Why I’m shouting your coffee at our next catch-up.

What would consider the value of bringing in a new client? A new connection? What about the value of determining that someone isn’t a new client?
I would place all of the above as more valuable than the price of a coffee — $4.50.

Let’s jump into it.

A side-note before we begin, though — if you’re not a coffee-drinker, don’t shout a coffee. The bare minimum you need for this is to offer an impetus for action — and incentive to get someone in the room. You stand a better chance at making this happen when you’re making the initial investment, not them — especially when you’re looking to connect above your weight-class.

We’ll skip past walking through the value of bringing in a new client since that’s almost always going to be more than the price of a coffee (and if it isn’t… you’re in trouble) — where it gets interesting is the value of connection, and the value of a negative result.

We’ll start with connections.

The value that any given connection holds is difficult to measure — but we can follow the logic that:

• The more people we know, the more people we might be able to work with.
• The more people we know, the more people we can get introduced to.
• The longer you hold a relationship with someone, the greater the likelihood of the above two points occurring and reoccurring.

That second point is especially powerful, because it allows for either targeted or exponential growth of your network — but we’ll cover that another time.

Let’s say that you meet someone and they don’t immediately become a client — pretty common occurrence. Top of the bell-curve type stuff. That doesn’t mean that your new connection is worthless — far from it. In fact, I believe that all 3 outcomes are worth more than the price of a cup of coffee. Whether you leave with a confirmed yes, a confirmed no, or no confirmation at all — you still have more than you did before you made this connection.

When you’re working on growing anything, connecting with people is vital. More importantly — connecting with the right people is vital. At Inspiring Stories, we would rather share our mission with 100 people and have them all enthusiastically join our community, than share it with 10,000 people and get 200 conversions. For us, this comes down to cost-saving and community retention. Taking a targeted approach and honing in on your niche means you’re also more likely to find brand champions, leading to world-class word of mouth, and a higher conversion rate at every following stage of your funnel.

So how does shouting you a coffee help with this? Simple — the price of a cup of coffee is the transaction cost for getting the superior information of either a yes, a no, or a not-yet. It also tends to increase the chances of a ‘yes’ just a smidge (foot-in-the-door technique, anyone?), and adds another connection for you to nurture.

For the sake of debate, let’s consider what would happen if you did the opposite. If you didn’t offer this initial chance at connection. You’d be effectively isolating yourself to inbound leads, or at the very least, minimising the positivity of your interaction.

When it comes down to it, the potential upside will almost always outweigh the downside — regardless of if you get a yes, a no, or a not-yet.

So that’s why I’m committing to shouting anyone that wants to catch up a coffee — if you’re in Wellington and you’re craving a free cup of ‘jo — get in touch today. It’d be my pleasure.