Leveraging LinkedIn at your Next One-on-One Coffee Meeting

“Why don’t we schedule a time to connect over coffee?”

I’ll tell you why. It’s going to take me 15 minutes to get to the coffee shop. Then we’ll chat for an hour over a cappuccino and a scone. Then another 15 minutes back to the office. That one coffee meeting alone will cost anywhere from $2.00 to $35 in transportation, depending on the city and type of transportation. That coffee and scone will cost somewhere between $5 and $10 depending on the coffee house and city. Not to mention your most precious commodity. Your time. Can you even put a dollar amount on your time?

We chat about our work, ourselves, maybe some upcoming networking events or vacations. We both agree to send referrals each other’s way if we come across anyone that makes sense. We spend our time and our money, then we part ways.

Then what happens usually?

NOTHING. We both go back to our office and go about our day, answering emails, putting out fires, working on projects. It’s out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome. When will we actually invest the time to do what we said during that coffee meeting? When will we actually think about who to make those valuable introductions and referrals to?

Let me ask you this… what is the definition of insanity?

My answer is… NO … I will NOT meet you for coffee… UNLESS…

We can change the conversation. Let’s change the conversation so we can both get an ROI out of this investment in coffee and time.

Watch this short video blog about how you and I can leverage LinkedIn and Social Selling techniques to change the conversation.