On November 3, 2010, Jerry Scribner flew from Houston to Philadelphia to meet a prospect over coffee. He told her a short mini-story about his business.

She joined. 

In the next two years, she built a team of over 2,000 distributors with many thousands of customers.

I hope Jerry paid for the coffee.

The reality?

There are two things our prospects love.

#1. A chance to talk about themselves

#2. Coffee

 Coffee brings happiness. Some people can’t imagine a life without coffee. 

Inviting or sitting down over a cup of coffee is easy. We have experience inviting people to birthday parties and movies. This will be natural unless we have commission breath or a selfish agenda.

Want to avoid commission breath? 

Remember to reframe this invitation in our minds. How could we think about our coffee appointments?

“I am inviting someone to chat over coffee. I love coffee.”

If we still have an overwhelming urge to sell, we could tell ourselves this:

“I will pass on a great option. It is up to the people I have coffee with to decide if that option serves them or not. They know what's happening in their lives much better than I do. My option is an improvement in their lives, so I am sure I will have volunteers."

Remember, a great cup of coffee and good conversation are still enjoyable outcomes. And who knows? Even if our coffee partner is not interested today, we could still get referrals for more coffee meetings.

We don't want to sound like an infomercial or a sleazy, selfish salesman. 

The worst that can happen is we have a great cup of coffee, a wonderful conversation, and our offer isn’t right for our coffee partner at this time. We shared our options with our coffee partner, and then we leaned back and enjoyed our coffee.

This is business

Make our coffee dates relaxed and fun. And why not? 

We love to catch up with friends over coffee. But as we expand from people who we know, we do want to let strangers know this will be a chat about business.

Some thoughts on setting up our coffee meeting with strangers?

Let strangers know that we will be passing on an option only. This will take the pressure and fear away from the coffee appointment. 

The best time for the invitation for coffee and a chat? Immediately after an icebreaker. Then our prospects want to know more. The purpose of the coffee meeting isn't a secret. 

Let's be considerate. We ask people to take time out of their lives to visit with us. They will make the decision if this coffee appointment will be worth their time.

No pressure? That should be our goal. 

Remember, we don't have to do an entire presentation over coffee. We don't need to show company videos, endless testimonials, and data. 

Our chat could be a short story. After hearing the story, our coffee partners can decide if they want to know more. And if they don’t? We talk about a different subject while enjoying good coffee.

Let’s enjoy some coffee now, while we learn great first sentences to start the coffee conversation.