<div class="bbWrapper">@<a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/15934/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="15934" data-username="TedM">TedM</a>, First off, a veteran is a veteran. And Benjamin is a great name! haha Thank you for your service, no matter when and where.<br />
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For everyone else, I know I have some pending questions to get to and I usually try to take them in the order I get them but I wanted to get to @<a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/15934/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="15934" data-username="TedM">TedM</a>'s question first because he has some action to take in the near future. <br />
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I love your coffee site and business. I can't tell you how many days my wife and I are sitting on our back porch drinking coffee, wishing we were at a Parisian cafe. Truly, it's more than just coffee. It's an experience and a trip down memory lane for those who have traveled abroad. So thanks for doing the work to make this available!<br />
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Opening the conversation is the most important part, in my opinion. It sets the tone and putting it in the right context will work wonders when you get into the bulk of the conversation. I don't even know who the business owner is so I'm just going to throw out some possible scenarios to try and help. The following will have very little to do with the business end of the phone call. You know your numbers, your price points, etc. My advice is about the other half of the conversation. Getting this guy to see value in <b>YOU FIRST</b>, then in your product.<br />
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<b>1. Research</b> - I am sure you have already done this on his company based on your specific knowledge about his product and brand. But who is he? Anything you can read on him (social media, news articles, linkedin profile, etc.) will give you a better idea of who you are talking to. And try to look a little deeper than just what he has accomplished. DO NOT be afraid to make an assessment about who he is as a person. You may be completely off the mark but at least you have a starting point. A starting point will allow you to quickly adjust if you can see that you either drew the wrong impression or that he has a different persona personally than the one he puts forward publicly.<br />
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Example: If during your research you see that he is involved in high society (galas, charity events, etc.) than you can make an assessment that he may be expecting to get to know you as a person first, to connect with you as a person before he commits to connecting to you as a business. If you see pictures of him doing a keg stand at a NASCAR race, you can assess that he may have a casual manner and so your opening would be more friendly than formal, like you are greeting him at a neighborhood barbecue.<br />
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<b>2. Planning</b> - Once you have done the research, approach your thoughts on this conversation like you would when split testing a website for conversion. You have to start somewhere. You must have an opening "salvo", so to speak. We were made to do this with all of our human intelligence operations. You have to make a plan first. More than half the time, the plan is modified on the fly. And that is completely fine. What the planning does is to force you to do your due diligence on who this man is a person so that you can then tailor your approach to what will be most effective with this individual. Once you have some "data" (i.e. it is going really well and your initial assessments were spot on or it's not and you have to go to plan B, from high society to NASCAR) from the first 1 or 2 minutes of conversation, you can adjust to try and get a higher return from the following minutes of the conversation. This may seem like a lot of thought to put into the first half of one conversation and really, it is a lot of work. This, however, is the difference between those who <b>PLAN</b> for a conversation to go well and those who <b>HOPE</b> a conversation goes well. <u>Hope is not an action plan.</u><br />
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<b>3. Practice</b> - When I was a student at the Marine Corps intelligence school, the first day of class our lead instructor came in to introduce himself. He spoke to us about the rules, what was expected, etc. but the thing that really stood out in my mind was what he said about the curriculum. He said, "Gents, we are not really going to be teaching you anything new here. You have been having conversations your entire life. The only thing we are going to teach you is to how to have a conversation that has a purpose, a conversation that gets you what you need." That has stuck with me. The difference between the muddled conversations that random people have and the conversations I have is that I have a laser focus and the knowledge of how to get to that purpose.<br />
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So practice what you are going to say out loud, in your car, in the shower, wherever. I do not mean to memorize a script. That is about the worst way to try and have a natural sounding conversation. Instead, the practice will allow you to feel your way through what you are going to say and give you little bits to use when and if you need them during the conversation. Think about practice like this as building the tools that you are going to take into into the conversation. You don't know what the job (conversation) will entail, but the more tools in your tool bag, the better prepared you will be.<br />
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I am going to make an assessment about you. Based on your work background, the way you write, and even your picture (the style of the beard and haircut mainly) I would assess that you are not the kind of guy who makes senseless small talk. You like to dig into the deeper parts of a subject when discussing it, to make progress deeper, not wider. If we sat for an hour with a cup of coffee, I could see us talking deeply about 2 or 3 topics, but not widely about 9 or 12 topics. You can chit-chat if you need to, but prefer to be learning, teaching, or debating in a conversation. For you, the conversation is about developing an idea and developing a mind.<br />
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Now I may be completely off, but that is the approach with which I would start. At least I have a first plan of attack. If you turn out to be chatty beyond belief, no big deal. I can quickly change my tone and rate of speech in order to match yours and jump topics until your heart is content.<br />
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Some people are going to read this and think, "I am the way I am. I'm not changing it for anyone, let alone one conversation." That's fine. It's your success, not mine. I would say think about it this way instead. This catalog owner's time is valuable as evidenced by your efforts to get a hold of him. If it is valuable and he wants to spend half that time getting to know <b>YOU</b> (where you travel, what got you into the coffee business, etc.) because he believes this information is necessary for him, then go with it. If he wants to take this time to go deep and have an in depth conversation about pricing strategy and sales volume, then do that.<br />
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This will also give you more time to assess for his motivations. Your product is already his "baby". So you know he is interested. Why? What is his biggest problem? Does he want to feature you on the front cover so more people will pick it up? Does he think your product will add a mint to his bottom line? As you talk and get a feel for him, you will be able to assess this or gently introduce these topics so that he will start tipping his hand.<br />
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That was the long answer. The short answer, in my opinion, is to just start off with a friendly greeting and a gentle compliment on his catalog. Think professional admiration. By listening to his answer, you can read volumes into him as a person. If he gives you a solid two minutes on the vision for the catalog, you've got an ego and a man obsessed. If he shrugs it off with an almost embarrassed humility, different story. Either way is good. Like a split test, it is all about the data.<br />
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Quick Edit: In reference to your specific questions you want to ask him, I think you will find by doing the above, those questions will be no problem for you to ask. Once the relationship is established (and this can happen in conversation number 1), saying "I would love to get your thoughts on..." will get you whatever you need to know.</div>
