How to recognize an authentic sales-professional?

The coffee ceremony with the Client is an essential ritual for the salesperson.

Is it the first meeting?

Good coffee helps to familiarize with each other, to smell before the fight.

Do you hardly know each other?

Coffee will help you consolidate the good things you’ve done up to this point, or to patch things up if you’ve done something wrong.

Have you known each other for a long time?

Then you can’t refuse a coffee with someone who “must” be an old friend.

I believe that the relationship that the salesperson has with the coffee represents for the Client an essential factor in evaluating the professional qualities of the salesperson him/herself.

Don’t you think so?

Well, read below and let me know what you think.

There are different kinds of salespeople.

1. Non-coffee drinkers.
   • Unlikely to succeed in sales.
   • Why? Don’t tell me I need to explain…
2. Salespeople who take their coffee before meeting the Client and have the courage to say “thank you, I just got it”.
   • These people have no hope of success in sales and should choose a job that does not involve any contact with the market.
3. Salespeople who like to drink coffee but after the third drink ask for a decaffeinated coffee.
   • This sort of “I’d like to but I can’t” might generate doubts in the Client and compromise, even unconsciously, future relationships.
4. Those who love coffee and would never give it up, even if it means having ten coffees in a day.
   • These salespeople are not guaranteed success but they know the mistakes they must avoid.
   • I recommend them not to ask for a glass of water with their coffee, even if it is offered to them, because it could give the impression of weakness or, worse, an attempt to water down the coffee at the right moment.
5. At the top of the list are those rare salespeople who manage to drink their coffee bitter and without limitations.
   • They positively impress the Client, especially if he/she drinks coffee sweet, and manage to be perceived as “tough” and deserving of respect.

I used to be a salesperson and today I train salespeople of a different experience.

Would you like to know which category I belonged to?

From young to 4: Over time I started pairing coffee with a glass of water.

Then I slipped into 3: and one day I changed job.

Maybe that was the reason?