How To Brew The Perfect Sale
Quick Wins with COM Episode 37

Tune into this weeks episode where Richard talks about how coffee fits into the marketing process.

Coffee… Most of us drink it every morning, but did you know that it can play an important part in your sales funnel?

A coffee catch up is a great low barrier way to connect with leads to create awareness, develop engagement while simultaneously moving to the conversion stage of your sales funnel.

When we talk about the awareness and engagement phase of the funnel, most people think social media and making sure we’re present on all the platforms. However, still to this day when I ask people about the best way to build relationships and awareness to close sales they say that you have to pick up the phone and talk to them. I think that having a coffee is a really great element to this, it allows you to engage with your customers, to build trust and relationships away from the four walls of an office while simultaneously sealing the deal.

So why don’t you grab a coffee this week and try it out? See how you go.

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 Video Transcription

Welcome back with Quick Wins with Com. I’m Richard Toutounji. I’m a CEO of COM. We help traditional businesses win in the new age of online marketing. Now, I’m here drinking coffee and it really made me think that when we look at a marketing process and marketing channels, where does coffee have to actually fit into it?

You see, I believe there’s about three parts to the marketing funnel. First of all, we talked about the awareness. We’ve talked about Facebook, social media, making sure that you’re out there on all the different platforms, the fun kind of things.

But, still to this day, when I ask people what’s the best way to actually close a sale, close a deal, it’s referrals, and then, how do you actually close a deal in a service-based business? Well, it’s actually picking up the phone and talking to them, so it’s a conversation.

But, I actually think a coffee is a really different element of approach. A coffee means that you can engage in a conversation and the engagement process. So they’ve seen you online, they may have sent you an email. Now, what you want to do is really engage with them. You actually want to ask them questions.

You never want to sell to them because in the engagement process, it’s about engaging. It’s about, “Is this person right for my business?” It’s building trust and credibility. It’s having a conversation outside a “Here’s our products and here’s our services.” They’re sitting with you because there’s a potential business relationship there, but with the coffee, it’s an experience of making sure that you break down the barriers of “I’m selling you something.”

It’s an informal conversation. Generally, when you meet someone for coffee, it could be a friend, it could be family member, it could be a friend you haven’t caught up for a while with, so it means that there’s a level of trust already in this conversation. To shout someone for a cup of coffee, it does a lot in the trust and credibility process.

We find that that coffee chat still works as one of the greatest conversions for us when we’re looking at engaging a partnership, when we’re looking at engaging a larger client. The coffee chat just breaks downs all those barriers.

It also gets you out from an office as well, so it’s not like you’re going to somebody’s office and you have to be in those four walls. Meeting someone for a coffee is on mutual grounds. It means that both parties could actually engage in the conversation equally, instead of one person having a little bit more power and push on the other person.

What I really like about the coffee connection is making sure that it is a solid connection there. So they haven’t just called up the office and said, “I’m interested in this,” and someone calls them. It’s really a clear fact that you’ve built your relationship before you do business.

That’s how great business is done. That’s how great relationships are met. That’s how partners are met. There’s always that coffee. That before that date, it’s the coffee. It’s to break down barriers there. So check it next time and see how you go.

I’m Richard Toutounji from COM. Share below what your engagement strategy is with your potential clients.

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