee, the value of your service depends on the context. To an overweight woman whose wedding dress is too tight, your nutrition program is priceless. To a shopper comparing your service to an identical service across town, it’s worth the lowest price they see. A no-name coffee in a hotel room might be worth .30–or it might be worth $1000, if it helps me meet a deadline.
What’s a conversation worth? If it’s small talk about the weather at your kid’s soccer game, it’s probably not worth much. But a surprise coffee that leads to an introduction–or a conversation about meaningful challenges–is priceless.
Today, go to the closest coffee shop. Buy four cups of coffee. Throw some milk and sugar in a bag.
Walk into your neighbor’s business. Put the coffee on the desk. Say, “Hi, I’m Chris. How’s business?” That’s it. The conversation will have value even if it’s not transactional.
You don’t need an elevator pitch. You don’t need the perfect opening line. In fact, you’re probably better to start without any purpose beyond making a new friend. Before people can like you or trust you, they have to know you. Let’s start building THAT funnel.
