By Chris Cahilig
AS YOU enjoy your morning cup of coffee, it probably doesn’t cross your mind that you have a powerful business tool in your hands. Having presided over and attended numerous meetings—at times several of them in the course of one day—I have come to value the benefits of having coffee during such times.
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In any meeting—whether it is one that requires brainstorming, strategy and decision-making, or one that’s intended to pitch a product or idea to a client—one’s mental abilities and powers of concentration can be “make or break” factors to one’s success.
But as meeting after meeting wears on, even the best of us find our thoughts slowing down; we get more easily distracted, and sometimes we even become drowsy. It’s during these times that coffee can restore us and bring back our edge.
There are very real, proven advantages to drinking coffee during a meeting. First of all, coffee elevates our mood and enhances our mental performance—and a meeting where everyone feels positive, alert and focused is a productive meeting.
Second, at least one study has shown that drinking coffee makes one more open to new ideas and new proposals. According to a study by researcher Pearl Martin of the University of Queensland in Australia, people are more open-minded and receptive to new ideas, new messages and new proposals after they’ve had a cup of coffee.
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That study, titled “Caffeine, Cognition, and Persuasion: Evidence for Caffeine Increasing the Systematic Processing of Persuasive Messages” also found that coffee increases mental alertness, focus and concentration. This heightening of mental capacity allows people to open up, process and understand the ideas being discussed during a coffee meeting.
Nowadays, coffee has become more than just a beverage we imbibe for our personal pleasure and relaxation or as a way to smoothen social relations—it is now part of the way many companies and professionals do business.
While “power” lunches or breakfasts used to be occasions for presenting a proposal, pitching a sale, seeking a mentor’s advice, or picking someone’s brain for valuable ideas—meetings over coffee are becoming the trend these days.
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This is not surprising. The atmosphere in a coffee shop is usually more relaxed in contrast to a busy lunch hour at a restaurant. And for small businesses on a budget, the cost of a coffee meeting is much less.
Here are some tips on how to maximize your coffee meetings:
Choose convenience. One of the first considerations in setting up a coffee meeting is to pick a coffee shop that would not be difficult to go to. It saves everyone time and energy without adding any stress from travel.
However, there is some etiquette involved here: if you’re the one requesting for a meeting, choose the place most convenient to the one you’re asking the favor from (whether to ask that person for advice, or present to him a sales pitch, a proposal, etc.). Conversely, if you’re the one being asked to a meeting—the one giving the other person your valuable time and attention--then you’re within your rights to choose a place that’s more convenient to you.
Stick to the schedule. Coffee meetings ideally should not take too long. The unwritten rule is usually for the meeting to last from 30-45 minutes. Longer than that and you might be wasting each other’s time—after all, you just agreed to meet over coffee! Don’t ruin the rapport and the relaxing coffee shop atmosphere by taking too much of the other person’s time.
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Be prepared. If you need to have a laptop, some documents and other materials ready for the person you’re meeting, then make sure all of these are prepared before that person arrives. This saves time and avoids the blunder of having the person wait for you to set everything up. Also, arrive at the coffee shop earlier so you can choose the right place (at an even quieter, out of the way corner, for example) where you can meet.
Be real. Stick to an agenda. You and the other person agreed to talk about a specific matter over coffee—so stick to that agreement. Don’t promise to talk about one thing and then present another, or tack on other matters that you did not agree on beforehand.
Say “Thank You”. Always remember to thank the other person for giving you his or her time and attention. Thank him or her personally at your meeting’s conclusion and/or send an email later expressing your gratitude and what a good time you had. You and that person might end up having more coffee meetings later on, whether as business partners or as friends—but it would all depend on the first coffee meeting you’ve had, as well as the cup of warm, delicious brew you shared.
Chris Cahilig is the managing director of Chris Cahilig Consultancy, a leading public relations, advertising, and viral marketing agency. On the side, he writes poems and lyrics and produces music.