What’s a Virtual Coffee Chat? And How to use them for Your Business

Virtual coffee chats are a great way to grow your online business! I’ve personally used coffee chats to connect with other entrepreneurs and build relationships. However, they are not sales calls. I’m sharing the differences between the hosting a sales call and a virtual coffee chat in this post!

What’s a Virtual Coffee Chat? And How to use them for Your Business

A few months ago I had a virtual coffee chat that was super awkward and I felt manipulated. This led me to create a YouTube video, which you can watch below, if you prefer the video format! I’d love it if you subscribed to my YouTube channel here!

I also decided to share my story on Instagram stories. I could not believe the amount of people who were tricked into a sales call.

What’s a Virtual Coffee Chat?

A virtual coffee chat is a conversation between entrepreneurs. This is where you can build friendships and even business referrals. The conversation is not a pitch-fest and should not be about making a sale.

I usually start my virtual coffee chats by asking about the person. Here’s a few of my favorite questions:

• Tell me about your business and how you go into it.

• How long have you been doing that?

• What do you do for fun?

Build Business Relationships with Virtual Coffee Chats

This call is purely to build relationships. Being an entrepreneur can be isolating and lonely, but when you start building connections through coffee chats you can sort of combat those two things.

Coffee Chats Within Your Industry?

When I schedule virtual coffee chats I like to connect with both people in my industry and outside of my industry. Some people may not want to connect with other people who do the same thing as them. But, I think that’s a big mistake. You should definitely connect with those in your industry because if you need to refer a potential client that’s not quite a good fit, you can. They are also more likely to refer potential clients to you. Sometimes it might be that this potential client isn’t a good fit or that either you or the other person has a full client roster.

This is where trust and friendship comes in. There is nothing wrong with having friends in the online entrepreneur space.

Using Virtual Coffee Chats to Grow Your Business

Another thing that might happen is that down the road you may need to hire someone. Who are you going to hire? Probably someone you know, like, trust, and have a relationship with. I actually did a coffee chat a few years ago with a conversion copywriter. About a year after our coffee chat, I ended up hiring her to write some copy for a project. You just never know where something might go when you start building these relationships.

What a Virtual Coffee Chat is NOT

Like I mentioned before, a virtual coffee chat is not a sales call. A sales call is when you are pitching or selling your services to someone. This is completely different than building a relationship with someone.

A sales call is going to see if someone is a good fit as a client. Questions may come up like the following:

• How can I help you?

• What are your biggest needs right now?

• How much money are you bringing in?

• What’s your biggest challenge right now?

Discovery Calls are for Selling Services

When I did done-for-you Pinterest services, I asked questions during my discovery calls. These calls were for people who were interested in hiring me and I knew it was my job to sell them on my services. It was not the time to be building a friendship, so we kept the relationship building questions to a minimum.

Here are a few questions I used to personally ask during my discovery calls:

• What work have you previously done on your 

• Have you had other people working on your account?

• What are your goals with Pinterest marketing?

Sales or discovery calls allow you to see if there are any red flags for fit. It is also a time to go over pricing and answer any questions the potential client may have about your services. They have already shown an interest in working with you.

Sales Calls are not Coffee Chats

All of these questions in this section should not be part of the conversation when it comes to virtual coffee chats. If you want to ask these questions, remind yourself that relationship building is vital to building your business. And if someone starts asking these types of questions to you, kindly remind them that this is a virtual coffee chat and not a sales call.

Growing Your Business With Virtual Coffee Chats

I love hosting virtual coffee chats! I hope you also see the benefits of using these to grow your business. Go out there and start booking some coffee chats today!

 

Are you new to Saunders Says? Check out My Business Pivot Story – How I Transformed My Business to learn more about me and my business!